≈ 1 hour and 30 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: February 20, 2019
It’s such an honour to bring to Ottawa a vast world of dance, shaped by some of the most gifted and innovative artists working across a broad spectrum of styles and influences. As we continue to search out the best and brightest dance companies to present to you, our wonderfully receptive and enthusiastic audience, we invite you to explore the new and the familiar on this extraordinary journey of life in motion!
Crystal Pite’s artistry is boundless, with one inventive quest after the next. Her extraordinary talent at assembling movement, text, sound, and design has produced multilayered signature creations that redefine the art form. In Revisor, her third collaboration with esteemed writer/theatre artist Jonathon Young, the relationship between people and politics is boldly examined through farce and conflict. Whether devising sweeping creations for the world’s major companies or poignant contemporary language for Kidd Pivot, Pite’s vision and artistic acumen are astounding. Having proudly presented and supported Crystal’s work for more than 20 years, we’re thrilled to welcome her newest creation to our season. NAC Dance is honoured to bring you these performances on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation, and we gratefully acknowledge them as past, present, and future stewards of this land. Enjoy!
A Message from the Creators
We began with an old, well-known story about mistaken identity.
The story is based on an anecdote that surfaced in Russia in 1833, and quickly spread. It is now widely accepted as probably true.
In 1836, the story took shape in a five-act play. The play premiered in St. Petersburg before the Czar, who according to reports, laughed and applauded, and is said to have remarked “Everybody gets it, and I most of all!”
The play was in disguise as a comedy.
Underneath the superficial subject of mistaken identity there were, of course, deeper subjects such as deceit, tyranny, greed and corruption. Willful blindness and complicity. Bureaucracy and officialdom. Human suffering. The coming storm. The promise of change. Imminent overthrow. Salvation on the horizon. Retribution just around the corner. Justice at the gate.
There is evidence from the critical response that its arrival on stage was unwelcome; it was said to be unoriginal, improbable, coarse and vulgar. It turned on a stale anecdote everyone knew, it was a rank farce and the characters were mere caricatures. It didn’t matter: the rank farce about mistaken identity quickly took its place as a national institution.
Reports indicate that the playwright of the rank farce raged against the “unctuous, cloying, farcical style” of the original production — a style that nonetheless became convention for decades. The Playwright insisted that he had been misread, and that his text contained an urgent moral indictment, a religious allegory, and a portrait of the universal soul in exile.
(Incidentally, the play is called The Inspector General, or, in the original Russian, Revizor, and the playwright is Nikolai Gogol. Gogol repeatedly tried to revise Revizor to prevent further abuses of his underlying intentions, all in vain.)
Since the 1830s, the play has been translated and adapted countless times. We approached the original text as a matrix for both voice and body and found it to be malleable and resonant. Our quest has been to locate and portray a glimpse of the soul within this most unlikely frame: a well-worn farce about corruption and deceit.
We would like to thank all of our performers and collaborators for their essential contributions to the making of Revisor. They are the lifeblood of our creation; each of them masterful, generous, and truly inspiring. We are deeply grateful.
Jonathon and Crystal
Kidd Pivot
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. Under the direction of internationally renowned Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, 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.
Kidd Pivot tours extensively around the world with productions such as Betroffenheit (2015), The Tempest Replica (2011), The You Show (2010), Dark Matters (2009), and Lost Action (2006).
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Artistic Director: Crystal Pite
Associate Artistic Director: Eric Beauchesne
Writer-in-Residence: Jonathon Young
Executive Director: Jim Smith
Producer: Jason Dubois
Associate Producer: Francesca Piscopo
Communications and Marketing Manager: Katherine Chan
Accounts Manager: Ann Hepper
Production Manager: Jeff Harrison
Fundraising Associate: Brent Belsher
Office Manager: Lo McEwan
Administration Assistant: Kevin Locsin
Media Relations: Murray Paterson Marketing Group
Agents for Kidd Pivot:
Eponymous (Canada)
Menno Plukker Theatre Agent Inc. (except / à l'exception du Canada )
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Kidd Pivot Board of Directors
President : Guy Riecken
Vice President: Barry McKinnon
Treasurer: Ainslie Cyopik
Secretary: Dory Dynna
Directors: Valerie Jerome, Derek Porter & Fiona Hanington
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Producing Partners and Funders
Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells (London, UK), Théâtre de la Ville/La Villette (Paris, France), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff, Canada), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina, US), Canadian Stage (Toronto, Canada), National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada), DanceHouse (Vancouver, Canada), Dance Victoria (Victoria, Canada), Danse Danse (Montreal, Canada) and Seattle Theatre Group (Seattle, US).
