Leaping into Summer
By Tara Kelly

Troy Schumacher, founder and creative director of BalletCollective, remembers when he and his wife, Ashley Laracey, first came to Millbrook, one summer more than 14 years ago, to visit friends. 

“We fell in love with the landscape, and the community here.” 

Both dance with New York City Ballet. Its season ends in May, leaving the dancers free to explore other opportunities in summer. 

Schumacher was beginning to choreograph, and he wanted to work with composers and artists to create a new kind of ballet. “BalletCollective is the word I coined to describe this close collaborative process.”

Local board members arranged for BalletCollective to spend a couple of weeks using the rehearsal rooms of the Millbrook School. As a thank you for the community support, Schumacher performed a work-in-progress recital. “We weren’t sure people were going to get off their horses and come watch ballet,” he says. But they did. Enthusiastically. And a tradition was born.

This July is the tenth year BalletCollective will be in residence in Millbrook. Each year the productions have become more expansive, and the audiences have grown. BalletCollective will rehearse at Dutchess Day School, and hold performances at Millbrook School on July 27 and 28. They will also offer educational events at Wethersfield in Amenia, and in Poughkeepsie. For more information and tickets go to their website.—balletcollective.com