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{{Short description|2017 ballet by Crystal Pite}}
{{About|the ballet|the photographic sculpture installation|Flight Patterns{{!}}''Flight Patterns''}}
{{
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox ballet
| name = Flight Pattern
| image = Flight Pattern Dance.jpeg
| image_size = 260px
| alt = A woman is leaning towards the audience while another dancer is holding her torso. In the background, people are walking in a queue.
| caption = An image from ''Flight Pattern''
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| designer = Jay Gower Taylor<br />Nancy Bryant<br />Tom Visser
| genre = [[contemporary ballet]]
}}
'''''Flight Pattern''''' is a [[contemporary ballet]] choreographed by
''Flight Pattern'' examines the plight of refugees, drawing inspiration from 20th and 21st-century events, particularly the [[Refugees of the Syrian civil war|refugee crisis]] caused by the [[Syrian civil war]]. The ballet starts with 36 dancers performing on stage
==Choreography==
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''Flight Pattern'' is a one-act [[contemporary ballet]] performed in 30 minutes.<ref name=Watts>{{cite news|url=https://bachtrack.com/review-light-passage-crystal-pite-gorecki-royal-ballet-october-2022|title=Hauntingly beautiful: Crystal Pite's Light of Passage at The Royal Ballet|work=Bachtrack|last=Watts|first=Graham|date=19 October 2022|access-date=2023-04-10|archive-date=5 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105153100/https://bachtrack.com/review-light-passage-crystal-pite-gorecki-royal-ballet-october-2022|url-status=live}}</ref> The music inspired the structure of the [[choreography]], with a long and slow [[crescendo]] that transitions to a single voice. [[Crystal Pite]], the choreographer of this piece, mimicked this structure in the creative process. She focused first on the large scale of the crisis, then on a singular story. Pite felt that an emotional connection with a single story would be more impactful to the audience than many dancers on stage.<ref name=Winship>{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/crystal-pite-on-responding-to-the-refugee-crisis-working-at-the-royal-ballet-and-the-purpose-of-art-a3477506.html|title=Crystal Pite on responding to the refugee crisis, working at the Royal Ballet and the purpose of art|newspaper=Evening Standard|last=Winship|first=Lyndsey|date=28 February 2017|access-date=2023-04-10|archive-date=31 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831223924/https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/crystal-pite-on-responding-to-the-refugee-crisis-working-at-the-royal-ballet-and-the-purpose-of-art-a3477506.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
The piece begins with 36 dancers arranged in three equal rows, standing in profile to the audience and staring at a light while rocking in packed rows.<ref name=Monahan /><ref name=Jennings /><ref name="OBrien">{{Cite news |last=O'Brien |first=Roisin |date=2020-11-30 |title=Review: Crystal Pite taps into current questions of connection, understanding and culpability in Flight Pattern |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/reviews/article-crystal-pite-taps-into-current-questions-of-connection-understanding/ |access-date=2023-04-10 |archive-date=24 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724020648/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/reviews/article-crystal-pite-taps-into-current-questions-of-connection-understanding/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The dancers then move in [[Canon (music)|canon]], their spines extending and rotating to cause their heads to look back, then forward in a bow.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|pp=310-311}} Vignettes of choreography are then performed by various dancers who break away from the ensemble to perform solos, duets, or small group choreography.<ref name="Mackrell">{{Cite news |last=Mackrell |first=Judith |date=2017-03-17 |title=Royal Ballet triple bill review – gripping vision of the refugee crisis |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/17/royal-ballet-triple-bill-review-refugee-crisis-crystal-pite-christopher-wheeldon-david-dawson |access-date=2023-04-09
[[Image:Marcelino Sambé at USAIBC2010.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=See caption|[[Marcelino Sambé]],
