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{{Short description|2017 ballet by Crystal Pite}}

{{About|the ballet|the photographic sculpture installation|Flight Patterns{{!}}''Flight Patterns''}}

{{Featured article}}

{{Pp-protected|small=yes}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}

{{Infobox ballet

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| 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 = AAn patternimage scenefrom ''Flight Pattern''

| choreographer = [[Crystal Pite]]

| composer = [[Henryk Górecki]]

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'''''Flight Pattern''''' is a [[contemporary ballet]] choreographed by [[Crystal Pite]], set to the first movement of [[Henryk Górecki]]'s [[Symphony No. 3 (Górecki)|Symphony No. 3]]. It premiered at the [[Royal Opera House]], London, on 16 March 2017, making Pite the first woman to choreograph for the [[The Royal Ballet|Royal Ballet]]'s main stage in 18 years. The ballet won the [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production]] in 2018.

''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 and becomes a series of duets and solos originated by the dancers [[Marcelino Sambé]] and [[Kristen McNally]]. The piece was mostly positively reviewed by critics, with many praising the performance of the two soloists and the choreography of the ensemble. In 2022, Pite expanded the ballet into ''[[Light of Passage]]'', with ''Flight Pattern'' becoming the first part of the ballet. The narrative is [[Nonlinear narrative|non-linear]] and the movement uses lines created by the dancers' bodies and formations of [[Queue area|queues]] to create [[Suspense|tension]] on stage.

==Choreography==

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==Themes and analysis==

[[File:Wien - Westbahnhof, Migranten am 5 Sep 2015.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|alt=A photograph of a group of refugees standing on a train station platform|Refugees travelllingtravelling, the theme of the ballet, here waiting at a train station in Vienna]]

The [[Theme (narrative)|theme]] of ''Flight Patterns'' is the plight of displaced persons as they travel between locations.{{sfn|Piquero Álvarez|2021|pp=461-462}}{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=309}}

The [[Theme (narrative)|theme]] of ''Flight Patterns'' is the plight of displaced persons as they travel 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}}

[[File:Wien - Westbahnhof, Migranten am 5 Sep 2015.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|alt=A photograph of a group of refugees standing on a train station platform|Refugees travellling, the theme of the ballet, here waiting at a train station in Vienna]]

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 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|Abdo|Attia|Amin|2023|p=82}}{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=305}} A motif in the work is dancers with outstretched arms, suggesting they have reached their physical limitations.{{sfn|Golomb|2023|p=306}}

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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<ref name="Schabas 2017">{{Cite news |last=Schabas |first=Martha |date=March 18, 2017 |title=Cleared for Takeoff |page=R9 |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2459666367 |access-date=2023-04-11 |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411181847/https://www.proquest.com/docview/2459666367 |id={{ProQuest|2459666367}} |url-status=live }}</ref> while others felt the choreography was simplistic and sanitised,<ref name=Anderson /> melodramatic,<ref name="Mackrell" /> or lacked the depth of her previous work.<ref name="OBrien" /> Sambé's performance was "exuded fluency and naturalness" according to Watts<ref name=Watts /> whilst other reviewers praised the decision to cast McNally, asan aexperienced soloistperformer, especiallyas becausea she was an experienced performersoloist.<ref name=Jennings>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/19/crystal-pite-flight-pattern-royal-ballet-review-triple-bill-dawson-wheeldon|title=Royal Ballet triple bill review – five stars for Crystal Pite|newspaper=The Guardian|last=Jennings|first=Luke|date=19 March 2017|access-date=2023-04-10|archive-date=27 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427120101/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/19/crystal-pite-flight-pattern-royal-ballet-review-triple-bill-dawson-wheeldon|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Watts 2017" />

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]], writing for ''[[The Guardian]]'', stated that ''Flight Pattern'' had an inquiry and feeling that was missing from the other, classical pieces.<ref name=Jennings /> Kat Lister wrote in ''[[The Independent]]'' that the performance at Royal Opera House, a ___location considered a classical venue, made the piece more impactful to the audience.<ref name="Lister" /> The subject matter of the choreography, highlighting the European migrant crisis, was also questioned by some reviewers., Theywho felt that the topic negatively distracted them from the artistic achievements of the ballet.<ref name="Sulcas" />

==Awards and nominations==

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===Works cited===

*{{Cite journal |last1=Abdo |first1=Abeer Hassan |last2=Attia |first2=Dr Marwa Adel |last3=Amin |first3=Esraa Mohammed Tawfik |date=2023 |title=The Integrated Relation between Advertising Content and Dramatic Performance Embodying the "Refugee Crisis" |url=https://idj.journals.ekb.eg/article_288298.html |journal=International Design Journal |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=75–100 |doi=10.21608/idj.2023.288298 |issn=2090-9632}}

*{{Cite journal |last=Golomb |first=Sariel |date=2023 |title=Channels Through the Humane: The Exiled Body in Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/917480 |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=301–320 |doi=10.1353/tj.2023.a917480 |issn=1086-332X |via=Project Muse|url-access=subscription }}

* {{Cite bookCitation |last=Piquero Álvarez |first=Lucía |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1191456802 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-087149-9 |editor-last1=Farrugia-Kriel |editor-first1=Kathrina |editor-last2=Nunes Jensen |editor-first2=Jill |___location=New York, NY |chapter=On Physicality and Narrative: Crystal Pite's ''Flight Pattern'' (2017) |oclc=1191456802|pages=457–473|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190871499.013.27}}

[[Category:2017 ballets]]

[[Category:Ballets set in the 2010s21st century]]

[[Category:Works set in the 2010s]]

[[Category:Ballets set in Europe]]

[[Category:Ballets by Crystal Pite]]