Revisor
Revisor is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter Program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
Kidd Pivot benefits from the support of BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of its projects.
Kidd Pivot gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of British Columbia, British Columbia Arts Council, City of Vancouver, and countless individual and business supporters.
Eponymous gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
World Premiere:
February 20, 2019, Vancouver Playhouse, Vancouver, Canada
Created by: Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young
Written by: Jonathon Young
Choreographed and Directed by: Crystal Pite
Original Music and Sound Design: Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani & Meg Roe
Scenic Design: Jay Gower Taylor
Costume Design: Nancy Bryant
Lighting Design: Tom Visser
Assistant to the Creators: Eric Beauchesne
Dancers: Doug Letheren, Rena Narumi, Matthew Peacock, David Raymond, Ella Rothschild, Cindy Salgado, Jermaine Spivey, Tiffany Tregarthen
Swing: Renée Sigouin
Voices: Kathleen Barr, Ryan Beil, Alessandro Juliani, Nicola Lipman, Scott McNeil, Gerald Plunkett, Meg Roe, Amy Rutherford, Jonathon Young
Voice Director: Meg Roe
Technical Director: Jeff Harrison
Stage Manager: Isaac Robinson
Show Control Design: Eric Chad
Lighting and Sound Technician: Lukas McCormick
Wig and Wardrobe Coordinator: Stevie Hale Jones
Set and Prop Construction: Great Northern Way Scene Shop
Cutter: Janet Dundas
Costume Assistant: Alaia Hamer
Stitchers: Megan Veaudry, Jen Reid & Christine Pampel
Headpiece Sculptor: Heidi Wilkinson
Company Manager on Tour: Brent Belsher
Executive Producer: Jim Smith
Producer: Jason Dubois
Associate Producer: Francesca Piscopo
Artists
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 radical hybrids of dance and theatre that are assembled with a keen sense of wit and invention. Crystal is known for works that courageously address such challenging and complex themes as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness, and mortality; her bold and original vision has earned her international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists.
Crystal Pite was born in Terrace, BC, and grew up in Victoria. She began her dance career as a company member of 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 (resident choreographer 2001–04), 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.
In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot, a company that strives to distill and translate universal questions into artworks that connect us to deep and essential parts of humanity.
“Running through all of my work is the question of what moves us,” she says. Kidd Pivot tours internationally with critically acclaimed works such as Betroffenheit and Revisor (both co-created with playwright Jonathon Young), The Tempest Replica, Dark Matters, Lost Action and The You Show. In 2008, Crystal Pite participated in the inaugural GGPAA Mentorship Program as the protégée of 2004 GGPAA laureate Veronica Tennant, former principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada.
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, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.
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: Tear the Curtain! (Arts Club Theatre, Canadian Stage), No Exit (American Conservatory Theatre), Betroffenheit (international tour). He has worked as an actor on stages across Canada : Knives in Hens (Coalmine Theatre), The Full Light of Day (Electric Company/ Luminato Festival), All But Gone (Necessary Angel, Toronto), The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary), Hamlet (Bard on the Beach, Vancouver). In addition to Betroffenheit and Revisor, Jonathon collaborated with Crystal Pite on two productions for Nederlands Dans Theater (Parade and The Statement). Jonathon is the recipient of an Olivier Award and the UK National Dance Award.
Doug is from New Hampshire USA, and is a graduate of The Juilliard School. He danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov's Hell's Kitchen Dance before joining the Batsheva Dance Company, where he worked with Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal from 2007 - 2012. Doug was then a founding member of Sharon's company, L-E-V, until 2015, and danced with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch from 2016 - 2019. He has also performed with the GoteborgsOperansDanskompani, Alan Lucien Øyen’s Winterguests, Aszure Barton, Adam Linder, Ella Rothschild, and in films such as Georgia Parris’ Mari for the BBC, and Apart and Voyeur, collaborations with dancer Silas Henriksen, filmmaker Cecilie Semec, and the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. Doug has been a choreographic assistant to Sharon Eyal, Adam Linder, and Bobbi Smith for companies such as Netherlands Dance Theater, Royal Swedish Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and Ballet de Lorraine. He is a recipient of the 2007 Movado Future Legends Award, nominated by Mikhail Baryshnikov, and a 2019 “Der Faust” German Theater Prize nominee for Dancer of the Year. Doug joined Kidd Pivot in 2018.
