Kidd Pivot facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kidd Pivot |
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Kidd Pivot dancers Jermaine Spivey, Peter Chu, Anne Plamondon, Yannick Matthon, and choreographer Crystal Pite filming Lost Action: Trace in 2010
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| General information | |
| Name | Kidd Pivot |
| Previous names | Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM |
| Year founded | 2002 |
| Location | Vancouver, BC |
| Senior staff | |
| Director | Crystal Pite |
| Assistant Director | Eric Beauchesne |
Kidd Pivot is a modern dance company from Vancouver, Canada. It was started in 2002 by Crystal Pite, who is still its artistic director. The company has eight full-time dancers and often works with guest artists. Kidd Pivot is famous for touring all over the world. They have performed many shows and won several awards for their amazing dance pieces.
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How Kidd Pivot Started
Kidd Pivot was created in 2002 by Crystal Pite, a Canadian dancer and choreographer. A choreographer is someone who creates dance routines. The company's first big show was Uncollected Work in 2003. It featured Crystal Pite and another dancer, Cori Caulfield.
This show had two parts. One part, Farther Out, explored ideas about science fiction. It looked at the excitement of new possibilities and unknown places. The second part, Field: Fiction, was about how artists create their work. It showed how they might even "destroy" parts of it while making it better.
The next show, Double Story (2004), was made with Richard Siegal. This show used text, puppets, and funny masks. It explored how two people in a relationship might see things differently.
Lost Action
In 2006, Kidd Pivot won a big award called the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award. This award helped them create a new show called Lost Action. Seven dancers, including Crystal Pite, performed this piece. It explored important themes like war, love, and loss.
Many people loved Lost Action. A dance critic named Kaija Pepper said it was a "major work of art." Kidd Pivot performed Lost Action at the Sadler's Wells in London. Critics praised Crystal Pite's ability to create amazing movements and show deep feelings. One critic, Luke Jennings, even called it the "revelation of the year" in 2009. In 2011, a short film called Trace was made based on Lost Action.
Dark Matters
Dark Matters first showed in 2009 in Ottawa, Canada. It later came to Vancouver in 2010 for the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. People described Dark Matters as "sinister magic" with "towering shadows" and "menacing puppets."
Crystal Pite was inspired by the idea of dark matter, which is a mysterious force in the universe. She explored how this idea could relate to our bodies and minds. She also said the show was about "loneliness, obsession, and the danger of creation."
In the show, dancer Peter Chu plays a puppet maker. He builds a puppet that starts to move on its own. Other dancers, dressed as hooded figures, control the puppet. Eventually, the puppet destroys its maker. This part of the show makes you think about how what you create can sometimes take over. The show also uses words from a poem by Voltaire called Poem on the Lisbon Disaster.
Working in Frankfurt
From 2010 to 2013, Kidd Pivot had a special partnership with a theatre in Frankfurt, Germany, called Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Because of this, the company was known as Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM for a few years. During this time, they created two new shows: The You Show (2010) and The Tempest Replica (2011).
The You Show
The You Show looked at different kinds of problems that can happen between two people. It was divided into four duet sections. The first part, A Picture of You Falling, was already created before the Frankfurt partnership. It featured dancers Peter Chu and Anne Plamondon. A voice-over described the scene and the dancers' movements.
Another section, The Other You, featured Eric Beauchesne and Jiri Pokorny. They looked very similar and moved in strong, direct ways. Das Glashaus had Cindy Salgado and Yannick Matthon dancing to music made from broken glass. The last part, A Picture of You Flying, was a funny section. Jermaine Spivey and Sandra Marin Garcia played superheroes dealing with everyday relationship issues. The You Show first premiered in Frankfurt and then toured around the world.
The Tempest Replica
Crystal Pite based The Tempest Replica on William Shakespeare's famous play, The Tempest. She used dance to tell the story of a shipwreck from the play. At the start of the show, the character Prospero appears in regular clothes. Other dancers wear grey and large masks, moving like robots controlled by Prospero.
The show also projected scene numbers and lines from Shakespeare's original play. This made it feel like a play within a play. Crystal Pite worked hard on this piece. In 2013, she got a chance to improve The Tempest Replica at Sadler's Wells. The new version premiered in 2014 and won an Olivier Award in 2015.
Working with Jonathan Young
In 2015, Kidd Pivot worked with Canadian actor Jonathon Young for the first time. They created a show called Betroffenheit. The story of Betroffenheit is based on a very sad real-life event that Jonathon Young experienced.
The word Betroffenheit is German and means something like being "shocked, speechless, and traumatized." The show has two acts. In the first act, Jonathon Young is trapped in a room that represents his mind. He repeats phrases he wrote and recorded, like "What happened." Dancers act as distractions and inner thoughts, performing like showgirls or clowns. The set then breaks apart for the second, more powerful act. This show explores feelings of loss, addiction, and sadness. It ends with a message of hope and remembering those who are gone.
Betroffenheit won many awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2017. Jonathon Young also won an award for his performance.
Kidd Pivot and Jonathon Young worked together again for their newest show, Revisor, which premiered in 2019. Revisor is for eight dancers and uses recorded voices from Canadian actors to help tell the story. It is inspired by a book called The Inspector General by Nikolai Gogol.
1Day for the Climate Initiative
Kidd Pivot started a special project in 2015 called "1Day for the Climate." The company and its dancers wanted to help the environment. They realized that traveling around the world for tours creates a lot of carbon pollution.
So, every year, the dancers and staff donate one day's salary. Kidd Pivot then matches that money. All the money goes to projects that help reduce carbon pollution and fight climate change. Kidd Pivot is the only dance company in the world that tours in a way that doesn't add to carbon pollution. Since 2015, they have helped remove over 400 tonnes of CO2 from the air. They support groups like 350.org, The Sierra Club BC, and the David Suzuki Foundation.
Kidd Pivot Shows
- Revisor (2019)
- Betroffenheit (2015)
- The Tempest Replica (2011)
- The You Show (2010)
- Dark Matters (2009)
- Lost Action (2006)
- Double Story (2004)
- Uncollected Works (2003)
Awards and Honors
Kidd Pivot and Crystal Pite have won many awards for their amazing work:
- 2004: Paul D. Fleck Fellowship from The Banff Centre – for Crystal Pite
- 2004: Bonnie Bird North American New Choreography Award – for Crystal Pite
- 2005: Isadora Award for Choreography – for Crystal Pite
- 2006: Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award
- 2006: Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for outstanding choreography
- 2008: Governor General of Canada's Performing Arts Award, Mentorship Program – for Crystal Pite
- 2011: Jacob's Pillow Dance Award – for Crystal Pite
- 2012: Lola Award – for Crystal Pite
- 2012: Canada Council for the Arts' Jacqueline Lemieux Prize – for Crystal Pite
- 2012: Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production (Dark Matters)
- 2015: Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (for The Associates – A Picture of You Falling, The Tempest Replica and Polaris at Sadler's Wells)
- 2016: Georgia Straight Critic's Choice Innovation Award at The Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards (Betroffenheit)
- 2016: Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production (Betroffenheit)
- 2017: Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production (Betroffenheit, Sadler's Wells)
- 2018: Dance Magazine Award Honouree – for Crystal Pite
- 2018: Grand Prix de la Danse de Montreal Laureate 2018 (Betroffenheit, Festival TransAmériques)
- 2019: Chrystal Dance Prize (Revisor, Dance Victoria)
