Crystal Pite

Dance Magazine, May, 2008 by Emily Macel

The Canadian choreographer and dancer Crystal Pite is cropping up everywhere these days. She has set her lush, lingering movements on an impressive list of international companies, including Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet British Columbia, and the Alberta Ballet, among others. She is currently creating a new piece for her Vancouver-based company, Kidd Pivot, that will premiere in June at the Canada Dance Festival in Vancouver. Emily Macel talked to Pite in February while she was creating a piece for Cullberg Ballet that premiered April 11.

Tell me about your dance background and training. I started at 4 with ballet and tap. Over the years I added jazz and modern and musical theater. Ballet was always the default, but all of that other training kept me moving and thinking and still affects the way I dance and choreograph now. I trained in Victoria, went to normal high school, and then got a job with Ballet British Columbia at 17. I danced there for eight years, then went to Ballett Frankfurt for five more. In 2001 I moved back to Canada and started Kidd Pivot.

Who were your mentors and dance inspirations when you were growing up? My main teachers were two very creative and generous women--Maureen Eastick and Wendy Green--who encouraged me to choreograph and improvise from a very early age. I think that being given the opportunity to think of myself as a dancemaker as well as a dancer has had a profound effect on the way I've experienced the dance world.

In January, I saw your Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. It was beautiful and haunting; it seemed to have a lot to do with oppositional pulls. Tell me about the inspiration behind that piece. The Cedar Lake piece was like an excavation. The first task that I set for myself was to make 10 duets using five dancers. I focused on the dancers themselves, following their strengths and their impulses. We worked on physical qualities and connections that interested me. After creating the choreography, I searched within it for images that specifically evoked rescue. There were many of them. I chose one image of rescue in each of the 10 duets, and suspended it for a moment, framed it with stillness. It was like rescuing images of rescue from the choreography. It's a beautiful word--rescue--it evokes a whole story in a single word.

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Do you prefer to create solos, duets, or group work? Solos are hard. For me, the things that make a performance compelling usually have to do with some kind of conflict. It's hard to portray conflict in a solo without doing all those cliche angsty moves--like clenched fists and lots of falling down. Duets are hard for me too because partnering is not my strong point. I made Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue partly as a way to confront that. Group work is really intense because there are so many people in the room and you have to be a good leader. You have to be organized and decisive and clear. But really, I love creating with any number or combination of people. Except trios. No trios.

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How do you bring your ballet background to your modern and contemporary choreography? Ballet is on me like a coating. Even if I don't intend to integrate it into my choreography, it's there. Sometimes I'm grateful for its presence in my work--for certain kinds of articulation or architecture--and sometimes I wish I could just wash it off.

Do you feel you are representing women choreographers in Canada? I'm really hoping that the time is past where we have to use the word "woman" as an adjective when we speak about any art form.

Do you have a different process for creating for your own company, Kidd Pivot, versus setting work on an outside company? I have a longer history with the people that I work with in the context of Kidd Pivot. There's a deeper level of understanding and trust that is afforded by time. I'm a dancer with Kidd Pivot too, so my relationship to both the process and the performers is different. I feel more like a colleague than an authority, which I prefer.

Can you tell me about your premiere at the Canada Dance Festival next month? I'm presenting a series of short pieces: two solos and one duet, and one group piece--four completely different worlds. My longtime collaborator Owen Belton is creating the music. The dancers are Anne Plamondon, Peter Chu, and myself. I'm excited to have Anne and Peter dancing in these works. They are both unbelievably talented, inspiring artists and I'm savoring every minute of my time with them.