Crystal Pite (1970-). Canadian dancer, choreographer and director

Born in Canada, Crystal Pite danced professionally with Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. She choreographed from an early age, and in 2002 established her company, Kidd Pivott. Based in Vancouver, the company’s work is defined by the same physical rigour and irreverent wit of many of Pite’s pieces for other dance companies. Betroffenheit, made for the company and seen around the world, was critically acclaimed and was devastatingly effective in its investigation of trauma and addiction. Emergence, made for National Ballet of Canada, used the structure of classicism to examine the nature of insects, in which the audience is invited to think about behaviour within a group or society. Pite has won a huge array of awards, including the Benois de la Dance for 2017’s The Seasons’ Canon for the Paris Opéra Ballet. Crystal Pite is associate choreographer at Nederlands Dans Theater and associate artist at Sadler’s Wells. Her works have entered the repertoire of many companies, including Scottish Ballet and The Royal Ballet. In 2017 she created Flight Path for The Royal Ballet, a work subsequently expanded into the full-length Light of Passage in 2022.