"Performance Today"with host Fred Child | American Public Media | July 13, 2009

"Baroque Ensemble Nurtures Art Form in Louisville" with 89.3 WFPL's Elizabeth Kramer | 04/10/2009

Bourbon Baroque and Moving Collective Collaboration Defies Expectations | February 12, 2011

"As virtually every arts group you can name struggles to find an audience and survive a tough economy, two groups showed how collaboration can augment and enhance the artistic mission of companies that seemingly have nothing in common.

Bourbon Baroque and Moving Collective performed a program of eight pieces together Saturday night at the Ursuline Art Center that defied the most likely preconceptions about the marriage of baroque music and modern dance in ways both unexpected and delightful. In their curtain speech, musician Austin Clark and dancer Theresa Bautista both expressed the importance of such combined effort, but the work itself illustrated the concept more eloquently.

The program opened with the Overture des Nations anciens et modernes by Georg Philipp Telemann. After performing the first three movements, dancers took the stage to perform In this Moment during the final movement.  The initial movements were executed in silence, introducing a fascinating dynamic that was repeated several times: the dance performance established enough of a tone or attitude that when the music commenced, it seemed somewhat stripped of the period in which it was written, becoming in that moment entirely modern in its impact.

As the evening progressed, this shifting focus continued, the dance transforming the music, the music transforming the dance, each informing and fueling the other. The members of Moving Collective performed with energy and kinetic force, the dancers’ bodies moving with requisite abandon, yet always lighting to the stage with precision. The early pieces were characterized by a serious, almost self-conscious sensibility that resulted in vivid and sharply defined profiles expressing psychological motifs.  After the intermission, a lighter, more satirical tone took over. A Shot of Tea, choreographed by Erin Clark and Katie Scott and set to music by Antonio Vivaldi, was particularly memorable for its depiction of white-faced dancers, sporting powdered wigs and moving in a facetious manner that mimicked stereotypical images from the 17th century, effectively reconnecting  and shifting the emphasis back to the origins of the music being performed.

Bourbon Baroque performed with finesse, in arrangements characterized by their good taste. They were joined by countertenor John T. Holiday, jr. for several pieces. Mr. Holiday’s singing was simply breathtaking, provoking gasps of appreciation from many in the audience and warm, ecstatic applause during curtain calls.  Beginning with a magnificent reading of Strike the viol from Come ye sons of art away, and through several other pieces, his performance was most impressive.

In the end, both groups benefit tremendously from the collaboration, but inevitably the work onstage tends to make the more dominant impression, so that Bourbon Baroque strikes me as perhaps generous in allowing the spotlight to rest on Moving Collective as much as it does.

In any event, the performance of both companies was of a high caliber and a splendid example for other groups searching for similar opportunities to team up and deliver something as extraordinary as what was on display Saturday night at the Ursuline Arts Center."

The Arts Louisville | Reporter Keith Waits can be reached at (502) 426-7100.

---

Alcina fulfills its imperative | May 7, 2010

"What mattered most was the quality of the singing in the numerous arias. Here, fortunately, there was plenty to enjoy. With a young, eager cast of principals hailing from around the country, the collective musicianship was admirable. Mezzo-soprano Kristen Leich was an altogether splendid Ruggiero, bringing a big, creamy sound to a trouser role of a sorcery-seduced lover. Set against her protagonist, Megan Hart's clarion voiced, I-dare-you-to-cross-me Alcina, the contrast of alto and soprano colors was striking. Among their colleagues, I was especially taken with soprano Teresa Wakim's lusty Morgana - who prattled around in a kind of comic daze. Kudos as well to Evan Prizant's costume designs, which were both sumptuous and sassy.The expanded Bourbon Baroque orchestra, led by harpsichordist John Austin Clark and violinist Nicolas Fortin, played with heady fortitude. Seated at the rear of the stage in full view, the musicians became participants, not accompanists. No arguments there."

The Courier-Journal | Reporter Andrew Adler can be reached at (502) 582-4668.