The Tempest Replica - Sadler's Wells

Sadler’s Wells has an impressive roster of Associate Artists and Chrystal Pite is the newest member of this exclusive group. Although London has been fortunate to see quite a bit of Pite recently – New York’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performed works by Pite on both of their recent visits (Grace Engine in 2012, Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue in September last year) – this is only the second time that her own Vancouver-based company Kidd Pivot will visit Rosebery Avenue. 
They first performed at Sadler’s Wells in 2009 when they brought Lost Action (created by Pite in 2006) and received four-star reviews. This time they will be performing her newest work The Tempest Replica, a piece that has already taken much of the world by storm, no pun intended – The New Yorker has described it as ‘an art work of astonishing beauty and thoughtfulness’. 
The Tempest Replica is, you guessed it, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In recognition of the fact that not every dance-goer will know their Shakespeare by heart, Pite has incorporated a story board in the first part of the piece. Along with masked, faceless dancers – 'replicas', as she puts it – she uses the story board to nail down the basics of the plot, so that nobody is left with that ‘wait, what just happened’ feeling. For a choreographer who has, again in her own words, an obsession with narrative, this is a bold and intriguing move: she wants to indulge her own obsession, without losing her audience. It’s very clever.   
In true 21st century spirit, Kidd Pivot took to crowd-funding platform Indiegogo to raise money to take The Tempest Replica on tour. They successfully exceeded their goal of C$10,000 - yet another testament to the buzz that surrounds Pite and her work.