Crystal Pite Biography

Crystal Pite began her dance career in 1988, with Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver. During her eight years as a dancer there, she performed in the works of many choreographers, including John Alleyne, Serge Bennathan, and William Forsythe.

Pite's choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia's first choreographic workshop. Since then, she has created new works for Ballett Frankfurt, Les Ballets jazz de Montreal, Ballet British Columbia, the Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, and several independent dance artists. In 1995 she was presented with the Clifford E. Lee Award for Choreography and was choreographer in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has choreographed and performed in several films, including the feature film One Night Stand, directed by Mike Figgis.

In 1996, Pite joined Ballett Frankfurt in Germany under the directorship of William Forsythe, performing world-wide in works such as Eidos:Telos, The Loss of Small Detail, Workwithinwork and Endless House. She was involved in the creation of Forsythe's CD-ROM, Improvisation Technologies, and has participated as both creator and performer in Forsythe's recent works. Ballett Frankfurt produced and presented two of Pite's creations; Excerpts From a Future Work (2000), and the duet Tales: New and Abridged (2001) – a work she performed with Vancouver's Cori Caulfield.

In 2001, Pite returned to Canada where she formed her own company, Kidd Pivot, and continues to choreograph and perform in her own work. Kidd Pivot's inaugural production, Uncollected Work, premiered in Germany in May 2003, toured across Canada in the fall of that year, and opened the 2003 Festival international de nouvelle danse in Montreal.