Climb the sky

“I love the word “rescue”. It indicates a whole story in a single word,” states internationally renowned choreographer Crystal Pite. Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue (2008) was originally created for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. This collaboration is Pite’s first time working with the dancers of NDT 2, and marks the work’s premiere in the Netherlands. “The creation of this work was an act of excavation. After building the choreography, I foraged within it for images that evoked rescue; images that already existed within the dancing like fragments of an untold narrative.” says Pite. Pite has been an associate choreographer with NDT since 2008 and renewed her commitment to the company for the next four years. For NDT, she previously created Pilot X (2005), Plot Point (2010, nominated for the prestigious Benois de La Dance award), Solo Echo (2012), and The Statement (2016). Her most recent work premiered in May of 2022, and marks the beginning of a longer collaboration with NDT, Complicité Theater and Artistic Director, Simon McBurney.

French choreographer Noé Soulier questions the way in which we perceive and interpret gestures and explores dance through various techniques. In projects such as the book Actions, mouvements et gestes, and the work Mouvement sur movement made in 2013, Soulier introduces a discrepancy between the discourse and the gestures that accompany it. By doing so, he attempts to activate the corporeal memory of spectators through movements relating to absent objects or events.

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Soulier studied at the CNSMD of Paris, at the National Ballet School of Canada, and at P.A.R.T.S in Brussels. He obtained a master’s degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne and participated in a residency programme at Palais de Tokyo: Le Pavillon. In 2010, he won the Danse Élargie prize of the Théâtre de la Ville and Musée de la Danse. Soulier was associate artist at the Toulouse / Occitanie National Centre for Choreographic Development from 2016 to 2018, and at the National Dance Centre in Pantin from 2014 to 2019. In July 2020, he became director of the CNDC in Angers, a unique institution in the world of dance that combines a creative choreographic centre, a school for contemporary dance, and a programme of dance presentations. With this new work, Soulier will be making his debut with NDT.

Acclaimed artist Botis Seva is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, and director working within the realm of hip-hop, physical theatre, and contemporary dance. He uses autobiographical experiences to drive narrative and is influenced by different disciplines such as film, visual arts, and other dance forms that help him craft his distinct language.

Seva trained with the dance company Avant Garde, prior to setting up his own company Far From The Norm, known for immersive work which experiments with hip-hop while challenging dance theatre conventions. In 2018, Seva choreographed for Wayne McGregor and Robin Friend’s Winged Bull in the Elephant Case, which premiered on BBC 2. He also began working on BLKDOG as part of the Sadler’s Wells 20^th anniversary commission Reckonings, a piece with which he won the 2019 Olivier award for Best New Dance Production. This new work with NDT 2 will mark Seva’s first ever collaboration with NDT.