LeadSupporters AMcCordMuseumExhibitionSATURDAY,FEBRUARY22,2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O R5
cclaimed Canadian chore-
ographer Crystal Pite pre-
mieres her new ballet with
the National Ballet of Canada on
Feb. 29. The ballet, titledAngels’
Atlas, is Pite’s first piece for the
company since her break-out bal-
let,Emergence, in 2009. A decade
later, Pite is one of the world’s
most in-demand choreographers,
creating work for ballet compa-
nies internationally and for her
own renowned troupe, Kidd Piv-
ot.
“Five years ago, Karen Kain in-
vited me to come and make an-
other work at the National, so it’s
been some time in the making,”
Pite says, speaking from her
home in Vancouver. Kain, long-
standing artistic director of the
National Ballet, commissioned
Pite’sEmergence, which launched
her onto the international stage.
Emergence, with Pite’s signature
aptitude for moving large ensem-
bles and distinctive choreogra-
phy, is now in the repertory of sev-
eral major ballet companies.
Returning to work with the Na-
tional Ballet, Pite points out how
the company has grown artistical-
ly. “I feel like they’re more skilled
in contemporary movement and
they definitely have more com-
plexity in their bodies than when
I was last here. That’s really posi-
tive and exciting for me.”
The new piece comes on the
heels ofBody and Soul, Pite’s latest
work for the Paris Opera Ballet,
which she says was a “very special
experience.” Pite says her new
work builds on some of the
themes and choreography ex-
plored in Paris, which I take to
mean that this work will look and
feel very much like a “Pite piece” –
organic choreography engi-
neered for large groups, emotion-
al depth, a sense of transcendence- which for Pite fans, is music to
the eyes.
But this is not to say that there
is nothing new. “The impetus for
[the ballet] really came from my
partner, Jay Taylor, who is the set
designer for the project,” Pite
says. “He has been developing a
system that allows him to manip-
ulate reflective light.” Together
with lighting designer Tom Visser,
the pair have devised a new tech-
nique of delivering light to a back-
drop. Pite explains: “It’s
analogue, so it’s made of the sim-
plest materials, and yet it mani-
fests these incredibly complex
images onto the screen that are
rich and painterly.
“It has this quality of con-
trolled chaos, and it looks ethere-
al, like a frontier or a portal. It
looks intelligent and benign and
otherworldly. It really inspires in
me a kind of wonder, because I
know how simple the materials
are.”
Pite’s choreography takes cues
from the lighting design, connect-
ing with the changeful nature of
light. “There’s also something
about the mercurial, ephemeral
way that the light moves that is
very much like dance or very
much like choreography.”
This is what I think makes
Pite’s work compelling, from a
movement and aesthetic point of
view, and why her work transfers
from contemporary dance to the
ballet stage with equal resonance.
Her ability to put “love and death
and the infinite” in one sentence,
or one ballet, is what makes her
work great art. She says, “it’s
about creating the right condi-
tions to glimpse the infinite.”
“Dance itself is ephemeral; it’s
always in a state of disappearing
and impermanent. So, I’m usingdance as a real metaphor for the
impermanence, the temporal, the
temporary nature of our exist-
ence. There is something so beau-
tiful about that and so poignant –
that the dance and the content
are inextricable.”
Musically, the ballet features
two choral pieces together with
an original composition by Pite’s
long-time collaborator, composer
Owen Belton. “[Belton’s] piece is
an electronic portion that pulls
from vocal samples and other
beautiful things like glass and
bells and strings and other things
he’s working with.” The two cho-
ral pieces bookending the workare Tchaikovsky’s liturgical hymn
Hymnofthe Cherubimand a con-
temporary work by American
composer Morten Lauridsen,O
Magnum Mysterium.
Pite’s new work is featured on a
mixed bill with Wayne McGre-
gor’sChroma(2006) andMargue-
rite and Armand, Frederick Ash-
ton’s balletic rendering of Du-
mas’sThe Lady of the Camellias.
Dancing Marguerite, these per-
formances will be principal danc-
er Greta Hodgkinson’s last with
the National Ballet before her re-
tirement from the stage.SpecialtoTheGlobeandMailPiteretærnstotheNationa aetvaeecaeeater
Choreographer,whohasgarneredinternational
acclaimsinceher2009break-outpiece,
saysthecompanyhasgrownartisticallysincethen
PENELOPEFORD
ChoreographerCrystalPitesayshernewballet,Angels’Atlas,buildsonsomeofthethemesandchoreography
sheexploredwiththeParisOperaBallet.KAROLINAKURAS/NATIONALBALLETOFCANADAARTS&BOOKS|