http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/arts/dance/troy-schumacher-prepares-his-first-work-for-city-ballet.html 2014-09-21 06:20:15 Troy Schumacher Prepares His First Work for City Ballet Troy Schumacher, a City Ballet dancer, has created his first work for the company, to be staged Tuesday at its opening night gala. === There’s an electricity in the air at New York City Ballet in September. On a recent day, wan-cheeked young women carried limp practice tutus over their arms, scurrying down fluorescent-lit hallways like Alice’s White Rabbit, perennially pressed for time. The bustle has been particularly intense this year, with four new works scheduled, three at the company’s Even more notable, two of these were created by young men who still dance in the company. (Yes, they are all by men. The dearth of ballets by women continues to confound the field.) One is by the soloist Justin Peck, recently named resident choreographer. The second is by a newcomer to the company’s choreographic roster: Troy Schumacher, a member of the corps de ballet. (The British choreographer Liam Scarlett created the third new work on the gala program.) There seems to be a surge of creativity within the company ranks. “It’s a really exciting time,” Andrew Veyette, one of six dancers who will perform in Mr. Schumacher’s first work for City Ballet — titled “Clearing Dawn” — said in a telephone interview. “They bring out the best version of us. They see us as we really are.” A Robbins’s fascination with the way dancers move when no one is watching seems to have rubbed off on Mr. Schumacher. “I love watching a ballet dancer doing everyday things: walking across the stage or drinking from a water fountain,” he said last month over burgers on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where he lives. He is an avid backstage photographer; his photos capture the introspective moment just before a dancer plunges into the brightly lit illusion of the stage. In his chamber ballets, which, until now, have been created outside the walls of his home company, he eschews geometric pattern and the hierarchy of soloists, demi-soloists and corps. He combines a natural classicism — crisp footwork and crystalline shapes — with awkward movements that go against the classical grain: bent lines, jabbing arms, casually held poses. His pas de deux have an eroticism born out of impermanence: a touch, a glance, a mix of fear and tenderness. Mr. Schumacher, 27, has been making dances for five years. After creating a short quintet for trainees of the Atlanta Ballet, where he studied before entering the School of American Ballet, he founded the ensemble Satellite Ballet with a visual artist and poet, Kevin Draper. The dancers were his City Ballet colleagues. The model was unusual. Instead of grabbing a dancer or two, choosing a favorite piece of music and going off to create a work, he developed complex scenarios based on Mr. Draper’s surrealistic poetry. The effect was intriguing, but Over time, Mr. Schumacher has The seed of “All That We See,” a new ballet that will be performed by BalletCollective on Another area of interest is the use of music by living composers. The piece he has chosen for his City Ballet commission, The dance’s structure reflects the dynamic of the musical conversation; gestures ricochet, are taken up by two or three dancers, and disappear, only to return later. The ballet’s youthful vibe will be accentuated by the costume designs, tailored prep-school uniforms by Thom Browne. (The City Ballet gala has a Two dancers in the piece, David Prottas and Claire Kretzschmar, are also on the roster of BalletCollective. Another two, Ashley Bouder and Mr. Veyette, are among City Ballet’s most dynamic performers. To capitalize on this, Mr. Schumacher, usually reticent about displaying obvious virtuosity, has slipped in a few showstopping moves. Ms. Bouder, in particular, has been given a section of fast small jumps and whipping turns that push her just about as far as she can go. If Mr. Schumacher seems surprisingly poised for someone who is about have his choreographic debut at one of the world’s top ballet companies, it is in part because he has worked so hard for it. He has put on entire seasons for BalletCollective on his own, courted donors, calculated budgets. In 2012, he was invited to create his first work for City Ballet’s dance laboratory, the “Nothing has been handed to him,” said Ashley Laracey, a fellow City Ballet dancer whom Mr. Schumacher married this summer. She is a founding member of BalletCollective and part of a small circle of colleagues whose opinions he seeks out. “I’m not doing this so people think I’m a genius,” he said during an