Crystal Pite

Photo: Michael Slobodian

Canadian choreographer and performer Crystal Pite (Vancouver, 1970) is associate choreographer with NDT since 2008 for which she created among which: Pilot X (2005), The Second Person (2007), Frontier (2008), Plot Point (2010, nominated for the prestigious Benois de La Dance award), Solo Echo (2012), Parade (2013), In the Event (2015), The Statement (2016), Partita for 8 Dancers (2018), Kunstkamer (2019) and Figures in Extinction [1.0] (2022) in collaboration with Simon McBurney, Artistic Director of Complicité, which was awarded with the Dutch Zwaan for best Dance Production in 2022. Crystal Pite worked with the NDT 2 dancers for the first time in 2023 for her work Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue. In 2024, Crystal Pite cocreated with Simon McBurney for the second time for Figures in Extinction [2.0] – but then you come to the humans. In February 2025, the third part will premiere in Manchester and then goes on to tour in the Netherlands.

In 2002 Pite founded Kidd Pivot, her own company in Vancouver.

Pite’s professional choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia. Since then, she has created over 50 works for companies such as The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Resident Choreographer, 2001-2004), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Ballet British Columbia. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage. Pite is an Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, London.

In 2002, Pite formed her own company Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. Kidd Pivot tours nationally and internationally, performing works such as Dark Matters and Lost Action. Kidd Pivot’s residency at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt (2010-2012) provided Pite the opportunity to create and tour The You Show and The Tempest Replica.

Crystal Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada. Her other awards and honours include the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.

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