DanceHouse is thrilled to present the online Canadian premiere of Body and Soul, choreographed by Vancouver’s own Crystal Pite, and performed by the Paris Opera Ballet.

After the creation of the acclaimed The Seasons’ Canon in 2016, Pite reunited with the company in the previous year to make a full-length work for the Paris Opera Ballet.

Employing a three-part structure, Body and Soul offers a form of murmuration, as the dancers move in coordinated patterns, creating a fluid and dynamic system. Infused with a combustive emotional charge, Pite calls upon her thirty-six dancers to push beyond their swarm behaviour, breaking down the borders between group cohesion and individual effort.

Sound and text offer clues, indicating what is at stake in the brute struggle between individual differentiation and group-level selection. Nothing less than the great drama of our species.

Before the performance, there will be a 15-minute exclusive conversation with Crystal Pite and the Kidd Pivot creative team: Owen Belton (Composer), Eric Beauchesne (Assistant to the Choreographer), Nancy Bryant (Costume Designer), Jay Gower Taylor (Set Designer), Jermaine Spivey (Assistant to the Choreographer) and Tom Visser (Lighting Designer).

This project is an initiative of DanceHouse (Vancouver) in collaboration with Danse Danse (Montreal), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto) and the National Arts Centre (Ottawa).