Fire Island - Dancers Responding to AIDS

Being a part of the Fire Island Dance Festival was an absolutely incredible experience! BalletCollective not only made its company debut appearance at the festival, we also premiered an excerpt of our newest work Dear and Blackbirds.

Awaiting the Pines ferry
Photo by Troy Schumacher

The journey to the island is a bit of a trek - an hour and half bus ride from the city to The Pines Ferry, a 20 minute ferry ride, and then a casual walk on the boardwalk to the location. But once you set your eyes on the Pines and the Fire Island Dance Festival performance venue, you fall in love.

Throughout the weekend, the performers and dance companies were on tight itineraries to ensure that we could make it to all the wonderful events, see the amazing beach houses (our hosts have an original 50's beach house!), take a dip in the many pools, and of course be wined and dined by the amazing people who make the Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA) possible.

Friday, after arriving on the island, we made our way to the first of our scheduled events - a pool party! We relaxed, had some lunch, and then freshened up for the opening night cocktail party. We were then punctually whisked away to the cocktail party, met a few hundred people, and enjoyed a performance by the Mark Stuart Dance Theater. Immediately following we were graciously met by our host families holding up a sign that read "Troy and Ashley Schumacher". Troy and I were hosted by Jim Streaker and Scott Ahlborn. Upon arriving at their beach house we were immediately struck by its 50's charm and detail! Jim and Scott were so welcoming, respectful, open,

50's Beach House
Photo by Troy Schumacher

funny and just a joy to be around. Troy and I were greeted in the morning by coffee and a freshly made frittata with vegetables from their garden, and in the evenings after the performances yummy Malibu cocktails or martinis with pickled green tomatoes! We sat, watched the passers-by from their all-glass windowed living room, and enjoyed each other's company!

Our host family's house was conveniently located two doors down from the dancers' greenroom and four doors down from the performance venue. We had the best and most prime location for everything! It made life so much easier (the other dancers had to lug their performance clothing and dance bags to and from events to make sure they'd have all that they needed for the tech run through and performances). I just had to walk next door.

Because the greenroom was so close to my house and the performance venue, Harrison Coll and I warmed up in my hosts' kitchen. It was more comfortable and less chaotic than the greenroom, as we were only two, instead of 20, trying to warm up and get in the zone. Dear and Blackbirds was fifth on the program, so at the top of the tech rehearsal or show, Harrison and I would make our short walk to the green room, put on our costumes and make any last minute adjustments before being escorted to the venue.

Rehearsal "Dear and Blackbirds"
Photo by Troy Schumacher

Saturday was performance day! After a brief orientation and coffee time with our hosts, Harrison came over and he and I gave ourselves a ballet class warm-up in the kitchen. Our tech run-through was at 1:40pm. This was our first time up on the stage, feeling the floor, etc. The intense natural sun light was blinding, and the no wings or backdrop (just the ocean) was disorienting, but after a few minutes of trying things we were ready to begin our walk through. Troy went over the musical cues with the tech crew while Harrison and I took our places for the top of Dear and Blackbirds. In the midst of our tech rehearsal, Troy says to us, "Get together... picture time!" We do as we are told, and then look behind us and there, waving, were Jim and Scott... kayaking behind the stage! It was the coolest thing ever! They watched our run-through from the ocean.

After our run-through, Troy, Harrison and I took a dip in Harrison's hosts' pool to cool off and relax for a few. At 3:15pm Troy and I headed back to our 50's beach house to regroup and get focused for the first performance. At 3:30pm I jumped in the shower to warm up, then started to put on my face (do my stage makeup). Since the lighting is "au naturale" my stage makeup reflected that: mascara, a little eyeshadow, blush and lip gloss. At 4pm Harrison came over and we began our joint warm up together. An hour later, the show began. We headed over to the greenroom, slipped on our costumes-- mine a blue dress from Lord and Taylor, and Harrison's a Uniqlo polo shirt and mustard yellow Zara pants cut into shorts--styled by myself, Troy and Jeff from the DRA. I sewed in my point shoe ribbons, grabbed last minute rosin and a sip of water. Soon we were escorted to the "on deck" position and awaited our turn!

To be continued...

Day 1 Fire Island Rehearsal Period

After a hard week touring with NYCB in Saratoga, Troy, Harrison and I are back in NYC, working on Dear and Blackbirds. An excerpt of Dear and Blackbirds will debut this weekend at the Fire Island Dance Festival!

