Gods and Dogs

Gods and Dogs / Angels' Atlas

The confrontation of the individual with reality and their attempts to overcome or avoid difficulties are key themes in Jiří Kylián's work. Gods and Dogs (2008) explores this thought process by reflecting on the way we dress and the underlying motives that lead us to prefer one garment over another: «We spend our whole lives wearing clothes like masks and changing and altering them depending on the circumstances and how others see us.» Jiří Kylián shares the fascination he feels for the behavior of the individual through dance, staging the human attempt to find their place in a society that is difficult to describe clearly. Canadian dancer Crystal Pite was a member of the Ballet British Columbia and the Frankfurt Ballet under the direction of William Forsythe. She made her debut as a choreographer in 1990 with the Ballet BC. Since then, she has developed more than fifty dance pieces for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, the Royal Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Cullberg Ballet and Ballet Frankfurt, among others. Her exhilarating, unconventional work has won numerous international awards. Angels’ Atlas was created by Crystal Pite for the National Ballet of Canada in 2020. It unfolds n front of a constantly changing light installation – a vast, unrecognisable landscape of light and matter. Against this fantastical backdrop, dancing bodies become a sign of human transience as well as vitality.