BETROFFENHEIT from Kidd Pivot & Electric Company Theatre at The Broad Stage this February

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage present Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre: Betroffenheit choreographed and directed by Crystal Pite and written by Jonathon Young, for three performances only February 14 through 16. The Standard calls Pite, "the most exciting choreographer in the world right now."

This new creation by two of Canada's celebrated companies is a boundary-stretching hybrid of theatre and dance. Betroffenheit is the German word for the shock and bewilderment in the wake of a tragic event.

Jane Deknatel, Director of The Broad Stage said, "The beauty of this piece of dance theater is that it offers insight into how we manage the unthinkable. It's a deeply personal story about how we move through moments of trauma and come out transformed and uplifted on the other side."

The piece was inspired by the tragic death of writer-performer Young's teenage daughter. It starts on a set that resembles an abandoned space; a steel pillar divides the room. Cables attached to fuse boxes are moving - scaling the walls. Lights flash, voices talk, a figure - played by Young himself -- is curled up. In the surreal action to follow, the audience takes a trip through his fractured mind -- full of vaudevillians, clowns and showgirls as this survivor gets caught up in the endless repeating and repeating of the events of grief and suffering.

The Guardian writes, "This beginning sets a high bar - one that it frequently surpasses. The figure in the corner is Young, who performs the protagonist role directly inspired by his own grief. As the other dancers appear - they embody the voices of the protagonist's consciousness, pushing and pulling him through the trauma, the shut-down, the failed attempts at coping (addiction, denial) in mesmerising sequences of growing intensity: tap-dancing, mocking, questioning, at times literally holding him up."

The Evening Standard, The Stage UK, The Telegraph and the Dublin Examiner all gave the production "?????." The Evening Standard said, "This is a piece full of brains, craft and atmosphere. It's dark, in its visual design, its subject matter and its humor...it becomes increasingly powerful and moving at is absorbs you into its world." The Stage UK said Betroffenheit "raises dance-theatre to an entirely new level." The UK Telegraph said, "... an astonishingly ambitious, brilliantly realised, tender-hearted meditation on the nature of bereavement, grief, and the coping strategies of the mind."

Canadian choreographer and performer Crystal Pite is a former company member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot's performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. The company's distinct choreographic language - a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation - is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention.
Tickets are on sale at www.thebroadstage.org or by calling 310.434.3200.

Pite's professional choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia. Since then, she has created over 40 works for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Resident Choreographer, 2001-2004), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, and Louise Lecavalier/Fou Glorieux. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage. Crystal is Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I and Associate Dance Artist of Canada's National Arts Centre. In 2013, Crystal was appointed Associate Artist at Sadler's Wells, London.
Kidd Pivot tours nationally and internationally, performing such highly-demanded and critically acclaimed works as Dark Matters and Lost Action. Kidd Pivot's residency at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt (2010-2012) provided Pite the opportunity to create and tour The You Show and The Tempest Replica. Most recently, the company has premiered Betroffenheit, a co-creation with playwright and actor Jonathon Young of Electric Company Theatre.

Pite is the recipient of the Banff Centre's Clifford E. Lee Award (1995), the Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award (2004), and the Isadora Award (2005). Her work has received several Dora Mavor Moore Awards (2009, 2012), and a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award (2006). She is the recipient of the 2008 Governor General of Canada's Performing Arts Award, Mentorship Program, the 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, the inaugural Lola Award in 2012, and the Canada Council's 2012 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. Most recently, she received a Laurence Olivier Award (2015) for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

Production Team
Choreographed and Directed by: Crystal Pite
Written by: Jonathon Young
Performers: Christopher Hernandez, David Raymond, Cindy Salgado, Jermaine Spivey, Tiffany Tregarthen, and Jonathon Young
Composition and Sound Design: Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani and Meg Roe
Set Design: Jay Gower Taylor
Costume Design: Nancy Bryant
Lighting Design: Tom Visser
Rehearsal Direction: Eric Beauchesne
Additional Choreography: Bryan Arias and Cindy Salgado (salsa), David Raymond (tap)

Prices: Start at $45. (Prices subject to change)
Online: www.thebroadstage.org
Phone: Patron Services at 310.434.3200
In Person: Box office at 1310 11th St. Santa Monica CA 90401 beginning three hours prior to performance.

Photo credit: Wendy D Photography

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