Vancouver choreographer Crystal Pite wins a revered international Benois de la Danse prize

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      Vancouver dance star Crystal Pite has won a ballet "Oscar".

      This week, she was given a Benois de la Danse award for best choreographer for her Paris Opera Ballet work The Seasons’ Canon. The laureates of Benois de la Danse, known as the ballet "Oscars", were announced at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater on May 30.

      Last fall, The New York Times described the Canon, which opened the Paris Opera Ballet season at its glittering Palais Garnier, like this: "The audience leapt to their feet (unusual here), applauding wildly at the end of 'Seasons’ Canon', set to Max Richter’s adaptation of Vivaldi’s 'The Four Seasons'. It’s not hard to understand why. Working with 54 dancers, Ms. Pite has created massed blocks of movement that focus on large-scale patterning to often thrilling effect."

      The Georgia Straight spoke to Pite a year ago about the project, when she workshopped ideas with Arts Umbrella dancers. The work, she said at the time, reflects her continuing interest in the natural world—an interest she has shown in pieces such as the hivelike Emergence for the National Ballet of Canada. It was her much-anticipated debut at the Paris Opera Ballet, one of the greatest, if not the top, ballet companies in the world.

      Crystal Pite
      Michael Slobodian

       

      It's been a huge year for the artist, who just last month also won, with Vancouver cocreator Jonathon Young, an esteemed British Olivier award for best new dance production, for their work Betroffenheit.

      The Benois de la Danse prizes were founded by the International Dance Association in Moscow n 1991, and are chosen by a jury of top ballet names.

      Among Pite's international cowinners for the Benois de la Danse prizes were Maria Riccetto (National Ballet of Uruguay), and Ludmila Pagliero (Paris Opera) as best ballerinas, and French dancer Hugo Marchand (Paris Opera Ballet) and Russian dancer Denis Rodkin (The Bolshoi Theater of Russia) for best dancer.

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