Crystal Pite to Create New Work for 2019/20 National Ballet Season

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, today announced that following several years of planning, she has commissioned acclaimed Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite to create a new work on the company. The ballet will make its world premiere in the 2019/20 season with further details announced at a later date.

Ms. Kain first commissioned Ms. Pite in 2009 to create a new work for Innovation, a programme featuring three world premieres by Canadian choreographers. Ms. Pite's creation Emergence went on to win four Dora Mavor Moore Awards and has become a favourite with National Ballet audiences.

"Crystal is an important voice and I greatly admire her work. I am so pleased to have secured this new commission from her," said Ms. Kain. "Ever since she created her outstanding Emergence for the National Ballet in 2009, Crystal has been in such high demand around the world. I have wanted her to create another work for us for many years and it is now coming to fruition. I am so excited that the dancers of the National Ballet get to collaborate once more with this brilliant artist and I can't wait to see what she creates."

Emergence returns as part of Made in Canada, a programme that features The Four Seasons by James Kudelka and The Dreamers Ever Leave You by Robert Binet. Made in Canada opens the Winter Season on February 28 and runs to March 4, 2018 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Photo: Crystal Pite in rehearsal for Emergence. Photo by Karolina Kuras.