choreography
Crystal Pite
dramaturgy
Jonathan Young
music
Owen Belton
vocal performance
Meg Roe,
Colleen Wheeler,
Andrew Wheeler,
Jonathan Young
lighting design
Tom Visser
set design
Jay Gower Taylor
costumes
Crystal Pite / Joke Visser
performed by
4 dancers
duration
19 minutes
premiere
4 February 2016,
Zuiderstrandtheater,
The Hague (NL)
links & downloads
> performance sheet (EN)
> dossier de diffusion (FR)
> context
> full video (password)
> photos high-res (password)
> photos low-res (password)
> technical rider (password)
> film Mezzo / La Belle Télé (2018), directed by Tommy Pascal (password required)
THE STATEMENT
In light of current events, the topicality of The Statement is probably what is most striking about Crystal Pite’s new work, as the expression of the characters and their use of language are very much linked to our time. The piece could be considered a play, based on a script written by Jonathan Young that is expressed by four dancers that share a heated conversation around a conference table, symbolizing a corporate environment. Control, moral conflicts, responsibility and the inability to escape make The Statement a gripping piece that offers the audience a captivating wedge of realism.
“The Statement is a wedge of realism; cold and current. We recognize both the characters and the language as being of our world and our time. The Statement is a one-act play, with four characters locked in their own battle for control, and with the morality of their actions: they have been tasked with fuelling a conflict in a distant country. Character “A” declares: “For generations they’ve been fighting. All we did was use it. We used it as an opportunity - the attacks - for investment. For growth. We used it.” Now, being asked to take responsibility for their actions in order to exonerate their superiors, a conflict is rising within their department.” Crystal Pite
PRESS
"NDT’s associate choreographer Crystal Pite is in demand around the world – and you can see why. The Statement reprises her partnership with the playwright Jonathon Young, with whom she created the astounding Betroffenheit, as well as an idea taken from that earlier piece: a kind of bodily lip-syncing to a spoken soundtrack. Here, the four dancers enact a high-tension script about a team tasked with inciting war in order to profit from it. The vocal rhythms, pitches and registers form an exacting template for their accusing fingers, nervous flinches, shocked about-faces and wily manoeuvres. It’s performed with the frame-by-frame urgency of a graphic novel and – herein lies its brilliance – even as you are gripped by the drama you see its composition with startling clarity." The Guardian, 27 June 2018
CRYSTAL PITE
In 2008 Crystal Pite (Canada) joined NDT as an associate choreographer. Her latest works for NDT 1 are Plot Point (2010), Solo Echo (2012), Parade (2013), In the Event (2015), The Statement (2016) and Partita for 8 Dancers (2018). In 2002 Pite founded her own company in Vancouver: Kidd Pivot. Pite is also an associate dance artist at Canada's National Arts Centre and at Sadler's Wells, London. In 2002 she founded her own company in Vancouver: Kidd Pivot. Pite’s ballets are performed by dance companies worldwide.