Martha Graham Dance Company Presents NEW@Graham With Troy Schumacher

The November installment of the Martha Graham Dance Company's popular Studio Series takes audiences inside the creative process of The Auditions, a new work by choreographer Troy Schumacher and composer Augusta Read Thomas, commissioned by Peak Performances.

The creative team was asked to create a work for the Company that resonates with Appalachian Spring, Graham's celebrated masterwork, which turns 75 this year. As part of the evening, Troy Schumacher and Peak Performances' Executive Director Jed Wheeler will discuss the evolution of the collaboration and the relationship of The Auditions to the Graham/Aaron Copland classic. Musical excerpts will highlight the discussion and the Graham dancers will perform segments of both works.

The Auditions will premiere on a program with Appalachian Spring November 14-17, at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University. The music will be performed live by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni.

NEW@Graham with Troy Schumacher will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 5-6, at 7pm, at the Martha Graham Studio Theater. Tickets are $25 (general) and $20 (students) and can be purchased by phone at 212-229-9200, or online at www.marthagraham.org/studioseries. The Martha Graham Studio Theater is located at 55 Bethune Street, 11th floor, in Manhattan.

Troy Schumacher is an American choreographer, dancer, and director living in New York City. His aesthetic draws upon the artists he collaborates with to produce fresh, unexpected results. He is a soloist dancer with New York City Ballet and the founder and artistic director of BalletCollective, an arts collective driven toward creating new ballet-based works that has been moving ballet forward since its inception in 2010. His work has been presented by New York City Ballet, Performa, Danspace Project, Guggenheim Works & Process, Guggenheim Bilbao, and The Joyce Theater. He has collaborated with many artists, including Jeff Koons, Thom Browne, Karen Russell, Ken Liu, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Maddie Ziegler, and David Salle. In addition to live performances, Schumacher has choreographed numerous art, fashion and commercial shoots, including works for Google, Sony PlayStation, Capezio, HP, Aritzia, CR Fashion Book, Tom Ford, and The New York Times.

Jedediah Wheeler is the Executive Director for Arts + Cultural Programming at Montclair State University in New Jersey and the artistic director of its series Peak Performances, the internationally acclaimed program celebrating artists who challenge conventional expectations in the fields of dance, music, theater, circus, and opera. His career is notable for supporting multi-disciplinary collaborations by artists as varied as Faye Driscoll, Romeo Castelucci, Liz Gerring, and Elizabeth Streb. For his memorable series Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center in New York City, Wheeler received the Village Voice Outstanding Achievement Obie. In 2016 he was honored with the William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence for sustained achievement in programming given annually by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals.

About Martha Graham Dance Company

The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a world leader in the evolving art form of modern dance since its founding in 1926. Today, the Company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. With programs that offer a rich thematic narrative, the Company creates new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.

Since its inception, the Martha Graham Dance Company has received international acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Herod Atticus Theatre on the Acropolis in Athens. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world.