xspectacle

The Stolen Show [xspectacle] full-length version by Crystal Pite was created during her triennial residence in Montréal for [bjm_danse] in coproduction with the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Centre National des Arts for the Festival Danse Canada in Ottawa. On original partitions composed by Owen Belton, the “The Stolen Show” trilogy is a real sketchbook on movement as well as being a parody of arts and entertainment. The perfectly controlled improvisations given by the fourteen talented artist-performers of the Quebec company blend in with the choreographical derision.
The first part of this trilogy Short Works: 24 has been highly acclaimed by critics and the public since its premiere in 2001. Helped by her loyal collaborator, the composer Owen Belton, Pite choreographed two dozen fragments, each lasting a minute. Although each fragment is a whole in itself, Short Works: 24 really takes off when the series is presented integrally. These fragments, which are non-narrative structures, guided exclusively by the music and the movement, reflect all the inherent humour and emotion of human nature.
Building on this success, Crystal Pite completes this first part of the trilogy with a second and third parts xspectacle and The Stolen Show, which is the name of the work as a whole. Fascinated by the enigma that sets the arts against entertainment and which brands this dance company, highly appreciated by the public, Pite decided to investigate the two facets of this polarity by signing a highly sincere and spirited theatrical work, It is up to the spectators to decide what they see… questioning, a standpoint, a tribute or a parody.

Source : Programme de salle Maison de la Danse