Rena Narumi was born in Japan. She trained at Centre d’artchoregraphique Franco-Japonais in Paris France and Arts Umbrella dance graduate program in Vancouver BC under the direction of Artemis Gordon and Lynn Shepard. After her graduation, she performed with ProArteDanza, Hessischen Staatstheaters Wiesbaden, Royal Swedish Ballet (RSB), and Nederlands Dans Theater 1 (NDT1). She has worked with renowned choreographers such as Mats Ek, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Sol Leon/Paul Lightfoot, Johan Ingar, Alexander Ekman, Orjan Andersson, Sharon Eyal, Franck Chartier/Gabriela Carrizo (Peeping Tom), Emily Molnar, and more. With RSB in Sweden, she performed the main role of Juliet in Juliet and Romeo by Mats Ek in many theaters, including Paris Opera Garnier in Paris and Sadler’s Wells Theater in London. With NDT1, she traveled all over the world to perform. She was an apprentice with Kidd Pivot for season 2010/2011, part of the artistic team for The You Show. Rena is delighted to be rejoined with Kidd Pivot.
Born in Penticton, BC, David Raymond began as a tap dancer, later forming the hip hop collective Over the Influence. His early career has taken him to Brazil, Belgium, Italy, The Czech Republic, and The Netherlands before returning to Vancouver to co-create Out Innerspace. David is the 2010 Isadora performance award winner, creates video design for dance, has toured internationally with numerous Canadian companies and is currently performing with Kidd Pivot.
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David and Tiffany’s studies and early careers lead them to New York, South Korea, Brazil, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, and Italy. Their collaboration formed during a two-year residency in Antwerp, Belgium before returning to Vancouver, Canada to form Out Innerspace and its education program Modus Operandi. They have worked at institutions including London School of Contemporary Dance, Rotterdamse Danssacademie, Fontys Danssacademie, Hansung University and NYU. Their performance careers include dancing with Justine A. Chambers, Company 605, Wen Wei Dance, and Beijing Modern Dance Company. Additionally, they have both been significant contributors to Kidd Pivot, touring internationally for 8 years with award winning works The Tempest Replica, Polaris, Betroffenheit and Revisor. Together, they create, educate, perform, mentor, produce, and facilitate residencies for dance artists.
Ella Rothschild was born in Israel and is a choreographer, multidisciplinary artist and dancer. Since 2010, Rothschild has been creating her own works in collaboration with various artists from different disciplines. Her works include: Acord, 12 Postdated Checks, Judah, Jesus with Soy, Sal, Flood, Dood, IMO the mouth is redundant, Feed, Timeline, Futuristic Space, Unpair and Formula. Rothschild received the Rosenblum Performing-Arts Award by the city of Tel-Aviv for promising creator of 2016, as well as the ministry cultural award. In 2017 she received the Israeli Ministry of Culture Award for the best solo performer. From 2013 to 2023, Ella created and performed twelve of her works in Israel, Europe, Japan, and the US. In 2020 Ella received a residency at Baryshnikov art center (NYC) and was named an artist in residence in the Suzanne Dellal Centre’s inaugural residency program where she created her work Pigulim. In 2021 Ella created Summer snow, on the edge of nowhere, and A Year Without Summer which are a trilogy of artworks for the Batsheva Dance Company. This year Ella created Milk teeth as part of Kammerballetten festival in Copenhagen and is creating for the Royal Ballet of Flanders a new creation for Stravinsky music Petrushka, which will premiere this in December.
Renée was born in Saskatchewan and moved to Vancouver in 2008. Since graduating from Modus Operandi contemporary dance program in 2012, she has performed in several works with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY, Company 605, Wen Wei Dance, Mascall Dance, Kinesis Somatheatro & EDAM. She joined Kidd Pivot in 2018.
Born in Prince George, BC, Tiffany Tregarthen's early career began in New York and Seoul followed by 2 years in Antwerp training, performing and creating in Belgium, Italy and The Czech Republic. Alongside co-directing Out Innerspace and Modus Operandi, Tiffany has created a work for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens through their National Young Choreographer Competition, toured internationally with numerous companies including Wen Wei Dance, Justine Chambers, Company 605, Beijing Modern Dance Company and has been a member of Kidd Pivot since 2013.
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David and Tiffany’s studies and early careers lead them to New York, South Korea, Brazil, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, and Italy. Their collaboration formed during a two-year residency in Antwerp, Belgium before returning to Vancouver, Canada to form Out Innerspace and its education program Modus Operandi. They have worked at institutions including London School of Contemporary Dance, Rotterdamse Danssacademie, Fontys Danssacademie, Hansung University and NYU. Their performance careers include dancing with Justine A. Chambers, Company 605, Wen Wei Dance, and Beijing Modern Dance Company. Additionally, they have both been significant contributors to Kidd Pivot, touring internationally for 8 years with award winning works The Tempest Replica, Polaris, Betroffenheit and Revisor. Together, they create, educate, perform, mentor, produce, and facilitate residencies for dance artists.