The dance transitions to a ''[[pas de deux]]'' originated by [[Marcelino Sambé]] and [[Kristen McNally]].<ref name=Watts /><ref name=Monahan /> The choreography is broken up with moments of each dancer performing solo choreography, then returning to a duet.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=464}} The choreography suggests that the couple have lost a child.<ref name=Watts /><ref name=Monahan /> During the couple's dance, the other performers place their coats on the female dancer, causing her to collapse. The performers enter a doorway, but the weight of the jackets prevents the female dancer from joining them and she remains on the ground, shivering. The male performer stays with her, dancing in frustration.<ref name=Jennings /> The ballet ends with the two dancers performing together<ref name="Sulcas" /> and the male soloist turning away from a closing door as the other dancers are seen darting through the opening.<ref name="OBrien" /> The final movement is of the male principal dancer placing a hand on the shoulder of the female principal dancer,{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=464}} with the dancer's fate left ambiguous.{{sfn|Abdo|Attia|Amin|2023|p=85}}
The choreography incorporates a loose torso and grounded movement, which are atypical in ballet.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=461}} A fluid, slow-moving [[Motif (narrative)|motif]] sequence is repeated throughout the piece, becoming more elaborate in each reiteration. The dance becomes faster towards the middle of the work, incorporating dabbing and thrusting movements.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=463}} Lines were commonly used on stage to create tension, with queues of dancers formed to contrast periods of waiting with other moments of the dancers getting direction from external forces.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=464}} Raised arms were used to represent the wings of birds and mimic the waves of water.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=467}}
==Development==
[[Image:Crystal Pite.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=See caption|[[Crystal Pite]],
The Royal Ballet commissioned what would become ''Flight Pattern'' in 2014, which was Pite's first piece for the company.<ref name=Winship />{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=462}} While listening to possible music selections, focusing on [[contemporary classical music]], she was thinking about the ongoing [[2015 European migrant crisis|European migrant crisis]].<ref name="Monahan 2017">{{Cite news |last=Monahan |first=Mark |date=2017-03-14 |title=Choreographer Crystal Pite: 'I'm not putting this on stage as a political act' |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/ballet/choreographer-crystal-pite-creative-young-women-often-have-get/ |access-date=2023-04-09
Pite chose to work with a large ensemble for this piece to showcase complex choreography with simpler movement. At the beginning of the creation process, Pite created movement phrases before the rehearsals and taught them to the dancers; Lucía Piquero Álvarez, a professor at the [[University of Malta]], speculated in her analysis of the piece that the motif sequence was taught during this time.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=462}}
Nancy Bryant designed identical grey costumes in the performance;<ref name=
==Performances==
[[File:ROH auditorium 001.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1
''Flight Pattern'' premiered on 16 March 2017 at the [[Royal Opera House]]
''Flight Pattern'' was revived in May 2019, with McNally and Sambé reprising their roles. It was performed as the third act in a triple bill, succeeding the choreographer [[Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui]]'s ''Medusa'' and Wheeldon's ''Within the Golden Hour''.<ref name="Winship 2019">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/may/09/royal-ballet-within-the-golden-hour-medusa-flight-pattern-review-royal-opera-house|title=Royal Ballet: Within the Golden Hour / Medusa / Flight Pattern review – monsters and melancholy|newspaper=The Guardian|last=Winship|first=Lyndsey|date=9 May 2019|access-date=2023-04-10|archive-date=27 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827172443/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/may/09/royal-ballet-within-the-golden-hour-medusa-flight-pattern-review-royal-opera-house|url-status=live}}</ref> A performance was recorded and published on the Royal Ballet website, and available for purchase until December 2020.<ref name="OBrien" />
After finishing choreographing ''Flight Pattern'', Pite was invited by [[Kevin O'Hare]], the director of the Royal Ballet, to choreograph other new works for the company. Instead, Pite stated that she wanted to extend
==Themes and analysis==
[[File:Wien - Westbahnhof, Migranten am 5 Sep 2015.jpg|thumb|upright=1.
The
▲[[File:Wien - Westbahnhof, Migranten am 5 Sep 2015.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=A photograph of a group of refugees standing on a train station platform|Refugees waiting at a train station in Vienna. Although the influx of refugees to Europe in the 2010s was an inspiration, the piece did not establish the dancers as characters in a specific time or place.]]
