Posted by: Andrea Harris, Madison Arts Cooperative



It was California dreamin’ that started it all, as music lovers, intoxicated by Baroque music and other tantalizing treats, danced and set off fireworks on the beach in homage to a Bach concerto.  That performance launched the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, a group of post-Beat Generation musicians who founded a well-known live jazz and classical music club outside of San Francisco.  Madison flautist Stephanie Jutt, who played in that group, was inspired by the idea that classical music could evoke an impassioned, even rambunctious, response from its listeners.  She and pianist Jeffrey Sykes borrowed the name (with consent from CA) and found four other artists who also wanted chamber music to be “what Bach would be doing if he were more fun and less dead.”

The group has grown steadily over the past twenty years, and is now Overture Center’s first summer resident company.  This weekend, two programs open their season: Leapfrog, featuring works by Haydn, Couperin, Dutilleux, and Ravel, at the historic and lovely Stoughton Opera House on Friday night; and The Dating Game, works by Haydn and Schubert played at Overture Center’s Playhouse on Saturday.  On Sunday, both programs will be performed at the Hillside Theatre at Taliesin in Spring Green.  While dancing won’t actually take place at these venues, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society has earned a reputation for, as Isthmus critic Kevin Lynch put it, “a volatile mix of highbrow artistry and sideways-brow attitude.”  In other words, they seriously rock the house.  And you can dance if you wanna’… at intermission…out the door…at home…in your head.

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