Kidd Pivot Returns to Danse Danse With ASSEMBLY HALL

Following the success of Revisor (2019) and Betroffenheit (2018), Kidd Pivot–the company of acclaimed choreographer Crystal Pite–returns to Danse Danse with the highly anticipated Assembly Hall. Crystal Pite's new dance-theater creation will be presented from November 29 to December 2, 2023 at Place des Arts's Théâtre Maisonneuve.

Assembly Hall features a group of medieval re-enactors gathered in the local community hall for their annual general meeting. The event they are organizing has fallen on hard times, and unless something drastic happens, this venerable order will be facing dissolution. As the meeting progresses, the line between reality and re-enactment begins to blur, ancient forces are awoken, and it soon becomes clear that there is much more at stake than a mock medieval tournament.

Situated somewhere between community hall and mythical realm, Assembly Hall brings together a series of contradictions: fantasy and reality, dream and awakening, community and solitude, life and death all intermingle in this general assembly and the fantastical world bubbling beneath its surface. Through this juxtaposition of different universes and genres, the work reveals a provocative reflection on our need to gather and belong, and the purpose it gives our lives.

Fueled by a fascination with history and the role of language as driving forces, the works of Crystal Pite and Kidd Pivot's resident playwright Jonathon Young are renowned for their wit and ingenuity, and travel around the world. With Assembly Hall, this fourth collaboration between Pite and Young presents an equally radical hybridization of contemporary dance and theater.

Starting from a script written by Young, the lines are recorded by actors and then reconstructed and re-edited by the eight performers on stage who, through Pite's complex and precise choreography, embody these juxtapositions of re-enactment and reality with their movement that is both fluid and abrupt. Under Pite's artistic direction, contemporary dance meets medieval battle scenes, a haunting soundtrack punctuated by the clashing of swords, a rich scenography that blends the fantastic with the mundane, and a healthy dose of humour and feeling to create carefully staged tableaux, just as a medieval re-enactor might recreate a great battle.

About Crystal Pite

In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created more than 50 works for dance companies in Canada and around the world. She is the founding artistic director of the Vancouver-based company Kidd Pivot, world-renowned for daring hybrids of dance and theater.

She was born in Terrace, BC, and grew up in Victoria. She began her dance career at Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt. She made her choreographic debut in 1990 at Ballet BC, and since then has created works for such prominent companies as The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballets Jazz Montréal, and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, Associate Dance Artist of Canada's National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist of Sadler's Wells in London.

Crystal Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada. Her other awards and honours include the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics' Circle Dance Awards, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.

About Jonathon Young

Canadian theatre artist Jonathon Young is playwright-in-residence at Kidd Pivot and a core artist of Electric Company Theatre, where he has created and performed in over 20 original productions including: Tear the Curtain!, No Exit (a re-working of Jean-Paul Sartre's play) and Studies in Motion (Vancouver Playhouse, Edmonton Citadel, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage). In addition, he has worked across Canada as a freelance actor. Some recent projects include: All But Gone (Necessary Angel, Toronto), The Waiting Room (Arts Club Theatre, Vancouver), The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary), and Hamlet (Bard on the Beach Festival, Vancouver). Jonathon Young has collaborated with Crystal Pite on two projects for Nederlands Dance Theatre: Parade and The Statement, which was performed at New York City Centre in November 2016.

Jonathon Young is a recipient of the UK National Dance Award and several Jessie Richardson Awards for acting and writing.

About Kidd Pivot

Founded in 2002, Kidd Pivot strives to distill and translate universal questions into its distinct choreographic language– a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation –and into artworks that connect us to profound and essential parts of our humanity.

Known around the world for their innovative hybrids of dance and theatre, Kidd Pivot's creations are assembled with wit and invention thanks to choreographer and artistic director Crystal Pite's bold and original vision. Kidd Pivot tours internationally with critically acclaimed works. Since 2015, Kidd Pivot has measured its touring carbon footprint and offset over 1000 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), enabling them to be one of the first carbon neutral touring dance companies.

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