BalletCollective to Present Two World Premiere Ballets, 10/29-30 at NYU's Skirball Center

BalletCollective will present two world premiere ballets that showcase the company's commitment to artistic collaboration on October 29 and 30 at NYU Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square. The program will also include The Impulse Wants Company (2013). All three works will be accompanied by live music performed by the ensemble Hotel Elefant and feature lighting design by Brandon Stirling Baker.

Artist David Salle will collaborate with director/choreographer Troy Schumacher and composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone on All That We See, a work for five dancers. The new ballet is inspired by a series of images from a painting by Salle generated specifically for this collaboration and will feature company members Taylor Stanley, Lauren King, Claire Kretzschmar, David Prottas and Meagan Mann.

The program will also include Dear and Blackbirds, a world premiere pas de deux for dancers Ashley Laracey and Harrison Coll, choreographed by Troy Schumacher with music by Ellis Ludwig-Leone, based on a poem by Cynthia Zarin.

The Impulse Wants Company (2013) is a collaboration between Schumacher, Ludwig-Leone and Zarin. The piece premiered at The Joyce Theater in August, 2013.

In other upcoming news, Troy Schumacher will choreograph and premiere his first work commissioned by the New York City Ballet, to be performed at the company's gala on September 23 at the David H. Koch Theater. The ballet features music by Judd Greenstein and costumes by Thom Browne, and is scheduled to be performed in repertory during both the fall and spring seasons.

BalletCollective, founded by Troy Schumacher in 2010, brings together artists, writers, composers, choreographers, and designers to collaborate as equals through the creation of distinctive works of art. BalletCollective's works are intimate and reflective yet accessible, featuring a highly accomplished group of dancers in works that are made for them. At the heart of BalletCollective lies process. Artists from different genres come together and express ideas that are important to them individually; but as a group - a collective - they're encouraged to think outside of what it is they usually do. A composer considers visual art, a choreographer the structure of a poem, a photographer is inspired by the rhythm of a piece of music. This collective effort is combined and refined, and ultimately presented to audiences. Each work's creative life does not end at performance, but continues to be re-conceived as long as the work continues to be performed. BalletCollective has had previous seasons at the Joyce Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay. The Company recently presented a preview of Dear and Blackbirds at the Fire Island Dance Festival in July and of both new works during a week-long residency at the Palm Theater in Telluride, Colorado that culminated with a showing on August 2.

Tickets range in price from $20 - $75; student tickets are available for $12. Tickets are available online at nyuskirball.org, by phone at 212.352.3101 or in person at the box office at NYU Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square. BalletCollective will perform on Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30 at 7:30 pm. For further information on the company, visit www.BalletCollective.com.

THE ARTISTS

Hotel Elefant (Music Ensemble), founded by composers Leaha Maria Villarreal and Mary Kouyoumdjian, brings an awareness of today's music to the general public through commissions, performances, and moderated discussions between composers, performers, and audiences. Committed to modern sounds and sonic explorations, this "audacious and unafraid" (New Music Box) ensemble highlights living composers who are blurring lines, pushing boundaries, and fostering creativity. With a flexible roster of more than twenty musicians, Hotel Elefant works closely with a broad spectrum of progressive artists including John Luther Adams, Richard Carrick, Michael Gordon, David T. Little, Angélica Negrón, and Chinary Ung. Past performances include Lincoln Center, Look and Listen Festival, and the Bang on a Can Marathon; and a debut Carnegie Hall performance praised by The New York Times as "deeply felt."

Ellis Ludwig-Leone (Composer and Music Director), is the front man and composer for Brooklyn-based band San Fermin. Their self-titled debut album was released worldwide in the fall of 2013 via Downtown Records, to positive reviews from the likes of NPR, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME, BBC, CBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The London Sunday Times and Le Monde. Ellis has written for a wide variety of ensembles and soloists, including ACME, Decoda, JACK Quartet, and Fifth House Ensemble. Ellis studied composition at Yale University and has worked as a musical assistant for the composer Nico Muhly. He is a recipient of residencies from The MacDowell Colony, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Við Djúpið festival in Ísafjördur, Iceland.

David Salle (Contributing Artist) helped define the post-modern sensibility by combining figuration with an extremely varied pictorial language. His paintings have been shown in museums and galleries worldwide. Although known primarily as a painter, Salle's work grows out of a long-standing involvement with performance. Over the last 25 years he has worked extensively with choreographer Karole Armitage, creating sets and costumes for many of her ballets and operas staged throughout Europe and America. In 1995, Salle directed the feature film Search and Destroy, starring Griffin Dunne and Christopher Walken. Salle is also a prolific writer on art. His essays and interviews have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, Modern Painters, The Paris Review, as well as numerous exhibition catalogs and anthologies. He currently writes a monthly column on art for Town & Country Magazine.

Troy Schumacher (Director and Choreographer) formed BalletCollective as a twenty-first century model inspired by historic ballet, music and visual art collaborative efforts. Its mission is to present ballet-based work in an intimate setting with live music that represents contributions from the choreographer, dancers, musicians and artists who engage in an ongoing give and take process. Schumacher has received choreographic commissions from the 92nd Street Y Fridays at Noon series, School of American Ballet, New York Choreographic Institute, Salon/Sanctuary with Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Atlanta Ballet. Schumacher is active in other cultural media and has participated in a number of collaborations including Carine Roitfeld's CR Fashion Book, Aritzia and Creative Agency V Group's Zero Zero Project. As a dancer with the New York City Ballet, Schumacher has performed principal roles in a number of ballets, including George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Stars and Stripes, Peter Martins' Swan Lake, and Jerome Robbins' Four Seasons and Interplay. In September, Schumacher will choreograph and premiere his first ballet commissioned by the New York City Ballet during the 2014-15 season, featuring music by Judd Greenstein and costumes by Thom Browne.

Brandon Stirling Baker (Lighting Designer) works with artists internationally and throughout the United States. Baker's lighting for dance has been commissioned by New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, José Limón Dance Company, LA Dance Project, BalletCollective, Theatre du Châtelet (Paris), Sadlers Wells Theatre (London), Maison de la Danse (Lyon), Guggenheim Bilbao (Spain), Havana Ballet (Cuba), Edinburgh Festival (Scotland), International Dance Biennial (South America), Joyce Theater, New York City Center, Fall For Dance Festival, New York Choreographic Institute and the Los Angeles Music Center. He is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts and Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in Glasgow, Scotland.

Cynthia Zarin (Resident Writer) is a poet, journalist, and children's book author. Currently poet-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, she is also a long-time contributor to The New Yorker. Her books of poetry include The Swordfish Tooth, Fire Lyric, The Watercourse (winner, Los Angeles Book Award) and The Ada Poems. Zarin's poetry for adults has been praised for its slightly offbeat perspective on mundane, typically overlooked topics, and her picture books for children, including Rose and Sebastian and What Do You See When You Shut Your Eyes?, encourage her preschool audience to look at things from a fresh perspective. Zarin has received numerous awards for her work, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

NYU Skirball Center (The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts) is the premier venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for New York University and lower Manhattan. Founded by Jay Oliva (President Emeritus, NYU) and led by executive director Michael Harrington, the programs of the Skirball Center reflect NYU's mission as an international center of scholarship, defined by excellence and innovation and shaped by an intellectually rich and diverse environment. A vital aspect of the Center's mission is to build young adult audiences for the future of live performance. nyuskirball.org