Flight Pattern: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:06, 25 January 2025

Revision as of 21:48, 6 March 2025

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''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 the piece by choreographing to the rest of Górecki's symphony.<ref name="Lister">{{Cite news |last=Lister |first=Kate |date=2022-10-18 |title=Crystal Pite: 'There's an optimism in gathering together and creating something' |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/culture/crystal-pite-interview-b2202191.html |access-date=2023-04-09 |archive-date=2 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102072843/https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/culture/crystal-pite-interview-b2202191.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Swain 2022">{{Cite news |last=Swain |first=Marianka |date=2022-10-07 |title=Royal Ballet's Crystal Pite: ‘Through'Through dance, I’mI'm able to express the inexpressible’inexpressible' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/ballet/royal-ballets-crystal-pite-creating-dance-trying-express-inexpressible/ |access-date=2024-08-06 |work=The Telegraph }}</ref> Production of the piece was delayed due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] and subsequent lockdowns.<ref name="Swain 2022" /> In 2022, this extended work premiered as ''Light of Passage'', with ''Flight Pattern'' incorporated as the first part of the ballet. This was Pite's first full-length work for the Royal Ballet.<ref name=Watts />

==Themes and analysis==

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| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name=Monahan />

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''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 as a soloist, especially because she was an experienced performer.<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. They felt that the topic negatively distracted them from the artistic achievements of the ballet.<ref name="Sulcas" />

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===Works cited===

*{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Abdo |firstfirst1=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’sPite'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}}

* {{Cite book |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}}