The narrative is [[Nonlinear narrative|non-linear]], particularly in the first part of the piece, where multiple story arcs are shown simultaneously on stage. Narratives include looking for people in a queue, rocking a baby, and bodies left behind as the crowd moves to a new ___location.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=467}} In some sections, dancers perform together, representing refugees as a single body of people moving as a group.{{sfn|
▲The piece's theme was the plight of displaced persons as they travelled between locations.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|pp=461-462}}{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=309}} While getting inspiration from conflicts from the past century, particularly the influx of refugees to Europe during the 2010s, it did not place its dancers in a specific time or ___location. Instead, the dancers are an allegory for the experience of displaced persons.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|pp=301, 304}}{{sfn|Abdo|Attia|Amin|2023|p=83}} The subject matter is conventional for dance pieces in the [[Western world]], showcasing people outside of the hierarchies of power as performers dancing in a stylized manner. The uniformity of the grey costumes evoked a setting of a prison or battlefield, with the dancers under the control of a more powerful entity,{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=307}} even though a specific antagonist is not named or explored in the narrative.{{sfn|Abdo|Attia|Amin|2023|p=82}} By not placing the piece narratively in a specific historical setting, the piece avoided themes on the racialization of refugees or the relationship between colonialization and displaced persons.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=310}}
The movement incorporated realistic human gestures and fantastical, emotional extremes with animalistic qualities.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=306}} The first section of the dance contains motifs of suspensions of weight or unbalanced spins.<ref name="Schabas 2017" /> The dancers often gaze upwards towards something too far to reach.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=310}} The duet between the two principal dancers shows the journey of a female character who starts as a mother providing support to her child, and then acts similarly to a baby who needs support.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|pp=463-464}} The baby's presence represents an [[anchor baby]], whose birth allows the child to become rooted in their new ___location while the rest of the group is still transient.
▲The narrative is [[Nonlinear narrative|non-linear]], particularly in the first part of the piece, where multiple story arcs are shown simultaneously on stage. Narratives include looking for people in a queue, rocking a baby, and bodies left behind as the crowd moves to a new ___location.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=467}} In some sections, dancers perform together, representing refugees as a single body of people moving as a group.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=305}}{{sfn|Abdo|Attia|Amin|2023|p=82}} A motif in the work is dancers with outstretched arms, suggesting they have reached their physical limitations.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=306}}
▲The movement incorporated realistic human gestures and fantastical, emotional extremes with animalistic qualities.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=306}} The first section of the dance contains motifs of suspensions of weight or unbalanced spins.<ref name="Schabas 2017" /> The dancers often gaze upwards towards something too far to reach.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=310}} The duet between the two principal dancers shows the journey of a female character who starts as a mother providing support to her child, and then acts similarly to a baby who needs support.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|pp=463-464}} The baby's presence represents an [[anchor baby]], whose birth allows the child to become rooted in their new ___location while the rest of the group is still transient.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=306}} The mother shows a vulnerable person who is exhausted and hungry.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=306}} The emotions displayed in the piece are developed from the tension created by the story, movement quality, music, and spacing between the dancers.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|p=457}}
==Critical reviews==
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| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name=Monahan />
}}
''Flight Pattern'' received mostly positive reviews. Pite's choreography of the 36 dancers was described by Graham Watts in ''[[Bachtrack]]'' as "beautiful"<ref name="Watts 2017">{{Cite news |last=Watts |first=Graham |title=The Royal Ballet: The Human Seasons/ After the Rain / Flight Pattern |work=Bachtrack |url=https://bachtrack.com/review-royal-ballet-human-seasons-after-the-rain-flight-pattern-royal-opera-house-london-march-2017 |access-date=2023-04-11 |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411181830/https://bachtrack.com/review-royal-ballet-human-seasons-after-the-rain-flight-pattern-royal-opera-house-london-march-2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> and Martha Schabas in ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' as a "visually breathtaking work of art".<ref name="Schabas 2017" /> Reviewers differed on the emotional impact of the piece: some thought it was impactful<ref name=Crompton /><ref name="Winship 2019" /> and that the choreography avoided abstract and metaphorical movement to a positive effect
Reviewers highlighted the 18-year gap since the Royal Ballet commissioned work from a female choreographer.<ref name=Jennings /><ref name="Mackrell" /><ref name="Winship Review 2017" /> They also pointed out that ''Flight Pattern''{{'}}s contemporary ballet style is different from the classical ballet that the company often performs in its [[repertoire]] and from the other dances performed in the same program.<ref name=Jennings /><ref name="Schabas 2017" /> [[Luke Jennings]],
==Awards and nominations==
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|''Flight Pattern''
|{{win}}
|<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-43668013|title=Olivier Awards 2018: Winners in full|
|}
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===Works cited===
*{{Cite journal |
*{{Cite journal |last=Golomb |first=Sariel |date=2023 |title=Channels Through the Humane: The Exiled Body in Crystal
* {{
[[Category:2017
[[Category:Ballets set in the
[[Category:Works set in the 2010s]]
[[Category:Ballets set in Europe]]
[[Category:Ballets by Crystal Pite]]
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