Crystal Pite’s Light of Passage: first look at tonight’s Royal Ballet world premiere

The curtain has just gone down on the opening night – 18 October 2022 ­– of Crystal Pite's Light of Passage. Pite has returned to The Royal Ballet to transform her shorter work Flight Pattern into a full-length ballet.

Flight Pattern was a Royal Ballet commission and premiered in 2017, winning an Olivier Award for Best Dance Production in 2018. It is set to Henryk Górecki's Symphony no 3 (‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs') and this haunting work is a showcase for Pite's distinctive movement style and is a powerful response to the refugee crisis.

For Light of Passage, Pite uses Górecki's full symphony to create a two-act ballet. Flight Pattern (30 minutes) makes up the first act, then after the interval come Covenant (10m) and Passage (20m). Flight Pattern sees Kristen McNally and Marcelino Sambé return to the roles they created, with Calvin Richardson, Joseph Sissens, Benjamin Ella and Luca Acri; Madison Bailey, Ashley Dean, Isabel Lubach, and Matthew Ball join for the new pieces.

The creative team behind Flight Pattern are reunited, with set design by Jay Gowler Taylor, costume design by Nancy Bryant and lighting by Tom Visser. Guest conductor Zoi Tsokanou makes her Royal Opera House debut and will be conducting all performances. Tsokanou is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Greece.

Light of Passage is a co-production between The Royal Ballet and the Norwegian National Ballet.

CASTING

18, 22 (eve) October; 1, 3 November 2022
THE COMPANY
Kristen McNally, Marcelino Sambé, Madison Bailey, Calvin Richardson, Luca Acri, Benjamin Ella, Ashley Dean, Joseph Sissens, Isabel Lubach, Matthew Ball.

19, 22 (mat), 27 October
THE COMPANY
Ashley Dean, Luca Acri, Amelia Townsend, Lukas B. Brændsrød, Liam Boswell, Joshua Junker, Nadia Mullova-Barley, Francisco Serrano, Hannah Grennell, Harry Churches.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.