Crystal Pite began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe.
40 Facts About Crystal Pite
2.
Crystal Pite then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010.
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In 2010, Kidd Pivot became the resident dance company of the German theatre Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, and for the next three years Pite premiered her work in Frankfurt, Germany.
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Crystal Pite has choreographed over 50 works, many of which have been nominated for and won several awards.
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Crystal Pite was born in Terrace, British Columbia on December 15,1970.
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Crystal Pite stated that she began choreographing when she was a toddler, creating choreography to a song called "My Little Red Wagon" at age 3.
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Crystal Pite grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, and started studying tap at age 4, then ballet the following year.
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Crystal Pite then studied dance under Maureen Eastick and Wendy Green.
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Crystal Pite studied at the Banff Centre in summer programs and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
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Crystal Pite joined Ballet BC as a dancer in 1988 and performed with the company for eight years.
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Crystal Pite danced in her first William Forsythe ballet in 1990 called In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated which was her initial introduction to performing his work.
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Crystal Pite was attracted to Forsythe's choreography and wild interpretation of ballet.
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Crystal Pite was hired as a dancer, and in 1996, Pite left Canada for Germany to officially join the company.
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Crystal Pite was excited to develop choreography with Forsythe using his improvisational technologies and in 2000 created Excerpts from a Future Work.
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Crystal Pite was involved in the creation of Forsythe's educational film "William Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye" as one of the four featured dancers.
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Crystal Pite retired from dancing when she was 40 after the birth of her son.
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Crystal Pite returned to British Columbia in 2001 and took up residence in Vancouver.
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Crystal Pite's first show with the company, Short Works: 22, premiered that same year.
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Crystal Pite expanded this piece to be featured in the first part of The Stolen Show, performed by Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal.
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Crystal Pite formed Kidd Pivot in 2002 as an inter-disciplinary performing arts company based in Vancouver.
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Crystal Pite's choreography was called Man Asunder and was created two years after Siegal's section.
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In Lost Action, another work created for Kidd Pivot, Crystal Pite explored the theme of the disappearance of dance.
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In 2006 Crystal Pite returned to Ballet BC to create Arietta.
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Crystal Pite choreographed a solo on Louise Lecavalier called Lone Epic in 2006.
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In 2007 Pite created The Second Person for Netherlands Dans Theater I Pite was inspired by Irish, Scottish and English folk songs.
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In 2008 Crystal Pite became an associate choreographer with NDT and has created nine works for the first company since her first, Pilot X, in 2005.
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In 2009 Crystal Pite created her first two-hour long work with Kidd Pivot, Dark Matters.
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Also in 2009 Crystal Pite created Emergence for the National Ballet of Canada as part of the program Innovation.
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Also in 2010, Crystal Pite chose to stop performing in her own work.
30.
Crystal Pite used puppets and shadows to help explain the plot, creating a play-within-a-play feeling.
31.
Crystal Pite incorporated smaller group sections that were slower and used more control in the movement.
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Crystal Pite won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her work on this piece as well as The Tempest Replica, and A Picture of You Falling in 2015.
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Crystal Pite premiered a new piece at Panamania during the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
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In 2017, the Royal Opera House commissioned a new piece from Crystal Pite called Flight Pattern which premiered in March of that year.
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Crystal Pite set the piece to the Polish composer Henryk Gorecki's 1976 Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.
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Crystal Pite received an Olivier Award in 2018 for "Best New Dance Production" for Flight Pattern.
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Crystal Pite created a new piece in 2019 called Revisor, collaborating with Jonathon Young and her company Kidd Pivot for the second time.
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Crystal Pite's partner is Jay Gower Taylor, who is Kidd Pivot's set designer.
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Crystal Pite's choreography tries to convey emotion to the audience.
40.
Crystal Pite stated that her choreography is usually her attempt to translate an idea she has into movement.