Crystal
Pite

Benois de la Danse laureate

Benois de la Danse nominee

Born and raised on the Canadian West Coast, choreographer and performer Crystal Pite is a former company member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt. Crystal's choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia. Since then, she has created works for Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballet Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal (Resident Choreographer, 2001-2004), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, and several independent dance artists; most recently Louise Lecavalier. Crystal is Associate Choreographer of Netherlands Dans Theater and Associate Dance Artist of National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Under the direction of Crystal Pite, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM has been resident company at Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt since spring 2010. The residency is made possible by Kulturfonds Frankfurt Rhein Main.

Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM's performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. Kidd Pivot's distinct choreographic language — a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation — is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention.

Crystal Pite has collaborated with celebrated dance artists, theatre companies and filmmakers in Canada, Europe, and the United States. Since 2001, Crystal Pite she has created and performed under the banner of her own company. Her work and her company have been recognized with numerous awards and commissions. Kidd Pivot tours extensively around the world with productions that include Dark Matters (2009), Fault (2008), Lost Action (2006), Uncollected Work (2002) and Double Story (2004), created with Richard Siegal.

Kidd Pivot is the recipient of the 2006 Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award. Crystal is the recipient of the Banff Centre's Clifford E. Lee Award (1995), the Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award (2004), and the Isadora Award (2005). Her work has received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards (2009), and a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award (2006). She is the recipient of the 2008 Governor General of Canada's Performing Arts Award, Mentorship Program,, the 2011 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, the inaugural Lola Award in 2012, and the Canada Council’s 2012 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. Most recently, she received a Laurence Olivier Award (2015) for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.Her work Plot Point was nominated for the Benois de la Dance award in Moscow (2011). Benois de la Danse laureate (2017).

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