Petite Mort – Jiří Kylián

Petite Mort by Staatsballett Berlin, Choreography by Jiří Kylián, Choreographic assistance by Urtzi Aranburu, Stage design by Jiří Kylián, Costumes by Joke Visser, Light design by Jiří Kylián and Joop Caboort. Music: W. A. Mozart (I Piano Concerto A major KV 488, Adagio and II Piano Concerto C major KV 467, Andante). Duato-Naharin-Kylian, shot on 21.10.2015 in Deutsche Oper Berlin, Germany.

Jiří Kylián, born 1947, is a Czech former dancer and contemporary dance choreographer. Kylián decided to pursue professional ballet training at the “School of the National Ballet Prague” at the age of 9. He admitted to the Prague conservatory in 1962. Here he encountered one of his mentors, teacher and former dancer Zora Semberova. At the conservatory Kylián made his first steps as a choreographer with “Nine eighth’s”, choreographed to jazz music, and “Quartet”, to music by Béla Bártok. In 1967 Kylián received a scholarship to study at the Royal Ballet School in London. Among other artists, Kylián met choreographer John Cranko, who offered him to join the Stuttgart Ballet. In 1968 and worked under John Cranko, where he began to work as a choreographer. Kylián became Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater in 1976. In 1992, he started his own chamber company for dancers over 40. Kylián’s main works include Forgotten Land, Falling Angels, Petite Mort. He has choreographed total more than 100 contemporary ballets.

Petite Mort was composed for the 1991 Salzburg Festival on the second centenary of Mozart’s death with six men, six women, and six foils. Assistant choreographer was Roslyn Anderson, costumes by Joke Visser, and music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart included Piano Concerto in A Major – Adagio and Piano Concerto in C Major – Andante.

Photo by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatsballett Berlin, special thanks to Corinna Erlebach.