PETITE MORT is a poetic, and strangely significant way of describing the ecstasy of a sexual intercourse.

In French, and in some other languages, this sensation is described as “small death”.

And it maybe so, that in the moment of pleasure ( or in the moment of potentially creating a new life ) we are reminded of the fact that our lives are of a relatively short duration, and that death is never too far from us.

In my work, I have based my choreography on two slow movements from the two most famous piano concertos by Mozart. I have cut them away from the fast movements, leaving them as mutilated torsos, lying helplessly in front of the listener and beholder. They lie there, just like some ancient torso's, without arms and legs, unable to walk or embrace.

There is no doubt, that it is perverse to do such a thing. But yet we do. And I am no exception. We live in a world in which nothing is sacred.

Since the time in which Mozart’s music was created, and today, many wars were fought and much blood had to flow under the “Bridge of Time”. And, it was mostly men swaying swords in show of their potency and power.

And it is always a "Mort”, which accompanies our lives, sometimes it is "Petite", sometimes it is "Grand", but it is the most faithful companion we have, from the dawn of our existence till the end.

Jiří Kylián - Den Haag September 23, 2007

FALLING ANGELS is a work for eight women. It was conceived as a somewhat light-hearted homage to female performers. Although the music by Steve Reich creates a very strict structure, at the same time it leaves much freedom for choreographic and emotional interpretation.

Choreographically, this piece is a study of the two most opposing properties of any art work: discipline and freedom. To try and let these two contradicting elements coexist side by side, seemed to me an interesting undertaking.

The eight women dance in this work from start to finish. They never leave the stage. Their interdependence, and their wish to break out is evident throughout the entire piece. The light dissects the stage into different geometric areas and so it determines where the various group dances and solos take place.

FALLING ANGELS is a work about performers and the art of performing, with all its panache, anxiety, vulnerability, inferiority complexes and humour. It is a symbol of a strife between belonging and independence, a dilemma, which accompanies all of us from cradle to grave.

Jiří Kylián - Den Haag, April 16, 2008

SECHS TÄNZE - Mozart, whose music I have chosen for this production, is the greatest example of someone, whose life span was painfully limited, but who nevertheless understood life in all its richness, fantasy, clownery and madness. It is his spirit, and his acceptance of the fact, that our life is not more than a masquerade or a dress rehearsal for something deeper and much more meaningful, which has inspired me to make this work.

Jiří Kylián - September 2007