Owen Belton lives in Vancouver, Canada and graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Fine and Performing Arts (concentration Music). He has been composing for dance for the last 25 years as well as creating sound design and music for live theatre for the past 15 years. Owen has created pieces for The Paris Opera, Ballet Nuremberg, Electric Company Theatre, The Arts Club, as well as Nederlands Dans Theatre and Kidd Pivot.
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Alessandro is a Vancouver-based multi-disciplinary artist. He has previously collaborated with Kidd Pivot as a composer and sound designer on Revisor, Betroffenheit, and Tempest Replica. Other credits include: The Lady from the Sea, Trifles, Prince Caspian, On The Razzle and Middletown (Shaw Festival/Crow’s Theatre), To Kill A Mockingbird (Stratford Festival); The Great Leap, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, Saint Joan, Master Class, The Penelopiad. (Arts Club); Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, The Tempest, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Bard on the Beach; King Lear, NAC; All the Way Home, Palace Grand, Electric Company; Vigil, Mark Taper Forum, A.C.T., Theatre Calgary; You used to call me Marie, Savage Society; Bunny, Search Party; Little Women, Theatre Calgary; The Madonna Painter, Centaur Theatre; The Miracle Worker, Equus, Vancouver Playhouse. Film and TV credits include: Donkeyhead, Netflix; Big Trees, NFB; Wait for Rain, Motion 58.
Meg’s work as an actor, director, composer, sound designer, and dramaturg has been seen across the Canada at Crows Theatre, Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, PuSh Festival, Alberta Theatre Projects, SoulPepper, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Junction, Citadel Theatre, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Electric Company Theatre, Blackbird Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Arts Club, Belfry, Theatre SKAM, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Catalyst Theatre, RealWheels, Intrepid Theatre, Elbow Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Western Canada Theatre, National Arts Centre, Centaur Theatre, The Banff Centre, Yukon Arts Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Why Not Theatre, Savage Society, vAct,Theatre Replacement, Rumble Theatre, The Cultch, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Luminato Festival, and internationally with the American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco), Center Theater Group (Los Angeles), and as a collaborator with Crystal Pite's renowned dance company Kidd Pivot. She scored Esie Mensah’s short film Tessel, and Why Not Theatre’s feature What You Won’t Do For Love.
As a scenic designer Jay Gower Taylor has collaborated with Crystal Pite since 2008, creating onstage environments for works such as Figures in Extinction [1.0], The Statement, Parade, Plot Point, Frontier, Solo Echo, In the Event and Partita for 8 Dancers, for Nederlands Dans Theater 1; Emergence and Angels’ Atlas (a co-production with Zurich Ballet) for the National Ballet of Canada; Polaris for Sadler’s Wells; The Seasons’ Canon and Body and Soul for The Paris Opera Ballet; and Flight Pattern / Light of Passage for The Royal Ballet. For Pite’s own company, Kidd Pivot, he designed Dark Matters, The Tempest Replica, Betroffenheit, and most recently, Revisor.
Nancy Bryant works widely as a designer in dance, theatre, opera and film. Her home is on the west coast of Canada in Vancouver. Previous collaborations with Pite include Body and Soul and The Seasons’ Canon (Paris Opera), Flight Pattern (Royal Ballet), Figures in Extinction, Partita, Parade and Plot Point (Netherlands Dance Theater), Revisor, The Tempest Replica (Kidd Pivot) and Betroffenheit (Kidd Pivot/Electric Co.), Angels’ Atlas (National Ballet of Canada / Zurich Opera House), and most recently, Light of Passage (Royal Ballet / Norwegian National Ballet). Bryant’s work has brought her together with various teams of fellow designers, directors, writers and choreographers to theatres and production workshops across Canada, the USA, the UK and to Europe. Her approach to costume design has been influenced by her visual arts background and many years of exceptional collaborations with some of Canada’s most innovative and groundbreaking theatre artists.
Tom Visser has been working since 2004 as a lighting designer in productions by Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, Stijn Celis, Medhi Walerski, Peeping Tom and Alexander Ekman. His lighting designs have been seen in Nederlands Dans Theater, Royal Opera House, Sydney Dance Company and Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, among others. In addition to his work for the stage, Tom has created art installations and projects with interactive media.
Born in Québec, Eric has been on stage with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, as well as with Canadian contemporary dance icons such as La Fondation Jean-Pierre Perrault, Paul-André Fortier, Louise Lecavalier and Crystal Pite. Company member since 2004, Eric now collaborates with Kidd Pivot as associate artistic director, and stages Pite’s work on companies worldwide. Eric has served as guest teacher for several organizations as well as rehearsal director for Nederlands Dans Theater. He currently resides in Holland and devotes his spare time advocating for climate action in the dance world.