BEMF Dance Ensemble

Caroline Copeland, Featured Baroque Dancer

Based in New York City, Caroline Copeland is a contemporary performer and choreographer as well as an early dance specialist. In 1996 she joined The New York Baroque Dance Company, under the direction of Catherine Turocy and has toured with the company throughout the United States and Europe, most notably at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre in Sweden and the Neues Palais at Sans Souci in Potsdam, Germany. Ms. Copeland has also appeared with The Boston Early Music Festival, Company Rindfleisch, The Metropolitan Opera, and The New York Collegium. Her choreography has been shown at the historic Federal Hall in downtown Manhattan, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Public Theater. Most recently she created the choreography for two Cornell University productions: Rousseau’s The Cunning Man and Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale. In May 2010, Ms. Copeland made her directorial début with Handel’s Alcina for the Bourbon Baroque Orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky.

Carlos Fittante, Featured Baroque Dancer

Carlos Fittante is originally from Salem, Massachusetts, and is a choreographer/dance-artist living in New York City where he specializes in Baroque and Balinese dance. He is the artistic director of BALAM Dance Theatre (www.BALAMDance.org), a contemporary dance company inspired by Balinese theater, and teaches “Movement for Actors” at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. He is a graduate of the School of American Ballet and has a Bachelors of Arts in Dance from Empire State College, and has studied and performed in Bali many times with the Gamelan Semara Ratih. He has extensive performing credits including New York City Opera, Apollo’s Fire, Ballet Santa Barbara, and The New York Baroque Dance Company. His work has been presented at First Night New York, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and his choreography and performances have received critical praise from Dance Magazine, New York Times, Village Voice, and others.

Justin Coates, Baroque Dancer

Justin Coates is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has spent the last six years in New York City dancing for a number of modern dance choreographers and companies including Kraig Patterson, Mariana Bekerman, VIA Dance Collaborative, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama, and an apprenticeship with Dusan Tynek Dance Theatre. Recently, Justin has also found a home in the Baroque dance world: he is a current member of The New York Baroque Dance Company and has had the pleasure of dancing in operas choreographed by Catherine Turocy and Caroline Copeland. This is his first production with the Boston Early Music Festival.

Caitlin Klinger, Baroque Dancer

Caitlin Klinger is a native of Sudbury, Massachusetts. She began her training at a young age studying ballet under Edra Toth and tap with Suzanne Purdue. She became an apprentice with Dance Prism out of Concord, Massachusetts, where she performed in much of the traditional ballet repertory as well as original ballets such as The Little Mermaid and Alice in Wonderland. She then went on to attend Mount Holyoke College, where she was introduced to modern and contemporary dance. At Mount Holyoke, Caitlin had the pleasure of performing works by Mark Morris, Jim Coleman and Terese Freedman, and Carl Flink, among others. She received her B.A. in Dance and Geography, and currently dances with Dance Prism, Deadfall Dance, and Mill City Dancers. This is her first production with the Boston Early Music Festival.

Alexis Silver, Baroque Dancer

Alexis Silver was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and spent her formative years in Berkeley, California. Her serious ballet training and performance experience was nurtured by Ronn Guidi at Oakland Ballet. As a teenager, Alexis moved to Massachusetts, shifted her focus to include contemporary dance, and advanced this training with Marcus Schulkind. Alexis currently dances with The New York Baroque Dance Company; this is her first production with the Boston Early Music Festival. She has performed work by Trisha Brown in “Dance & Art in Dialogue” at the New Museum of Contemporary Art and an original work by John Jasperse at The Kennedy Center. She dances with Gregory Nuber Dance, Becky Radway Dance Projects, and Enrico Wey, among others. An accomplished photographer, she also contributes to Dance and Dance Spirit Magazines. She holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a Certificate of Higher Education from London Contemporary Dance School.