IU/NYC performers collaborate for performance

In a small rehearsal room in the Musical Arts Center Tuesday night, a group of seven strangely-clad people met to practice their arias and dance steps for their upcoming performance. They wore a mixture of street clothes, dance shoes and bits of fancy petticoats and headdresses. The elaborate costumes, lilting melodies and fluid motions are all parts of baroque period culture.\nThis Sunday, thanks to a grant from IU's New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities program, the Early Music Institute will be sponsoring a performance featuring the IU Baroque \nOrchestra and the New York \nBaroque Dance Company. The production will be at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and admission is free.\nThe first half of the program will showcase the New York Baroque Dance Company with two dance numbers, and the second half will feature several IU students in the baroque opera "Pygmalion." The IU Baroque Orchestra will provide the music for the entire show, said Catherine Turocy, co-founder and artistic director of the \nNYBDC.\nIt will be the culmination of a two-week Bloomington visit for the NYBDC. During their time here, Turocy and the other dancers held workshops and gave lectures about the period and its performing arts.\n"It was a very interesting time," Turocy said. "It was the time of the American and Haitian revolutions, a time of great change. It was the birth of Western theatre as we know it today. \n"I like being able to introduce this period to young artists. It is so removed from our current culture that it is a shock."\nIU students said they learned a lot from Turocy and the other NYBD performers and look forward to performing with the group.\n"I'm really excited," said graduate student Angelique Zuluaga, who is portraying "Amour," the opera's personification of love. "This is the first time that I have really had costumes and dancers and guidance from Catherine and her group. They have so much experience, and we get more and more from her every day."\nTurocy said she also gained valuable insight from working with students. \n"Every time I introduce the style to the students, there is something that I learn about the material, because they are so fresh at looking at, they remind me again of how shocking it really is," she said. "It is shockingly beautiful."\nShe said that the company was very excited to be in Bloomington because IU has one of the best early music programs in the United States. \n"A lot of the musicians that we have been working with over the years have come from this department, so it is fun to go to the source of it," she said.\nMichael McCraw, the director of the Early Music Institute said he was very happy to have the NYBDC here and said the show would most likely be sold out, so those interested should reserve their tickets now. The performance will be free, but reservations for seats can be made by calling 323-3020 from noon to 5 p.m.\n"You don't get to see these things very often," Zuluaga said. "This is a musical opportunity that you might never get again"