Connor Schumacher
Connor Schumacher is a Dance Artist based in Rotterdam, NL. The artistic director of ARK/Connor Schumacher, he is also an associate artist by Dansateliers Rotterdam. He makes Social Choreographic works for Theater, Museums, Festivals, and Clubs. All activities are situated in different and overlapping contexts, where the higher goal is to get people moving, physically and mentally.
He has participated in several Creative Europe and Eurasmus+ dance research projects including Empowering Dance 2018-20 and Empowering Dance 2 (2021-23) on the essential soft skills people develop when they participate in dance; and Dancing Museums
(2015-2017) placing his practicing in museums such as the National Gallery in London, Gemäldegalerie in Vienna, Louvre Museum in France and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. This led to a long-standing collaboration between Boijmans and Connor and his performative alter ego The Fool being commissioned or invited to: Groninger Museum, Rijks Museum, Stedlijk Museum Amsterdam and Het Schip Museum.
Connor is touring ClubINC (2023) in collaboration with the Inclusive theater group Theater Babel Rotterdam. In the seasons 2019-20-21 Funny Soft Happy & The Opposite was extremely well received and he is also known for Pilot PC (2020) Threesome (2019) and his new club concept Physical Therapy (2023); a sober morning rave as an ecstatic form of guided group exercise.
In 2019, he won the Prize of the Dutch Dance Days. In 2022 he was nominated for the Gieskes Strijbis Podium Prize due to his unique research into a new form of interaction with the public and the development of soft skills.
The research is in: Society would be better if we danced every day.
Connor Schumacher @ DAI: