Paris (AFP)

She made mourning dance, migration crisis, couple problems: the Canadian Crystal Pite, back in Paris, is the poetess of today's choreographers for whom each creation rhymes with ovation.

Recently described by the Guardian as a "dance genius" in the 21st century, the 48-year-old artist returns on Sunday with a new creation for the Paris Opera Ballet, three years after the triumph of "Seasons" Canon ". cosmic fresco for 54 dancers on Vivaldi's "Four Seasons".

This time with 40 "Body and Soul" performers, a title that suits her: while the majority of contemporary choreographers favor technicality, Pite manages to reach the audience with movements that look like robots but which evoke the human condition.

"I create all the time with the public in mind, our time is precious and I find it touching that people continue to come to the theater," says the choreographer in an interview with AFP at the Palais Garnier where will be held the first .

"Of course, I want the audience to be moved, but that's not my main goal, I want them to be accomplices ... it sounds like home," adds the artist to the almost childlike voice.

Accomplice, she is also with the dancers of the Opera.

"Crystal Pite is a great inspiration for many of us," says AFP a dancer participating in the new creation. She praises a "woman of great mental strength" and "her way of visualizing her ballet".

On Instagram, star dancer Ludmila Pagliero spoke of "magic in the air" during rehearsals.

- "Questions without answers" -

"The dancers are amazing here," says Crystal Pite. With their work "with great contemporary choreographers like William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Hofesh Shechter, they have deepened their knowledge, they surprise me every day and are hungry for new things."

The artist notes "the impressive versatility" of today's dancers, with less and less difference between what a classical dancer and a contemporary dancer, according to her.

She shows a video clip of initial "Body and Soul" rehearsals, conducted with young dancers in Canada, which she uses as a "human sketchbook" before she sets up her creation on a large company scale. Dancers imitate a back and forth waves in a tingling reminiscent of his previous creations.

"Then I add human voices and gradually the sound of waves becomes that of demonstrations", adds the choreographer who says often draw inspiration from "big questions that have no answer", sometimes related to the news .

"Flight Pattern" (2017, Royal Ballet of London) is a dark picture of the tragedy of refugees; "Betroffenheit", a big hit in Europe in 2015 created with playwright Jonathan Young, deals with trauma after bereavement, based on the personal tragedy of Young who lost his daughter, niece and nephew in a fire in 2009.

The choreographer - forty pieces to his credit - has created especially for his company, "Kidd Pivot", created in 2002 in Vancouver.

It's about a hundred kilometers from this Canadian city, in Victoria, that Crystal Pite was born, who says she wanted to choreograph since childhood, improvising steps in the yard of her house or in her dance school.

The mid-way between Pina Bausch's dance-theater and William Forsythe's geometric dance - her mentor for five years at the Frankfurt Ballet - did not have an easy connection with ballet. because of "a soft back and legs not made for the classic".

© 2019 AFP