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In the arts, Baroque is both a period and the style that dominated it. The Baroque style used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, and music. The style started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe. In music, the Baroque applies to the final period of dominance of imitative counterpoint, where different voices and instruments echo each other but at different pitches, sometimes inverting the echo, and even reversing thematic material.
The popularity and success of the "Baroque" was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement. The secular aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumphant power and control. Baroque palaces are built around an entrance sequence of courts, anterooms, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing magnificence. In similar profusions of detail, art, music, architecture, and literature inspired each other in the "Baroque" cultural movement as artists explored what they could create from repeated and varied patterns.
The word baroque derives from the ancient Portuguese noun "barroco" which is a pearl that is not round but of unpredictable and elaborate shape. Hence, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is "elaborate," with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
More on [ Baroque ]
Early Music :: E
Baroque Art Style
17th Century :: Period
18th Century :: Period
Eighteenth Century :: By Time Period
Apollo's Banquet - Ensemble of dancers and musicians founded by Thomas Baird and Hugh Murphy. Information about upcoming events, services, and the East Coast Baroque Dance Workshop.
Meta Description: [ Welcome to Apollo's Banquet! Discover the elegance of baroque dance under the direction of Thomas Baird and Hugh Murphy in this internationally acclaimed ensemble. Includes information on the work, artists, services, links, and a yearly workshop. ]
Baroque Dance and the Bach Cello Suites - Article by a cellist about his experiences playing the Bach suites for a dancer.
Baroque Dance Mailing List - Information about how to subscribe to the Feuillet list.
BaroqueDance.com - Dancer Paige Whitley-Bauguess' site. Contains information about classes in North Carolina, Paige's dance activities, the annual East Coast Baroque Dance Workshop, Craven Historical Dancers, a pair of videos, and arrangements of tunes to extant dances.
Bath Minuet Company - Information about dance classes, the annual Bath Georgian Ball, and photo galleries.
Meta Description: [ Bath Minuet Company ]
Blakeney Manor: Dance and Music - Includes an essay on the social and political importance of dance, and Rameau's description of the menuet ordinaire, translated by Essex, as well as information about 18th century songs and musicians.
Chalemie - Early music, dance and commedia; performance and teaching. Information about concerts, and their summer school concentrating on 17th and 18th century English repertoire.
Compagnie Fêtes Galantes - French company directed by Béatrice Massin. Information about the company and their performances.
Meta Description: [ compagnie choregraphique contemporaine baroque ]
Consort de Danse Baroque - UK-based company directed by Philippa Waite. Information about classes, their summer school, and products for sale.
Meta Description: [ UK-based Baroque dance company directed by Philippa Waite. Offers classes, an annual summer school, performances, school workshops, lecture-demonstrations, dance CDs and a guide to reading Beauchamp-Feuillet notation. ]
Contretemps - Dancers Barbara Segal and Frank Perenboom, based in the UK.
History Lessons - Article from Dance Teacher magazine about the work and teaching of Catherine Turocy.
La Belle Danse - Dance ensemble from Toronto, Canada. Site includes a history of baroque dance, photos, and information about classes.
Les Plaisirs - Munich-based group. Includes information about classes and performances.
Meta Description: [ Dance group of advanced dancers mainly
specializing in the baroque period for performance purposes. Beginners
are welcome and can learn dances from the 15th through 19th centuries. ]
Matt's Baroque Dance Pages - Includes background information, HTML versions of 18th century dance manuals, and an annotated collection of links.
Meta Description: [ Baroque dance information, links, and HTML transcriptions of primary sources. ]
Mercure Galante's Baroque Dance Pages - Background of the dance, what it involves: then and now.
Seattle Early Dance - Company based in Seattle Washington that reconstructs, performs, and teaches baroque dance. Includes a brief introduction to the dances.
Meta Description: [ Seattle Early Dance is a dance company specializing in baroque dance. ]
The Books of John Weaver - Facsimiles of Orchesography and Of Time and Cadence in Dancing, and an HTML transcription of Orchesography
The Court Dancers - Washington DC based company specializing in the 17th and 18th centuries, directed by Cheryl Stafford.
The Covent Garden Minuet Company - London-based amateur group performing 18th century social dances. Photos, membership, performances, and a small bibliography.
Meta Description: [ The Covent Garden Minuet Company is a dance group performing the social dances of the 18th century, especially the minuet, in full authentic costume. ]
The New York Baroque Dance Company - Directed by dancer and choreographer Catherine Turocy. Photo gallery, video clip, dancer profiles and information about workshops.
Meta Description: [ Founded in 1976 by Artistic Director Catherine Turocy in collaboration with Ann Jacoby, the New York Baroque Dance Company has been a leading force in the revival of 18th century ballet, challenging aesthetic conventions and bringing forgotten masterpieces to new audiences in what The Guardian ha... ]
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