MICHAEL SCHUMACHER is a performing artist with roots in classical and modern dance. He has been a member of several groundbreaking companies, including Ballet Frankfurt, Twyla Tharp Dance, the Feld Ballet, and the Pretty Ugly Dance Company, and continues to perform with Magpie Music Dance Company. As a soloist, he has been featured in productions of Cora Bos-Kroese, Dana Caspersen, Anouk van Dijk, Mark Haim, Chico Katsube, and Paul Selwyn Norton. A collaborative figure in the productions of Peter Sellars, Schumacher has appeared in Bible Pieces, Peony Pavilion, El Niño, Bach Cantatas, and La Passion de Simone.

Working as dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Schumacher has developed a unique approach to the discipline of improvisation. Music is a fundamental element of his process, and he has collaborated with many pioneering musicians, including singers Dawn Upshaw and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, percussionist Han Bennink, and cellist and composer Alex Waterman, with whom he has collaborated on several occasions — most recently in Dance Out!, produced by the Joyce Theater and the City Parks Foundation in July 2008.

As a choreographer Schumacher has twice collaborated with the dancers of Ballet Frankfurt, creating Splendor Shed (1990) and Blender Head (1994). For the dancers of Netherlands Dance Theater III, he conceived and directed The Moment (2001). Together with Jir?i Kylián and Sabine Kupferberg, Schumacher created Last Touch First (2007) for the Holland Dance Festival. Recently, he collaborated with the dancers of the Dutch National Ballet, creating From Where You’re Sitting Now, which premiered at the Holland Festival in June 2008.

Michael Schumacher began dancing in musical theater productions in his hometown of Lewiston, Idaho. After moving to New York he received a B.F.A. in dance from the Juilliard School. He currently resides in Amsterdam and conducts workshops in movement analysis and improvisation worldwide.