1 October - Arthur Pita, Choreographer
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! MEETS ... Arthur Pita, Choreographer
Arthur Pita, Portuguese born in South Africa, with family originating from Madeira island. He grew up in Germiston, a small town in Johannesburg. At the age of 8, after becoming obsessed with John Travolta in the movie Grease, Arthur signed up to a local dance school Diana Moore’s Dance World. He trained in Latin American with his sister as his partner and disco dancing. Arthur excelled further as a disco free style dancer, and become a champion dancer, including winning the under 16 boys UK Championships. He then went to study ballet, contemporary dance and flamenco at the Johannesburg Art Ballet Drama and Music School. Inspired by his teacher Sonje Mayo, he fell in love with contemporary dance and choreography. Desperate to escape apartheid South Africa, in 1991 Arthur went to train further at London Contemporary Dance School. After graduating, he began performing as a freelance dancer on various projects before joining the Swan Lake company for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. He worked with the company for seven years, performing internationally in lead and featured roles in Cinderella, The Carman and Nutcracker. Whilst working with the company, Arthur continued to develop his own choreography. He became a resident artist at The Place Theatre under the direction of John Ashford, who became a great mentor for him. He launched his work with CAMP, his first full length work. He also choreographed 'Bugger A Fairy Tale' and 'Boom She She Boom' as part of his residency. He started working with Francesca Zambello, an acclaimed opera director, where he choreographed various opera’s for her. He was influenced by her directing techniques and her strong sense of clarity with the narrative. He then started to work as a collaborator for opera, theatre, musicals and film (Ex Machina, Charlie’s Angels, The Pursuit Of Love) as well as commissions for dance companies, working in major opera houses and theatres around the world. One of his first dance company commissions was for Phoenix Dance Theatre where he created 'Snow White In Black' which premiered at Sadler’s Wells, this then lead on to other commissions for Small Bones and Body Traffic, Balet Moskva, DekkaDancers. Arthur also become interested in working with inclusive disability dance companies and created works for Candoco, Gruop Dancando Com a Differenca and Axis Dance Company. Arthur then launched his own company, BalloArthurPita where he created God’s Garden, The World’s Greatest Show, Stepmother/Stepfather, Ten Sorry Tales and The Little Match Girl. It was during this period that Royal Ballet principle Edward Watson had commented that he enjoyed Arthur’s work. Arthur was very encouraged by this, so he approached Edward and asked if he would star in a new production of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Edward agreed, and won a Olivier Award for the leading role as Gregor Samsa. Arthur won the South Bank Award and the National Dance Award for The Metamorphosis. Arthur and Ed have since worked on ten productions together, the most recent being A Hunger Artist for the Kaka Festival in Oxford. Arthur has also created bespoke works for other ballet stars, Irek Mukhamedov, Robbie Fairchild, Sarah Lamb, Wendy Whelan,Thiago Soares, Ivan Vasiliev, Cassandra Trenary, Leo Dixon and a full length work for James Whiteside 'The Tenant'. Arthur also has a close working relationship with Natalia Osipova, who he has created several works for including FACADA, 'Run Mary Run, and 'The Mother'. This lead to further commissions for Arthur to create works The Great Gatsby, Salome, Bijök Ballet, The Wind, Casse-Noisette, Party Scene, A Dream Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cristaux, and Good Vibrations for Royal Danish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and Houston Ballet.
His recent work in film and television includes Sunshine on Leith (BFI/Creative Scotland, dir. Dexter Fletcher); Ex Machina (Film4/DNA Films, dir. Alex Garland); Charlie’s Angels (Sony Pictures, dir. Elizabeth Banks); The Pursuit of Love (BBC, dir. Emily Mortimer); and Persuasion (Netflix, dir. Carrie Cracknall).
Future works include EQUUS for BalloArthurPita and a collaboration with Rufus Wainwright - Dream Requiem.
Doors open at 6pm, the event begins at 6.30pm and ends by 7.45pm. Then we have until 8.30pm to chat with our guest, mingle & drink & enjoy the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café.
Tickets are non-refundable