IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TROY SCHUMACHER Meet the New York City Ballet...

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TROY SCHUMACHER

Meet the New York City Ballet dancer and founder of BalletCollective who stars in Issue 2

Photography Paul Maffi

Words Sarah Fones



Prior to embarking on a career in ballet, a young Troy Schumacher found himself besotted with another form of dance. “One day had the idea that I wanted to drum with my feet,” recalls the Atlanta-reared New York City Ballet company member. Pleas to take formal tap classes went ignored for a period, during which Schumacher improvised. “I spent all this time inventing what I thought tap dancing was going to be,” the 26-year-old explains. “And I’m sure it annoyed the hell out of my parents because I was just tap dancing, or quote-unquote, ‘tap dancing,’ all the time.” Schumacher’s skills had markedly improved by the age of 12, when he tried out for the Atlanta Ballet’s Nutcracker, nabbing the plum part of Nicholas. Years later, the boy-who-would-tap appeared in the very same George Balanchine classic with the NYCB.



Covetable company roles, including Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, followed. Turns for younger, influential choreographers like Benjamin Millepied and Christopher Wheeldon did, too. Still, Schumacher’s desire to carve out his own niche remained. He learned to read music and taught himself piano, and began dabbling in choreography. In 2010, Schumacher founded BalletCollective, a rotating consortium of NYCB dancers, poets, musicians and visual artists. “We talk about contexts that are interesting to us. And then we try to create a well-rounded work where each art form is equal,” Schumacher says. Works might begin with a poem based on a conversation amongst the group, he explains, taking into account a word’s emotional impact or certain linguistic structures. Dancers then communicate the group’s language silently, with their bodies, while musicians express it audibly.



In August, BalletCollective will perform a 25-minute piece with contributions from longtime New Yorker writer Cynthia Zarin and composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone at New York’s Joyce Theater. More recently, Schumacher and members of BalletCollective teamed up with lensman Paul Maffi for a short film for CR Fashion Book. “I tried to think about what would film very well, what sort of intimate moments could be exposed nicely on camera,” Schumacher says. “And then I also had this interesting variable of fashion.” At times, the effect is quite visceral. A dancer thwack-thwacks the wall to break in her pointe shoes, later dusting their toes with chalk. Movements, from the more mundane stretch to the elegant plié, are tailored to showcase the clothing, which comes from Givenchy, Comme des Garçons, and Rick Owens. The result is personal, honest, and characterized by a refined, vigorous athleticism. “One thing about ballet, it’s beautiful, and it is a self-sufficient art form. But it requires so much to be possible,” Schumacher remarks, ticking off a familiar list. His goal is to imbue a traditional dance medium with modern, collaborative savoir-faire. “Every time you put together a ballet, there are all of these elements,” he adds. “So why not make them all new, make them current and fresh?”







via CR Fashion Book http://crfashionbook.com/post/45267556959/in-the-spotlight-troy-schumacher-meet-the-new