BalletCollective Unveils 15th Anniversary Season, Including TRANSLATION Revival
The season features three world premieres at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, honoring Claire and Chris Mann.
BalletCollective has unveiled 15th Anniversary Season, focused on the long life of new work. Rather than marking the anniversary with a retrospective, BalletCollective is using the season to show how an artist-led organization can sustain dance across multiple forms: an extended New York revival, a long-term creative residency, three new commissions, a field-facing report, and a major public gathering of supporters.
The 2026 season opens with a four-week run of Translation, BalletCollective's acclaimed contemporary ballet installation, newly expanded inside The Culture Club at 530 West 27th Street, a Chelsea venue long associated with immersive performance. The year continues with BalletCollective's twelfth summer residency in Millbrook, NY; three world premiere ballets at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine; the 2026 Gala honoring Claire and Chris Mann; and the publication of findings from the inaugural Creators in Dance Summit, a closed-door convening of choreographers whose anonymized report will offer a public record of what dance-makers are thinking, questioning, and needing today.
"Fifteen years in, the question is no longer whether BalletCollective can make ambitious work," said Troy Schumacher, Artistic and Executive Director of BalletCollective. "The question is how an organization like ours can sustain it, by giving works longer lives, giving artists deeper processes, and creating spaces where the field can speak honestly about what it needs. This season brings those commitments together: Translation returns at a scale we always imagined for it, Millbrook continues as the spine of how we develop new work, the Fall Season brings three new commissions into the Cathedral, and the Creators in Dance Summit report extends our role as a convener. It is a season about depth, continuity, and responsibility."
SUMMER SEASON: TRANSLATION, JUNE 4 - 28
For the first time in its history, BalletCollective will present an extended four-week run of a single contemporary work. Translation, an enveloping ballet installation originally commissioned in 2017, returns in an expanded fifty-five minute version inside a Chelsea space whose history with immersive performance has shaped how a generation of audiences encounters live work.
Created by Troy Schumacher with composer Julianna Barwick (Pitchfork "Best New Music," collaborator with Sigur Rós's Jónsi, Mary Lattimore, and Nosaj Thing) and Chilean installation artist Sergio Mora-Diaz, in collaboration with speculative fiction writer Ken Liu, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, Translation unfolds as a meditative environment of light, sound, and movement. Audiences are seated in front of the installation as silhouetted dancers drift through shifting planes of projected light. The 2026 revival is presented in partnership with the Culture Club.
Translation has been described as "breathtaking" (The Huffington Post), "an infinite landscape of moving light and shadow" (ArtsATL), and as a work where "the whole thing was magical" (Dance Tabs).
The cast includes Mizuho Kappa, Thomas Hogan, Ella Titus, Alexsander Swader, Arayah Lyte, and Georgia Greene.
Thursday, June 4 - Sunday, June 28, 2026 - SUMMER SEASON Translation at The Culture Club | 530 West 27th Street, New York, NY | Tickets on sale May 12. Full performance schedule at translationballet.com.
*Full season listing information is below.
CREATORS IN DANCE SUMMIT: WHITE PAPER
On March 29, 2026, BalletCollective convened the inaugural Creators in Dance Summit, a closed-door, peer-to-peer convening of professional choreographers held under a confidentiality structure designed to facilitate candid conversation. Initial findings from the Summit were released through a public-facing panel and reception in April and covered nationally by Dance Magazine and Pointe Magazine.
The full anonymized report, synthesizing both survey data and transcript-grounded findings, will be available May 20, with discussions underway with academic journals to make the report a citable record of where choreographic practice stands at this moment. BalletCollective's role in the report is as convener, not authority.
The Summit will continue as an annual convening, with year-two planning underway alongside expansions into music and other art forms.
MILLBROOK RESIDENCY, JULY 13 - AUGUST 2
BalletCollective returns to the Hudson Valley for its twelfth summer residency in Millbrook, NY. The residency begins with the ballet program July 13 and expands July 19 with the addition of contemporary work by choreographers Shane Urton and Noelle Kayser, both developing pieces for the Fall Season alongside Troy Schumacher.
Joining the cast of Translation in residency will be New York City Ballet dancers Davide Riccardo, Maya Milic, Simeon Neeld, and Keenan Kiefer.
This summer marks the start of a new partnership with Bennett Park in the town of Millbrook, supplementing the long-standing hospitality of the Millbrook community.
MILLBROOK PERFORMANCES, AUGUST 1-2
The residency culminates in two public performances of the new Fall Season works-in-progress at Millbrook School. Complimentary movement classes, choreography demonstrations, and community programming will accompany the performances; a full schedule will be announced in June.
FALL SEASON, NOVEMBER 3 - 5, AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE
BalletCollective's Fall Season returns to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine for three evenings of three world premiere ballets celebrating the organization's 15th Anniversary. Each is created through The BalletCollective Process, the company's signature collaborative model in which a choreographer chooses a composer, the composer chooses a Source Artist, and the three develop the work together over a minimum of eight months.
The 2026 Fall Season brings together choreographers Noelle Kayser, Troy Schumacher, and Shane Urton; composers Julia Kent, Paul Novak, and Phong Tran; poet M. Soledad Caballero; artist Matt Rota; and perfumer Heather Siellaff. Kayser and Urton are the 2026 recipients of BalletCollective's Commission for Developing Choreographers - the second consecutive year the organization has awarded the commission to two choreographers. The commission is awarded annually through an open call, funding a choreographer's full collaboration with a composer and Source Artist through The BalletCollective Process, with residencies in New York and Millbrook culminating in a fully produced world premiere. Full pairings, casting, and program order will be announced this summer.
2026 GALA, NOVEMBER 5, HONORING CLAIRE AND Chris Mann
BalletCollective's 4th Annual Gala will take place Thursday, November 5, 2026, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, honoring longtime supporters Claire and Chris Mann. In an inversion from 2025, performances will be staged in the Crossing and the Gala dinner will take place in the Nave. Performance-only tickets will be offered on Gala night to extend audience reach beyond the Gala guest list.
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