Crystal Pite Premiere at Paris Opéra Ballet

BC native, choreographer Crystal Pite, premieres her new work for the Paris Opéra Ballet at the iconic Palais Garnier, from October 25 (pre-opening) to November 23, 2019.

Pite’s professional choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia. Since then, she has created over 40 works for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Resident Choreographer, 2001-2004), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, and Louise Lecavalier/Fou Glorieux. She has also collaborated with Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre and Quebec’s Robert Lepage. Crystal is an Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, London.

In 2002, she formed her own company Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. (Caulfield School of Dance Principal Cori Caulfield was the first dancer Pite employed for Kidd Pivot and toured internationally in duets Pite created for herself and Caulfield for 6 years.)

More recently, Kidd Pivot premiered Betroffenheit, a co-creation with Vancouver playwright and actor Jonathon Young of Electric Company Theatre in 2016. It went on to tour the globe. Playing at London’s Sadler’s Wells, it earned one of Britain’s esteemed Olivier awards. Britain’s The Guardian newspaper has ranked Kidd Pivot and the Electric Company’s Betroffenheit as the number-one dance production of the 21st century so far. In a profile accompanying the list, The Guardian traced Pite’s “genius” and said, “Her work feels undeniably human, even when it veers into experimental territory.” Pite and Young’s newest work, Revisor, which premiered earlier this year in Vancouver in a DanceHouse presentation, tours France and the Netherlands next year.

The Seasons’ Canon, Pite’s first creation for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 2016, was on the bill again at the Palais Garnier for the 2017-18 season. After the unanimous acclaim of The Seasons’ Canon, Pite is reuniting with the dancers of the Paris Opéra Ballet for a series of sixty‑minute performances divided up into as many choreographed sequences. Born in Canada and trained at the Frankfurt Ballet, the choreographer is steeped in the language of Forsythe, Kylián and Mats Ek. Infusing each of her choreographies with an exuberantly communicative emotional charge, she calls on her dancers to move beyond their limits. Her impassioned dance possesses an attention to detail that propels its performers into the frenetic cadenza of total performance.