Rehearsing in Saratoga
Photo by Troy Schumacher

Yesterday's rehearsal was so much fun! Up until then, we had worked on Dear and Blackbirds in segments meaning section by section, continuing to choreograph the lengthy pas de deux and rarely going back to the beginning.  This was because we were rehearsing with limited time in between NYCB rehearsals or during performances, so the priority was to keep making progress on the choreography and save the connecting and cleaning for this rehearsal week. 

Troy's plan worked! We started the rehearsal with a calm confidence knowing that the excerpt of Dear and Blackbirds to be performed at Fire Island was finished choreographically, so Troy could focus on piecing it together. To aid in the connecting of sections, Harrison and I did our homework  (meaning we watched the rehearsal videos the night before so we could come in prepared knowing all of our steps). 

Harrison and I took our places for the start on the ballet and Troy pushed play! We were off! Though not making it too far without stopping, we managed to work our way through the seven minute pas de deux. Fixing heads, arms, timing, and working on character development, within an hour we had gone through the entire ballet. Harrison and I grabbed some water, and then while looking out the window into the hustle and bustle of Times Square, both thought "We should try running this thing!"

So that's exactly what we did. "Taking it easy," we said, but easier said than done. We didn't take it easy, we ran Dear and Blackbirds! It was a great feeling to be able to run the ballet and see our way through to the end. As the ballet is only two dancers it is physically demanding so to reach the end pose we were both beyond thrilled. We did it! No mess ups, no stopping! 

Harrison, Troy and I all left New 42nd Street Studios feeling excited!

2014 Season Announcement

BalletCollective is back!

The Impulse Wants Company
Photo by Erin Baiano

After our successful season this past summer at the Joyce, BalletCollective is up and running again, gearing up for our 2014 New York Season to be held at NYU Skirball, October 29th and 30th. It is exciting to be back in the studio again working on new pieces for BalletCollective.

This year BalletCollective has 2 new dances planned in addition to last year's The Impulse Wants Company. The first new work is to feature the collaboration of director and choreographer Troy Schumacher, indie rock composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone and artist David Salle; the other new piece, titled  Dear and Blackbirds, will feature the second collaboration of Troy, Ellis, and writer Cynthia Zarin.

The Impulse Wants Company
Photo by Erin Baiano

The process of creation for Dear and Blackbirds is off and running. The poem is written and the music is mostly complete. The dance, a 10 minute pas de deux for Harrison Coll and me, is in the beginning stages. Troy began working with us one evening last week before a NYCB performance to get a sense and feel for the ballet and the direction it should take. Harrison, an energetic young lad, portrays just that in the piece. I am an older woman (as I am about 10 years older than Harrison, AHHH), annoyed at his youth but interested in his vitality. The piece starts out fast paced for Harrison and slow and steady for me. It has been fun and interesting working with Troy and Harrison on this pas de deux. Harrison and I have a very playful dynamic which seems to be perfect for this project. We are both open to ideas and feel quite comfortable working together (we should, considering Harrison was my first "Party Scene child" in the Nutcracker about ten years ago!). I am encouraged by our first three rehearsals and like what Troy has created so far.

Stay tuned for more about Dear and Blackbirds as the ballet progresses along with all the inside scoop on BalletCollective and its company!

Meet the Artist Monday: Cynthia Zarin

Photo: Sara Barrett

Poet, journalist and children's book author Cynthia Zarin is poet-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Her most recent books are "An Enlarged Heart: A Personal History" (2013) and "The Ada Poems" (2010). Her honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Award, the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Literature, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry. A long time contributor to the New Yorker, The New York Times, and other publications, she currently teaches at Yale and the City University of New York.

Here is my Q & A with Cynthia:

Me: What does BalletCollective mean to you?

Cynthia: An opportunity to work in a new way with enormously accomplished artists in different disciplines.  And a chance to explore my life-long interest in the ballet, also in unexpected ways.

What do you enjoy about working with Troy and Ellis?

As a writer, I work almost exclusively on my own.  It’s been interesting and vivifying to think through a piece of writing—a narrative poem—with two other people.  The poem is a true collaboration: we developed the ideas together, and I interpreted and tried to represent what we were talking about on the page.  

Has writing for BalletCollective changed the way you write, or think?

At some point in this process, which occurred over many months, I realized that I was writing a poem that had to occur on many levels, literally, at once: there would be dancers moving physically in space, and creating that space by their movements and gestures.   It illustrated a preoccupation of mine: how do action and memory, description and narrative, take place in time and space?  How as artists do we demonstrate how the past, future, and present are all happening simultaneously?

Before BalletCollective, had you ever been to the ballet? If so, has BalletCollective helped/changed the way you look at ballet?

I began going to New York City Ballet  when I was four years old—the first ballet I saw was Firebird, with Maria Tallchief!  And I have gone consistently since then.  I studied ballet, and I’ve gone to the ballet fairly consistently all my life; since beginning work with Troy, I’ve tried to see as much dance as possible over the last few months.  I think I’m paying closer attention to small gestures, looking at what ‘speaks’ on stage.   

What is it like being the only female in the collaboration?

I hadn’t even thought about that!  So, I’m not sure.   I’m immensely honored to be part of the collaboration, but I’m not sure that gender has been part of my thinking, particularly.  I think the three of us define ourselves more through genre: writing, dance, music.   

What's your favorite way to pass time?   

Well, hopefully, we don’t pass time but inhabit it!   I work every morning.  I like to cook for friends and for my children.  I go to the ballet!  And try planting new things in the garden here in New York, which is generally unsuccessful…

What are you reading?

I’m rereading The Ambassadors, by Henry James.   And, for some reason unknown to me, The African Queen, by C.F. Forrester.  My reading is somewhat indiscriminate. 

If you could die and come back as an animal, what would you be?

Could I not die and be an animal?  Pegasus? 

Your greatest influence?

I don’t know I could name just one. The books I read as a child, certainly, in which I lived from when I learned to read until I was about seventeen or eighteen, when life began happening, as it does to everyone; my grandmother and my great aunts, who were strong characters with a great sense of style, a few people that I love.

Cynthia's latest book, An Enlarged Heart (pictured above), has won rave reviews. One of the essays from An Enlarged Heart, titled "Going In" served as one of the inspirations for BalletCollective's newest ballet. I can't wait to read this wonderful book. It's at the top of my summer reading list! 

Behind the Scenes: Claire Mann

Photo: Daphne Youree

Being part of a new ballet company from the ground up, it quickly becomes apparent how much goes into making new work possible. It's more than choreographing, composing, dancing, and writing; it's a combination of all that work plus behind the scenes activities to help raise the continuing support to make it happen. BalletCollective has a wonderful group of supporters, and I thought it would be interesting to get to know one of our board members. Claire Mann is a wife, a mother of three beautiful girls, a ballet aficionado, and an art history teacher. Claire has been with BalletCollective from the start. Below is my interview with her: 

What does BalletCollective mean to you? What clearly stands out about BalletCollective is the collaborative process. What makes it so much more than that, though, is how very, very talented each one of those contributors to the process is, from the librettist, to the composer and musicians, to the costume and lighting designers, to the choreographer and the dancers. Everyone is at the top of his or her game, and that collective talent makes for a very exciting and beautiful end result. 

What prompted you to get involved? Well, first of all, I was honored to be asked to be involved.  As you probably know, I have been an ardent and devoted fan of NYC Ballet for years, so it was a real treat for me to get to know Troy — and now you — as more than just dancers I had admired as an audience member.  At the time I met Troy, he was just beginning to explore ideas about what his own company could be. Troy has such genuine enthusiasm for the arts, but at the same time a real practical intelligence about how to make things happen, so when he asked me to be involved, it just seemed obvious to me I should be supportive in whatever way I could be. It has been a joy for me to watch the evolution of BalletCollective and to get to know the artists involved.

What do you love about dance? I think it is just a very visceral thing for me.  I remember back in the early 1990s I was living in London and just starting to go to the ballet regularly, when I saw a performance so exhilarating I almost couldn’t bear for it to end, and I think I am looking for that same wonderful feeling every time I go to the ballet  – or to any other sort of dance performance, for that matter. That ballet, by the way, was William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated,” with Darcy Bussell and Sylvie Guillem dancing that evening – and, for the record, I do get that same feeling whenever I see BalletCollective perform.

