Crystal Pite

Canadian choreographer and performer Crystal Pite (born 1970) has created works for the Cullberg Ballet, Netherlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Resident Choreographer 2001–04), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen Canada, and several independent dance artists; most recently Louise Lecavalier.

Biography

A former member of Ballet British Columbia and Ballett Frankfurt (where she was a student of William Forsythe), Pite is currently the associate choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater and associate dance artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre. In 1996, Pite joined Ballet Frankfurt in Germany under the directorship of William Forsythe, performing world wide in works such as Eidos: Telos, The Loss of Small Detail, and Endless House. She was involved in the creation of Forsythe's CD-ROM, Improvisation Technologies, and has participated as both performer and creator in Forsythe's work.

Pite's choreogpraphic debut first appeared in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia. In 2001, she formed her own company, Kidd Pivot, which tours nationally and internationally and has been resident company at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt since spring 2010. Pite's dancers express her choreography through more than once style of movement. Her company performs such acclaimed works as Dark Matters (2009), and Lost Action (2006). Critic Heather Wisner states: "Kidd Pivot's dancers blended classical contemporary, and hip hop with exquisite control, and their rendition of Pite's work etched itself into the space as well as the memory" in their performance of Lost Action.^[1] They also perform less known pieces such as Uncollected Work (2002), Double Story (2004), and Fault (2008). The newest work being performed as of 2011 by Pite and her company, is a dance piece based on motifs from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Awards

• 1995 Banff Centre's Clifford E. Lee Award^[2]
• 2004 Paul D. Fleck Fellowship in the Arts from The Banff Centre^[3]
• 2004 Bonnie Bild North American Choreography Award^[4]
• 2005 Isadora Award^[5]
• 2006 Alcan Performing Arts Award – Dance, administered by the Vancouver East Cultural Centre^[3]
• 2006 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award^[6]
• 2006 Kidd Pivot, recipient of the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award^[7]
• 2008 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Mentorship Award^[8]
• 2009 Work has received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards^[9]
• 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award^[10]

References

1. ^ Wisner, Heather. “Kidd Pivot.” Dance Magazine 83.2 (2009)
2. ^ http://kiddpivot.org/company/company
3. ^ ^{a b} http://artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=128
4. ^ http://kiddpivot.org/company/company
5. ^ http://kiddpivot.org/company/company
6. ^ http://kiddpivot.org/company/company
7. ^ http://kiddpivot.org/company/company
8. ^ http://www.bcscene.ca/en/events/eventDetails.asp?eID=335
9. ^ http://kiddpivot.org/company/company
10. ^ http://www.jacobspillow.org/about/jacobs-pillow-dance-award.php

Bibliography

• "Crystal Pite." http://www.banffcentre.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct 2011. <http://www.banffcentre.ca/faculty/faculty-member/3150/crystal-pite.mvc>.
• Shauna, Hey. "Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM." http://kiddpivot.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct 2011. <http://kiddpivot.org/>.
• Wisner, Heather. “Kidd Pivot.” Dance Magazine 83.2 (2009): 96-97. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. Oct 17. 2011.

Further reading

External links

• Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet - Crystal Pite
• Meet the Artists - ArtsAlive.ca Dance
• Crystal Pite - BC Scene
• Kidd Pivot - News
• Archive footage of Kidd Pivot performing Pite's "Dark Matters" at Jacob's Pillow in July, 2011

Persondata
Name	Pite, Crystal
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Date of birth	1970
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