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Student Forum returns with another round of student critiques, in collaboration with Montclair State’s Creative Research Center.  Ashley Urbano (below), Brie Baldwin, and Brittany Wirths offer their responses to different aspects of Kidd Pivot’s intricate and haunting Dark Matters.  Read on! 

In a world where the unknown plays a pivotal part in our actions, are we really the ones in control of our future? It seems that the shadows that follow us all around, the unknown darknesses around us, play a higher role in our lives than was originally expected. Crystal Pite’s Dark Matters does its best to highlight and ask audiences this very question with its use of contemporary dance. 

Crystal Pite herself acknowledges that doubt is a better situation than conviction. She quotes playwright John Patrick  Shanley: “conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinte.” It is that very doubt that motivated her to create this piece. This same piece moves with precision and expertise, but while watching you feel [that it might combust] at the roots at any given second. It’s a practice in self-awareness and awareness of the unknown. Read more »

Dark Matters, a theater piece by Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM, is a two-hour production divided into two acts. The first act, which involves the story of a puppet and his creator, is very theatrical. The second act is an hour-long dance piece. The two sections are connected by similar dance movements, use of the same actors, and an excerpt from “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster,” by Voltaire. 

Dark Matters is truly an intense, mysterious, and dramatic piece of art. Read more »

Crystal Pite brought a mystifying and stimulating performance of dance, puppetry, and a theme of a compelling aspect of the universe. Pite, founder of Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM dance company, created the mind-blowing experience of Dark Matters. Six talented performers graced the stage to tell a multitude of complex ideas. Pite aided this heavy performance with an excerpt from Voltaire, easing any confusion that an audience member might have. Questions arose in her two-hour-long performance: Who is God? Does He love us? Does He ignore us? Are we more powerful than He? Or more complex questions: Are we the only life source in the universe? What else is out there in the vast space? Are we alone? Read more »

Mention the words “Crystal” and “Pite” around any of the dancers I work with, and they tend to go all swoony.  Similarly, the young dancers seated in the audience around me on Saturday night (Juilliard students, it would happen) spoke her name only in breathless tones. I recognized by sight no fewer than three internationally renowned choreographers in house (which leads me to believe there were probably more). So I couldn’t help but experience her Dark Matters with senses pointed toward considering the question, what makes the dance community rally around Ms. Pite so completely? And dance community aside, given that Montclair State University president Susan Cole responded to her opening night viewing of Dark Matters by e-mailing the student body and insisting they do also, what makes, well, everybody rally around the work of Crystal Pite? Read more »

“Dark matter” and “dark energy” are the terra incognita of our day. Making up roughly 96 percent of the observable universe, it can be perceived and, in some ways, proven to exist, but no one knows yet what it actually is. What we can see is the effect it has on galaxy speeds, structures, and evolution. 

Knowing that so much of our universe is unknowable sits comfortably with me. I find a pleasing parallel between what we don’t know about the universe and what we don’t know about the mind. Creation for me is about experiencing unknown territory, but it is also about trying to perceive my own mind. Something unknowable, destabilizing, and strangely beautiful compels me to create. It requires me to work and live in a state of not knowing, even while I am making plans, manifesting choreography, and writing program notes. Working and living in a state of not knowing is hard for me. I’m trying to connect to the shadows in order to illuminate something: bringing images to light by feeling around in the dark. Read more »