Crystal Pite v. Wayne McGregor in Toronto

Last weekend I took my inquisitive and thoughtful boy to see 2 of today's contemporary ballet great names in action.
Crystal Pite is almost local, she's Canadian (Vancouver). Wayne McGregor is from away.
They couldn't be any more on opposite sides of the spectrum of good contemporary dance.
Their dancers are the best you could possibly want to work with. But the shows left a different aftertaste. Hers - you wanted to see it again when it ended after 2 long acts. His - you wished it stopped while it was going on. Obnoxious and contrived from the get go.

He was a dog of one trick, which we got the hang of after 5 minutes and wished we hadn't. It was cold and cruel and pretentious, both to the dancers and to the audience. He put the dancers on the highest volume of movement from the first second to the last, never letting up till the end. They moved in virtuosity but said only one thing about the human condition - to me that is what dance is supposed to do. He told us, for exactly 60 minutes and not very eloquently, that we are like dogs in a race even though we think we are more. I wouldn't be so harsh if he wasn't such a big name in the filed, and should know better.

Crystal Pite's, in contrast, was about creation and destruction, and about love created and destroyed carelessly, and hearts that can be mended with care. It was graceful even in violence, and strong when it was soft. The very last duet is the mark of a real artist at her best, of knowing what life is all about.