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| PNB Principal Dancer Noelani Pantastico in Crystal Pite's 'Plot Point' photo @ Angela Sterling |
Genius.
We toss that word around so
cavalierly these days that sometimes, when we encounter a real genius, the accolade
doesn’t feel strong enough.
Genius really is the only word that adequately describes choreographer Crystal Pite and
the magical worlds she creates.
Perhaps you first encountered
Pite at Seattle’s On the Boards. Or maybe in 2013, you saw Pacific
Northwest Ballet’s presentation of her large-scale ballet ‘Emergence.’
Contemporary dance fans who thought they didn’t like ballet snapped up tickets;
traditionalists were introduced to a new way of thinking about a classical art
form.
Then local audiences got to see ‘Betroffenheit,’
a collaboration between Pite’s dance company Kidd Pivot and Electric Company
Theater. This harrowing performance about love, loss, grief, madness and
redemption won Pite even more fans.
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| PNB Principal Dancer Noelani Pantastico with company dancers in 'Plot Point' photo @ Angela Sterling |
If you have yet to discover
Crystal Pite, get yourself tickets to one of this weekend’s performances of PNB’s
latest program, ‘Her Story.’ In addition to satisfying dances by Jessica Lang and
Twyla Tharp, you’ll get a chance to see the American premier of Pite’s intriguing
‘Plot Point,’ originally created in 2010 for Nederlands Dans Theater.
PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal
says when he invited Pite back to the Seattle, she suggested revisiting
this particular work, an exploration of the meaning of story.
With ‘Plot Point,’ Pite creates a
mysterious, almost hazy, film noir aesthetic, animated by Bernard Herrmann’s
famous score for Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal 1960 horror film, ‘Psycho,’ with
additional sound design from Owen Belton.
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| PNB dancers in Crystal Pite's 'Plot Point' photo @ Angela Sterling |
The curtain goes up on two men in
trench coats, running, semi-obscured by a gauzy scrim. Who are these two? What
are they running from? We don’t know yet. And, are they really both men? One of
the figures is pure white, from his fedora to his shoes; a white mask obscures
his features
Soon, we meet an amorous couple,
only to discover each is married to somebody else. A jealous husband seeks
revenge; a spurned wife wants to end her own life. Each of these characters is ‘mirrored’
by another faceless white doppelganger. Sometimes the replicant moves in synch
with her human partner; sometimes she watches then repeats the human’s
movements. When the replicant moves, she is not human
but something else entirely.
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| 'Replicants' performed by PNB's Emma Love Suddarth and William Yin-Lee photo @ Angela Sterling |
The replicants move across the
stage with exaggerated articulation of elbows and knees, ankles and wrists, so
that we see the mechanics of each footstep or turn of the head. Their fingers
are splayed and stiff, like Star Wars’ C3 PO. Are they robots, like him? Do
they have free will? Do these replicants actually serve to set a story in
motion?
Part of ‘Plot Point’s’ genius is
that--although there is no real plot, only a series of instigating actions and
the ramifications of those actions--Pite has opened the curtains and ushered us
into the secrets of a hidden world. It’s mysterious and fascinating, demanding
and rewarding.
PNB’s stellar dancers rise to
Pite’s choreography. In a conversation after the Saturday, November 4th
matinee, principal dancer Lucien Postlewaite explained that Pite has a clear
idea of how every movement should look, and where it should begin in the dancer’s
body. Sometimes, he said, the movement starts with the face; other times with
the pelvis, or a foot, or a shoulder. This choreography is physically
challenging, but thought provoking as well. Pite never throws in a gratuitous
move, everything is where it is for a reason and the entire cast embraces it
fully.
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| PNB Principal Dancer James Moore and company members in 'Plot Point' photo @ Angela Sterling |
It seems fitting that an artist
as talented as Crystal Pite would explore the mechanics of storytelling. Every
work of hers that I’ve had the good luck to see has carried me on a full journey.
In my mind, her greatest gift is her ability to create non-traditional
narratives that fully captivate her audiences. With‘Plot Point’ or ‘Emergence’
or ‘Betroffenheit,’ Pite transports me into new worlds both beautiful and
strange, and always profoundly moving. I want to travel with her again, and again, and again.
That seems pretty nice!! though I didn't cought there last performance but It seems interesting enough to book next one! I'm not that big a fan of dancing but that doesn't look too bad! or maybe It's because it is ballet not some plain dancing? *raise protective shield*
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