Following sold out performances at Sadler’s Wells last month, the critically acclaimed Betroffenheit, created by Crystal Pite and theatre maker Jonathon Young will be broadcast on BBC4 this Sunday 7 May at 9pm.
A Sadler’s Wells co-production, Betroffenheit is a boundary-stretching hybrid of theatre and dance, co-created by Associate Artist Crystal Pite’s company Kidd Pivot and Jonathon Young’s Electric Company Theatre. Touching on themes of loss, trauma, addiction and recovery in the wake of a disaster, it won the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production at this year’s ceremony, following the Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance award, given to Jonathon Young at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards in January. It returned for two performances at Sadler’s Wells in April, following the success of its UK premiere at the theatre in May 2016.
Sadler’s Wells Artistic Director and Chief Executive Alistair Spalding said: “Crystal Pite’s choreography demonstrates her absolute command of the dance-making territory at the intersection between narrative and abstraction; she is one of the most important dance makers working today. Betroffenheit is an extraordinary and affecting work that I think resonates powerfully with its audiences. It’s fantastic that such a significant, ground-breaking production will have a wider audience through its broadcast on BBC4 this weekend, and also that in closely following BBC Young Dancer, it offers audiences a chance to experience the breadth of dance being made today.”
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, she 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 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and the 2015 Critics’ Circle Award for Best Modern Choreography. Pite created her first work for The Royal Ballet in March 2017.
Jonathon Young is Artistic Director of Electric Company Theatre, one of Canada’s leading theatre companies, which he co-founded in 1996.