Join the New York Baroque Dance Company and Opera Lafayette for this performance of Francis Johnson's New Cotillions In Honour of Our Illustrious Guest General Lafayette at Hillwood! This performance pays homage to Marquis de Lafayette’s footsteps from his 1824–25 tour of America as the “Guest of the Nation”, while telling the exciting life story of composer Francis Johnson.

The evening will feature a historically informed performance of music and dance that would have been performed at Marquis de Lafayette's Grand Ball in Philadelphia 1824. At the center of this Grand Ball was the music of Francis Johnson — today, a much overlooked composer, but in his day, one of the most internationally successful American artists. He was the first American-born musician to tour Europe with his band, the first African American to publish large quantities of sheet music commercially (over 200 pieces), and he performed extensively for both white and black audiences in his hometown Philadelphia. Johnson's dances were able to be brought back to life by Alan Jones and Julia Bengtsson for The New York Baroque Dance Company, thanks to a research grant from Centre National de la Danse in Paris. Experience the dance and rediscover Johnson's captivating music, performed live by members of Opera Lafayette. Enjoy this magical evening of dance in Hillwood’s gardens! 

Since 2021, Hillwood has explored and expanded its programming in the world of dance. Marjorie Post was a lover of dance, both in her personal life and as a patron of the performing arts. This connection between Post, Hillwood, and dance inspires programs that give a platform to movement artists from the Washington, D.C. area. In past years of Dance on the Lunar Lawn programming, Hillwood has co-commissioned a piece with Dance Place, hosted performances by SOLE Defined, Gesel Mason, Coyaba, the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, and has cultivated a multi-year partnership with the Dance Institute of Washington, featuring pre-professional dancers. This summer’s performance by the New York Baroque Dance Company marks the fifth summer of dance programming in Hillwood’s gardens. 

Images are courtesy of the NYBDC. 

PROGRAM GUIDELINES 

• This program takes place outdoors.
• Please bring your own lawn chair or picnic blanket for seating on the lawn.
• Picnicking is welcome at this event. Please note our liquor license does not allow patrons to bring in outside alcohol. Food and drinks, including beer and wine, will be available from Merriweather To Go. 

INCLEMENT WEATHER 

• If inclement weather forces a cancellation, registered participants will be notified via email by 3 p.m. on the day of the performance. Efforts will be made to transfer tickets to another performance, if possible. 

PROGRAM TIMELINE

5:30-7:00 p.m. | Explore Hillwood  

• Enjoy Hillwood’s mansion, gardens, and greenhouse.
• Find the perfect memento from your visit at the museum shop  
• Grab something to eat from Merriweather To Go 

7:00-8:00 p.m. | Performance on the Lunar Lawn

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

The New York Baroque Dance Company, founded in 1976 by Catherine Turocy, Artistic Director, and Ann Jacoby, is still leading the historical dance field today. The company specializes in producing 17th and 18th century programs ranging from street performances to fully staged operas.  There are over 100 operas in its repertoire as well as reconstructed dances and ballets choreographed in period style.  Through residencies at educational institutions serving grades K-12 and at the university level, the NYBDC instructs professionals and the general public.  The NYBDC has toured North America, Europe and Japan with conductors James Richman, John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, Nicholas McGegan and Wolfgang Katschner.  In their home base of New York City, the company produces concerts annually with Concert Royal directed by James Richman.  The NYBDC also performs with Opera Lafayette Orchestra and Chorus, The Dallas Bach Society, Mercury Baroque, Apollo’s Fire and Philharmonia Baroque.

Groundbreaking productions over the past three decades include the premiere of Jean Philippe Rameau’s Les Boreades (not performed in the 18th century because of Rameau’s death) and Hippolyte et Aricie, both at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Opera de Lyon; Henry Purcell’s Indian Queen performed at the Barbican in London; the award winning Scylla et Glaucus by Jean Marie Leclair performed at the Opera de Lyon as well as over 100 performances of a double bill with Rameau’s Pygmalion and George Frederick Handel’s Terpsicore. The company is very proud to have performed in Handel’s operas Terpsicore, Ariodante, Arianna, Alcina, Atalanta, Orlando, and Teseo at the International Handel Festival in Goettingen, Germany. 

Founded in 1995 as The Violins of Lafayette, Opera Lafayette was part of a period instrument renaissance, a movement that provided a primary avenue for performing musicians searching for new ways to explore music of the past. Opera Lafayette's debut season took place in the Salon Doré in Washington DC’s Corcoran Gallery of Art and featured chamber music concerts by France’s greatest 18th-century composers. In 2001, the company reincorporated as Opera Lafayette, reflecting our increasing concentration on opera and presenting richly nuanced realizations of lost repertoire in ways that are relevant to today’s audiences. In 2012 and again in 2014, Opera Lafayette achieved international fame when, at the invitation of Chateau de Versailles Spectacles, we were invited to perform at Opera Royal in Versailles, France, closing with five sold-out performances. 

Since its entrepreneurial beginnings, Opera Lafayette has expanded and is now the only opera company to perform its full season in both Washington, DC and New York City. Opera Lafayette’s groundbreaking work has been recognized in The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The New Yorker , CBS, CNN, and NPR’s Morning Edition. Alongside our productions, Opera Lafayette has issued over a dozen recordings and three DVDs on the Naxos label, ensuring a lasting legacy of the timeless repertoire.