Ken Pierce -- Baroque Dance -- Americas Musicworks

Ken Pierce
Baroque Dance

"...the dancers bring a palpable sense of drama to their every step. Their work strikes at the heart of Baroque illusionism, and is suggestive of intrigue and whispered intimacies."
~ The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Pierce sets a high standard with well-accented shifts of direction and turns that stop on a dime…"
~ The Boston Globe

"Ken Pierce, who reconstructed the dances, gives a compelling performance as Oberon. The force of his presence owes nothing to oratory--his character speaks not a word--but to his penetrating gaze, enigmatic aura and crisp athleticism." ~ Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ken Pierce, a noted choreographer, reconstructor, ensemble director and performer of early dance, has toured internationally, appearing at major baroque theatrical productions in the U.S and Europe, including Atys (Lully) at the Paris Opéra Comique, les Fêtes d'Hébé (Rameau) in Los Angeles and New York, Scylla et Glaucus (Leclair) in Lyon, and Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) in Aix-en-Provence, Lyon, and Paris. Director of early dance at the Longy School of Music, Mr. Pierce has taught workshops in France, England, Finland, Austria and the United States.

As a soloist, Mr. Pierce performed with New York Baroque Dance Company, touring in France, Germany and the United States including festival appearances in Aix-en-Provence, Los Angeles, Boston and New York. He appeared in Les Boréades, Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Fêtes d'Hébé, Scylla et Glaucus, and other works He performed with Ris et Danceries (Paris), in productions throughout France and Italy, including Atys, Hippolyte et Aricie, Rameau l'Enchanteur, and Bal à la Cour. He also danced with Court Dance Company of New York, working in 16th to early 20th century styles, and performed with Danse Baroque Toronto, and the baroque dance trio Hémiole (Paris), of which he was a co-founder.

Ken Pierce's choreographies include dances to Leclair's IIe Récréation; dances for Tirsi e Clori, Il Ballo delle Ingrate, and Les Festes de l'Amour et de Bacchus; Les Caractères de la Danse, commissioned for the Copenhagen Early Music Festival; and a program of dances from Praetorius's Terpsichore, for the Holland Early Music Festival (Utrecht). His choreographic credits also include King Arthur at the Boston Early Music Festival, and such twentieth-century premières as Les Plaisirs de Versailles, with Ex Machina Baroque Opera Ensemble; the masque Oberon, at Case Western Reserve University; and le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos at the Amherst Early Music Festival. He served as assistant choreographer for Quelques pas graves de Baptiste, Francine Lancelot's baroque-style piece for the Paris Opera Ballet, whose cast included Rudolph Nureyev.

Mr. Pierce trained in ballet and modern dance, studying as a scholarship student at both the American Ballet Theatre School and the Merce Cunningham studio. He studied historical dance with Francine Lancelot, Wendy Hilton, Catherine Turocy, Ann Jacoby, Charles Garth, Elizabeth Aldrich.

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