Created by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young, Betroffenheit returns to the Sadler’s Wells stage on 11 & 12 April 2017, following its Olivier Award-nominated UK premiere in spring 2016.
Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Crystal Pite has cemented her place as one of today’s most inventive choreographers. A former dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt, Pite was the youngest person ever to receive the Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award in 1995. She has since gone on to create work for Nederlands Dans Theater, National Ballet of Canada and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.
In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot’s performance work has a distinct choreographic language marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention.
Kidd Pivot made its debut at Sadler’s Wells in 2009, and Pite became the theatre’s 16th Associate Artist in 2013. Her awards include the 2015 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and the 2015 Critics’ Circle Award for Best Modern Choreography. Betroffenheit was recently nominated for Best New Dance Production in the 2017 Olivier Awards.
In March 2017 The Royal Ballet celebrates contemporary ballet with a programme that includes Flight Pattern, a world premiere from Pite alongside works by Christopher Wheeldon and David Dawson.
Jonathon Young is Artistic Director of Electric Company Theatre, one of Canada’s leading theatre companies, which he co-founded in 1996. He has created productions including Tear The Curtain! (a film/theatre hybrid for Arts Club Theatre and Canadian Stage); No Exit (a conceptual re-working of Jean-Paul Sartre’s play performed in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and San Francisco); and Studies In Motion (Vancouver Playhouse, Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, Theatre Calgary, and at Canadian Stage in Toronto).
In addition to his work with Electric Company Theatre, Young also performs as an actor. His recent productions include The Waiting Room (Arts Club Theatre); The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary); Hamlet (Bard on the Beach Festival); This (Canadian Stage) and Boeing Boeing (Arts Club Theatre). He is the recipient of numerous Jessie Richardson awards for acting and writing.
Betroffenheit evokes the state of shock and bewilderment that is all encompassing in the wake of a disaster. Touching on themes of loss, trauma, addiction and recovery, Betroffenheit is a boundary-stretching hybrid of theatre and dance. The piece is co-created by Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre.
You can book your tickets through Sadler’s Wells website.