page_title: Crystal Pite
section_title: Return to Frankfurt
hierarchical_section_title: Crystal Pite / Return to Frankfurt
caption_attribution_description: Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main
context_page_description: Crystal Pite is a Canadian choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe. After leaving Ballett Frankfurt she became the resident choreographer of Montreal company Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010. In 2002 she formed her own company called Kidd Pivot, which produced her original works Uncollected Work, Double Story, Lost Action, Dark Matters, The You Show, The Tempest Replica, Betroffenheit, and Revisor to date. Throughout her career she has been commissioned by many international dance companies to create new pieces, including The Second Person for Netherlands Dans Theater and Emergence for the National Ballet of Canada, the latter of which was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
  In 2010, Kidd Pivot became the resident dance company of the German theatre Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and for the next three years Pite premiered her work in Frankfurt, Germany.
context_section_description: In 2010, Kidd Pivot signed a two-year deal (which was later extended to three years) to become the resident dance company of Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt. As part of the deal, the company changed their name to Kidd Pivot Frankfort RM and premiered new choreography by Pite at the theatre house. This resulted in Pite splitting her time between Frankfurt and her hometown of Vancouver. Kidd Pivot also increased their touring schedule during this time as the company was invited to perform in various countries. Also in 2010, Pite chose to stop performing in her own work. Pite worried that this decision might take the joy out of choreographing but later said; "I have more knowledge and understanding of certain things, but less ability in my body... So it's an interesting pull in two directions there. What I do have are incredible people around me. I have incredible dancers — I dance through them."
  Among her first choreography with the renamed company was The You Show, which explored different conflicts that couples may have with each other. The show was divided into four duets. The first piece A Picture of You Falling was the only section that was remounted from a previous work. It explored the relationship between two people trying to connect and consistently missing each other. Throughout the piece a voice-over hinted at previous events between the two dancers. The second dance, The Other You, featured two visually similar performers dressed in matching suits that dancing as if they were physically connected. The third section was called Das Glashaus and featured an original score that sounded like broken glass. A Picture of You Flying was the final section where Pite used humour to complement the more serious nature of the previous works. It was a piece about a superhero who struggled in a relationship with his girlfriend. Ensemble members of Kidd Pivot performed in this piece as various superheroes or villains.
  In 2011, Pite premiered Tempest Replica. At first she explored film noir movies but felt these stories did not have enough humanity or spirituality. When she read The Tempest she was inspired to recreate the shipwreck at the beginning of the play. In the first half of the show Prospero was the only dancer dressed in street clothes while the other dancers dressed in grey clothing and face masks. Prospero manipulated the other dancers as if they were robots. In the second half all of the dancers are dressed in street clothes and Prospero danced a duet or trio with each character, showcasing his relationship with them. Throughout the piece Pite projected the act and scene number from the original play with a short scene description to help the audience understand the plot. At dramatic moments she also projected the corresponding line from The Tempest. Pite used puppets and shadows to help explain the plot, creating a play-within-a-play feeling.
caption: The Künstlerhaus Mousonturm premiered Pite's original choreography from 2010 to 2012.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 40", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:08:07 13:09:31", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5389", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:08:07 13:09:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:08:07 13:09:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "245/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1704", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2272", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2272", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1704", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2142", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "71000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "71000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}