Mountain Vision: Dark Matters by Crystal Pite (Theatrical Video) *Creator & created in existential drama*

▲▲▲

Creator and Created in Dark Matters

Dark Matters Crystal Pite's story of a puppeteer creating a conscious puppet, the subsequent battle of wills resulting in violence, and finally reconciliation, reverberates at several levels including parent and child, God and humanity, humanity and artificial intelligence. An existential theme pervades with a transhumanist, transbiological interpretation possible. On a deeper level even the puppeteer, the creator, is being manipulated and is a sentient puppet, a creation, himself. Ultimately, humanity's worldviews are challenged with the idea that perceived reality is a thin veneer with a vast dark matter, unknown and uncertain, beneath the surface. This is the cosmological theme and hence the name of the story, Dark Matters.

Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM / Crystal Pite | Dark Matters Canadian dancer/choreographer Crystal Pite and her company break out in the United States with her newest piece, Dark Matters. The title refers both to astrophysics and human impulses, exploring the idea of undetectable forces at work in cosmology. This stunning theatrical hybrid of puppetry and dance opens as a sinister fable in which an artist creates a puppet with fateful results, and culminates in electrifying contemporary ballet. Pite's choreographic language—edgy, gorgeously fluid—shows the influence of years dancing with William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt, but is seasoned with her own humor, intelligence, and intensity.

About Dark Matters
Kidd Pivot

Dark Matters is the terra incognita of our day. Comprising roughly 96 percent of the observable universe, dark matter affects the speed, structure and evolution of galaxies, yet its nature remains a mystery. This potent, affecting darkness is paralleled in Crystal Pite’s creation, Dark Matters. Emerging out of Pite’s curiosity and fascination with the unseen forces at work on mind and body, Dark Matters features six extraordinary dancers, and a stunning original score from long-time collaborator Owen Belton.

Dark Matters is structured into two distinct acts: Act One portrays the tension between creation and destruction through a decidedly theatrical fable; the players are manipulated by anonymous puppeteers who drive the narrative yet subvert its artifice. Act Two is pure dance, with choreography that aspires to the impossible purity and grace of a marionette, while grappling with the essential question of free will, and the conflict inherent in manipulation. The revelations of Act One inform the way we view the dancing in Act Two.

With dark matter beautifully embodied in the shadowy puppeteer, is a haunting portrait of the unknown, a performance that pulls itself apart in an attempt to discover what it’s made of.

Dark Matters is a co-production of Dance Victoria, the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and L’Agora de la danse (Montreal).

About Crystal Pite

National Arts Centre

Crystal Pite is known as one of the most innovative and exciting choreographers working in Canada at the turn of the millennium. She joined Ballet British Columbia when she was seventeen and performed with the company for eight years. Unlike most professional ballet dancers, Pite did not attend a professional school attached to a company. Instead, she studied at a private studio in Victoria, British Columbia, under the tutelage of Maureen Eastick and Wendy Green. While performing with Ballet British Columbia, Pite honed her choreographic skills. Between the Bliss and Me (1989), a work she created during the company's first choreographic workshop, was added to Ballet British Columbia's repertoire. In 1995, she became the youngest artist to receive the prestigious Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award.

She left Ballet British Columbia in 1996 to join Frankfurt Ballet under the direction of William Forsythe. She returned to Canada in 2001, and was appointed resident choreographer for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (later renamed bjm_danse) for a three-year contract. During this period, she created the critically acclaimed work The Stolen Show (2004). Pite also started her own Vancouver-based company, Kidd Pivot.

Pite's choreography is noted for its quirky humour and fearless technique. Several of her works have reflected a creative engagement with other art forms, particularly literature. (2002) was inspired by the book, The Writing Life by Annie Dillard.

In 2004, Pite received a Paul D. Fleck Fellowship in the Arts from The Banff Centre. She was also awarded the Alcan Performing Arts Award – Dance for 2006, administered by the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.