What's your favorite ballet? Why? I like so many that there is no way to pick a favorite, but there are certain ballets that I am always excited to see on the program, such as “Glass Pieces” or “Serenade.”  And, of course, I love the dance Troy choreographed and that the two of you performed at Chris’s and my 50^th birthday party. 

What are you reading?  I am very grateful to have received so many good books from so many great friends over the last few months.  Two that I am reading now are Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford and Dear Life by Alice Munro.  

How did you become aware of Cynthia Zarin's  poetry? I actually met Cynthia about 10 years ago when our daughters were taking ballet at the same dance studio.  Shortly after that, I happened to read in The New Yorker a beautiful and very memorable piece she wrote, and I have been a fan ever since.  For me, it is such a happy coincidence that she has become part of BalletCollective.

Have you ever danced before? I have danced before, when I was young, but not in a particularly serious way.  I did love it, though, and that is probably the real reason I love dance so much. 

Troy told me that you teach. Can you tell us about your teaching?  Well, I don’t do as much teaching these days as I used to, and I miss it, but I do teach art history to a pretty adorable group of third-graders at a school in the Bronx.  I teach as part of a program called “Learning to Look,” which culminates in a trip at the end of the year to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The program is wonderful, as are the students.  We have a great time.

Above is the dance Claire commissioned Troy to choreograph as a surprise for her husband, Chris, for their joint 50th birthday party. The dance is titled "Spanish PipeDream"! I hope you enjoy! Troy and I had a great time with this project!

Troy and everyone at BalletCollective are grateful for Claire's support and encouragement throughout the years. Since this interview, Claire and Chris, just this weekend had us over to their country home to get to know each other. Troy and I had a wonderful time chatting over drinks with them in their authentic English pub and are excited for our relationship to grow.  

The Collaborative Collaborates

Now that BalletCollective's first rehearsal period has concluded, the next step in the collaboration process is to have a meeting with all the collaborators to watch and discuss the ballet, The Impulse Wants Company. The idea is for each collaborator —Cynthia (poet), Ellis (composer), Brandon (lighten designer), Troy (choreographer) — to exchange feedback, thoughts, and criticism with each other, working toward the common goal of tweaking and improving the piece to become a finished product for its August world premiere.

In preparation for this meeting, tentatively scheduled for this week, I have been wondering what has happened with the Collaboration page I altered on Wikipedia a month ago. Today I visited the Wikipedia "collaboration" page and found that my "Ballet" addition has remained in its original form, unedited. It is encouraging that ballet has been accepted and recognized as an art form where collaboration takes place.

Photo: Erin Baiano

Stay tuned for a full recap of the collaborators meeting!

22/9

Thursday marked a new record for BalletCollective: the completion of a 22 minute ballet in just 9 days! 

In preparation for our August premiere at the Joyce Theater, 

we moved into the Ailey Theater (just for two hours) for an informal workshop performance. Troy and Brandon arrived at the theater early in the morning to "tech" through  (a technical rehearsal to run through the lighting cues) the ballet's lights. Ellis, the musicians, and the dancers arrived at noon to "walk" through (a quick rehearsal to acclimate in the new dimensions) the ballet in the Ailey space. 

For BalletCollective,

this was the start of many "firsts." "Firsts" is a word my finance and I use for the first time we experience something new together. With Brandon manning the lighting board, Ellis conducting the music, and Troy running the rehearsal, we dancers danced the ballet, The Impulse Wants Company, section by section. This was the first time that all elements of this collaboration were together performing our individual parts live. Previously the dancers were rehearsing to an electronic track of the composition. 

Shortly after the rehearsal began, 

BalletCollective's patrons, friends and family, trickled in for the workshop showing. As they arrived, Cynthia Zarin (the poet who wrote the libretto for The Impulse Wants Company) gave them some information about the work including an excerpt of the poem. The audience got a sneak peak of the rehearsal process as we finished working out the kinks. 

Once all parts were in sync,

 Troy welcomed the audience, introduced his collaborative team, musicians, and dancers. The lights went dark and we were off. A second first for BalletCollective: a complete run-through of the ballet without stopping. We all remembered our steps, for the most part! It was a great chance for Troy to see the overall picture of the finished ballet, a rough glimpse of what it will look like in August at the Joyce. 

