CRYSTAL PITE
When I make a work, there is conflict at the meta-level – within the very subject and structure of the choreography – and at the micro-level – within the body. A vital tension is created when contrasting ideas are set against each other, or through conflicting physical tasks that create states of torque and exertion. It’s not a question of balance. I’m looking for the energy created by tension. The tension between rigour and recklessness, for example, or the need for order set against the need for chaos. The need to respect traditional ways and the need to subvert them. The tension between set choreography and improvisation is a paradigm for all this. In the former there is the pursuit of mastering something that is repeatable, refine-able. As a dancer, I plunge into choreography with an agenda, with the intention to execute something that has an ideal. Pre-determined, deliberate; it comes with instructions. I call upon my training, my experience, my entire dance knowledge. I call upon the history I already have with that particular phrase of movement – countless variations of failures and saves. Striving to achieve the ideals of a piece of choreography enables growth. In other words: practice. Improvisation also requires practice – the ultimate practice of presence and connection. Unlike set choreography, there is nothing up ahead that is expected. As for failure, losing balance is a reason to release into a new idea, rather than a reason to fight for an existing one. Successful improv is subjective, elusive… but I strive for improvisations that are resonant, essential and true. Both choreography and improvisation should look like the dancing is being discovered in the very moment of delivery.
I get nervous when I try to “achieve” set choreography, so it helps if I think of the choreography as an improvisation with really, really tight parameters. This little shift in my thinking can sometimes help me negotiate my fear. On a good day, dancing is a ride, with an enlivening tension between instinct and intellect, and a heightened sense of the present moment. I like to think of my body as my location: when I dance, I am profoundly engaged in being there. Crystal Pite has created works for Netherlands Dance Theatre, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Ballet British Columbia and the National Ballet of Canada, among others. She is a former dancer with Ballet BC and Ballett Frankfurt. In 2001, she formed Kidd Pivot, and continues to create and perform internationally in her own work. 10