Kidd Pivot

White Bird Uncaged Dance Series Launches November 12-15 with American Premiere of Brilliant Canadian Choreographer Crystal Pite's Lost Action

For Immediate Release: October 20, 2008                                Contact: Chad Greenwood, 503-245-1600 ext. 205

Who: Kidd Pivot, Artistic Director Crystal Pite
Work: Lost Action
Presented by: White Bird Uncaged (formerly White Bird/PSU Dance Series)
When: Wednesday-Saturday, November 12-15; 8 pm
Where: Kaul Auditorium, Reed College (3203 SE Woodstock, Portland, OR)
Sponsor: Willamette Week
Tickets: $26 Adults. $16 students/seniors. Plus Service fee. Available through Ticketmaster and ticketmaster.com, 503-790-2787.
Information: 503-245-1600 ext. 201

White Bird is excited to announce the launch of its new dance series White Bird Uncaged (formerly the White Bird/PSU Dance Series) with the critically acclaimed Canadian company Kidd Pivot, whose artistic director is the brilliant choreographer Crystal Pite. The company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, will perform the American premiere of Pite’s dynamic full-length work “Lost Action,” which will take place at Kaul Auditorium at Reed College. Vancouver’s Georgia Straight has called Crystal Pite “easily the most exciting young choreographer in Canada.”

White Bird Uncaged is the new name of the White Bird/PSU Dance Series. Because Lincoln Hall, the home of the PSU series, is closing for two years due to deferred maintenance and seismic upgrading, White Bird decided to move out into the Portland community and invite four dance companies in each of the two seasons (2008-09 and 2009-10) to perform in four alternative venues in four different Portland neighborhoods.

Artistic Director and Choreographer Crystal Pite created Kidd Pivot in 2001 with the intention of creating work that integrates movement, original music, text and rich visual design. The name of her company  Kidd Pivot derives from a juxtaposition of the term “pivot”—a type of movement suggesting skill and precision, that changes direction and point of view—and “kidd,” suggesting, according to Pite, “the outlaw and the pirate.”  Pite’s work is characterized by a combination of recklessness and rigor, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk.

“Lost Action,” created in 2006, is a thrilling 70-minute work for Pite’s 7-member company. A unique blend of contemporary dance and urban hip-hop-nuanced movement, the work celebrates the intricacy and freedom of the human body.  The piece begins with the upright bodies of the entire ensemble vacillating like human clocks, followed by a vigorous male group section, then a fascinating solo by Crystal Pite that focuses on her disjointed, forceful body. The work is notable for striking visuals and a haunting original score by Owen Belton. The Dance Current hailed “Lost Action” for “the dancers’ virtuosity and the choreographer’s mastery of time and space, exits and entrances,” and The Vancouver Sun said of Pite, “She keeps us on guard in uncompromising dance terms.”  

Based in Vancouver, BC, Crystal Pite danced with Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt between 1988 and 2001. Apart from working with her own company Kidd Pivot, she served as Resident Choreographer for Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal between 2001 and 2004. Pite has choreographed for major European companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater I and Cullberg Ballet, and most recently for the New York-based company Cedar Lake. She is the recipient of the Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award (1995), the Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award (2004), and the Isadora Award (2005). Crystal Pite is an Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre and Associate Choreographer of Netherlands Dans Theater.

Ticket-holders to Kidd Pivot and all White Bird Uncaged performance will enjoy many exciting benefits.  ecoShuttle will offer all ticket-holders $5.00 roundtrip transportation from downtown Portland to the venues outside the downtown core. In addition, all ticket-holders will enjoy discounts to neighborhood restaurants such as Lauro Kitchen, Vindalho and A Cena.  Uncaged subscribers will receive discounts with Zipcar. Detailed information about venue locations, parking and transportation options, restaurant and business discounts is provided on White Bird’s website at www.whitebird.org/uncaged.

White Bird Uncaged will continue with skinner | kirk + bielemeier (Portland, Oregon), Dec. 3-7, at the Portland Opera Studio Theater; anoukvandijk dc (The Netherlands), March 12-15 and
18-20, 2009, at the Dance Pavilion at Oaks Amusement Park; and Chunky Move (Australia),
April 15-19, at the 10th Avenue Athletic Club Gymnasium/YWCA of Greater Portland.  

White Bird Uncaged is supported by the Meyer Memorial Trust, The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Collins Foundation, The Kinsman Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Oregon Cultural Trust. White Bird’s presentation of Kidd Pivot is supported by WESTAF (Western States Arts Federation) and the National Endowment for the Arts.