Spotlight on Kidd Pivot’s “Revisor”
Kidd Pivot's "Revisor" is coming to the St. John's Arts & Culture Centre on February 14. Photography by Michael Slobodian
The holiday season is officially here! If you’re still on the lookout for that perfect gift for your family, friends, clients or staff, why not consider giving them an experience? By gifting tickets to a concert, play, musical, dance or theatre show, you’re not only helping support the local arts community, you’re also giving a memorable experience that will delight and inspire - and perhaps even intrigue and awe.
Kidd Pivot’s upcoming performance of “Revisor” will do all of those things (watch the trailer here). On February 14, the critically-acclaimed dance company will take its spellbinding show to the St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre, during its only tour stop in Atlantic Canada.
Kidd Pivot's "Revisor." Photography by Michael Slobodian
Written by Jonathon Young of Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre, the show (a take on Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 satire “The Inspector General”) is described as a hybrid of contemporary theatre and dance in which eight Kidd Pivot dancers “embody the recorded dialogue of some of Canada’s finest actors, exploring conflict, comedy and corruption in the potent relationship between language and the body.” The show is choreographed by the renowned Crystal Pite, winner of the 2018 Grand Prix de la Danse de Montreal and winner of a 2018 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for “Flight Pattern.” Pite has also worked with some of the world’s biggest ballet companies, including The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, and The National Ballet of Canada, to name a few.
“Revisor” is presented by Neighbourhood Dance Works, Artistic Fraud and the Arts & Culture Centre and marks the first time that the three arts organizations have joined forces.
“When we started collectively discussing how we could pool our resources to bring a show to St. John’s that would inspire our respective audiences and disciplines, and also a show that is impossible to do on our own, this partnership was absolutely critical. When we started to imagine and dream, there was an artist that jumped to mind,” says Calla Lachance, Artistic Director of Neighbourhood Dance Works.
Crystal Pite and her company Kidd Pivot are artists who are at the “top of their game” says Erin Barnhart, Programming Manager for the Arts & Culture Centres of NL.
“(Pite’s) work travels across the world and it’s no exaggeration to say that she is one of the most celebrated choreographers on the planet right now,” she says.
Barnhart says that Pite and Young’s previous award-winning work, “Betroffenheit,” was so successful that "audiences and venues across the world have been holding their breath to find out what would happen next.”
“And what has happened next is Revisor.”
Photography by Michael Slobodian
Thanks to the meticulously choreographed movements and the physical prowess of the performers, the production, says Robert Chafe, Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud, has been described as “full-body lip sync.”
The show, Barnhart adds, had its world premiere in British Columbia this past February and has since been booked on a world tour, including stops in Vancouver, London, Hong Kong, and soon, St. John’s.
Chafe says that he, Barnhart and Lachance have seen several of Kidd Pivot’s productions “and we all agree that it ranks among some of our very favourite stage work in any discipline.”
“It is such a special piece. We’re so excited to bring it to (St. John’s) - particularly at a time right now when this company is at the very, very height of the international demand for their work. We’re so lucky to get it.”
Catch Kidd Pivot’s “Revisor” at the St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre on February 14, 2020. Tickets are on sale now and group rates are available.