Petite Mort

Jiri Kylian based his choreography on two famous piano concertos by Mozart, and he had a pretty clear idea as to what his storyline he would try to portray to the audience was. He wanted to show his audiences the importance of life and how death accompanies life. He describes it as our most faithful companion. Along with this, he has both men and women dressed in nude colors portray this story. He first starts with the men dancing without music and using swords as a prop, then goes into dancing with both men and women and their interaction with each other. Kylian’s choreography throughout this piece is clearly communicated and many people can agree on his views through the story.

The ballet Petite Mort, choreographed by Jiri Kylian, puzzled me at first. Normally, when watching any sort of piece, the music is cue for dancing to begin, however, in Kylian’s piece it starts with the men walking forward and eventually dancing in silence. All of the men danced with swords almost as if they were fighting off an enemy. This slashing of the swords lead me to believe that they wanted to look strong and powerful in the “war” that they were facing together. I was also amazed at how synchronized the dancers were without any sort of music. They used each other, their props, and the sound from the floor they were dancing on to stay together to create a fabulous beginning. Throughout the beginning, the dynamics changed from slow and soft to fast and almost attack-like; watching it made me feel almost frantic inside then slow effortless movement would come and I was able to catch my breath again. Then the men ran out of sight and came back running with a sheet that covered the stage; I believe that the black and grey sheet represented the hardships in life that we face, whether that be in war, in society, or even with ourselves and the people we love surrounding us, these hardships are just passing over our lives and someday the dark cloud will lift back up so we find happiness again.

When the dark cloud lifts ,we see six women laying on the floor completely limp. Then the men come back to their lady and we see some happiness between them. We see the joy that the couples have, then the women run away and the men grab their swords again. They are back to reality and fighting for their loved ones and their communities, and the men also have this sense of sorrow that they hold when picking the swords back up. They continue dancing, with the representation of fighting in war, with the thoughts of their women in their heads and they start to feel that happiness, but that is knocked back down when they push the sword away and it circles back to them. They are facing the reality that no matter what, they will always have to go back to battle and back to fighting in the war. There is a specific part (4:49) where a girl dancer is lifted and her body is limp, she then claps her legs together before crossing