Crystal Pite on her ballet Flight Pattern (The Royal Ballet)

Leading Canadian choreographer and director Crystal Pite received a Sir Laurence Olivier Award for her astonishing single-act piece “Flight Pattern”, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2017. Set to the first part of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony no. 3, Pite’s enormous ensemble, in anguished, seething movement, portrays the European migrant crisis. “The story of refugees,” says Pite, “is really the story of our time.”