Photo: Archival film screen shot

After the ballet ended, 

the collaborative team, dancers and musicians had a chance mingle with our guests and see their reactions to the new work. It was an amazing feeling to see BalletCollective's vision realized. From here, we can take it further...

Day 1: Dany Studios

Monday was BalletCollective's first day of rehearsals for The Impulse Wants Company (tentative title, to be premiered this August at the Joyce Theater). At the start of rehearsals in DANY studios, Troy, poet Cynthia Zarin, composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone, and lighting designer Brandon Baker gathered the dancers together and introduced themselves, discussing their roles in the creation of the piece, their inspirations and ideas behind the new work. 

There are seven characters. I use the term 'characters' loosely, as they are all based on those of us in the cast as people (to a certain extent) and we won't be 'acting'. Characters include: 

• a peaceful, nostalgic woman
• vibrant boy
• three chatty girls
• a married couple

I am one of the three girls.

Photo: Ellis Ludwig-Leone

Troy outlined the ballet's premise, "Our ballet focuses on you as a group as you arrive and spend a day in a place of heightened interaction. Here everything is magnified and you all are more exposed to one another."  

He then said that we would start with the second movement. And it went like this:

Troy began the rehearsal by working with Kaitlyn and David (peaceful woman and vibrant boy).  Not before long he called on the three sassy girls (Lauren, Meagan, and me). We enter with a jumping passage, very reminiscent of dolphins frolicking in the ocean. Soon we were all sliding like Shamu! It was a good time! Moments later the couple (Taylor and Harrison) enter and we as a group learn a complicated, but exciting combination of steps. I am excited to see, dance and learn more as the collective's concept turns into movement.  

Dissecting the Puzzle/The Impulse Wants Company

Everything is new! From the poetry, to the music, to the dance, to the lighting, to the design, it’s all created in true collaboration together, brand new. The heartbeat of BalletCollective is its process. 

These artists come together like cooks in a restaurant. They come up with the main menu starting with one element. Maybe a particular protein, Kobe beef, is what sets the dish’s course or maybe reindeer moss sets the tone. Like cooking, BalletCollective’s process begins with one element inspiring its actions. 

From Troy: “Artists are each fluent in their own language. The way a choreographer describes movement is alien to the way a composer describes music.  In this case, we are both speaking English, but the same words can have drastically different meanings! The key to true collaboration is finding a common language which all artists involved can understand.  But even better than a common language is the beautifully nuanced language of the poet.”

The current work in progress digests a poem by Cynthia Zarin. Yet the creation of her poetry, at its earliest phase, was inspired by several discussions with her fellow collaborators: choreographer, Troy and composer, Ellis Ludwig-Leone. Working together, these three artists meet (usually at Cynthia’s NYC home after everyone has returned from their day jobs) and gather ideas. They encourage each other to think outside of their individual comfort zones. After 10 hours of conceptual conversations and the decision to use 7 dancers, Cynthia, with Troy and Ellis’s input, created the first puzzle piece to building this new work, the poem. 

Using Cynthia’s poem as a working draft, Ellis and Troy, with Cynthia, dissect her work to establish a working structure of the ballet, its mood arc, the length of the piece, the musical arrangement.  Cynthia took all of this and put it into another draft of the poem.This is the next step in BalletCollective’s puzzle. Once the logistics were in place but open to evolving, Ellis began composing the score. Troy began choreographing to his sketches. But, not alone. As with the creation of the poem, the musical score is created with the input of the collective members and so is the choreography.  With the structure in place, lighting designer Brandon Baker begins to influence the overall look of the piece, and begins discussing the space that the work takes place in.  However far away from each artist’s speciality, Troy, Ellis, Cynthia, and Brandon are challenged to bring their strengths/weaknesses to the table in efforts to push the creation to its ultimate best. 

Their initial conversations began in November; now the music is just about finished, the poem is getting to its final drafts, and little snippets are choreographed. The piece will be 23 minutes long and have a unique structure. Since I’m the insider, I do get privileged knowledge of their collaboration from time to time. I’ve heard a few sections of the music, seen and heard parts of the poem, and watched Troy planning the ballet. Here is a clip of him in the studio, working on a solo for Kaitlyn Gilliland.

BalletCollective will premiere The Impulse Wants Company August 14th and 15th, 2013 at the Joyce Theater. Tickets can be purchased here. Hope to see you there!