“La petit mort” translates literally as “little death;” however, the phrase comes into play more often as a metaphor for orgasm than a reference to the dearly departed. Conversely, Adela Lastovkova Stodolova’s dance production, Le Petit Mort, is the furthest thing from a Harlequin romance: it’s a comedy.
In the angst of discovering sexuality, we construct elaborate fantasies out of magazine clippings, bad romantic comedies, worse advice from peers, pure hormones, and naiveté.
Seeing the protagonists display themselves in pursuit of the opposite sex, seeing their heartbreak, seeing their empowerment, we flip through the catalogue of our own pivotal moments. The dancers’ movements are memoir in motion from the anthology of first encounters- love, desire, sex, rejection- and how these experiences lead to a different kind of encounter with ourselves.
Watching La Petit Mort, there is the out-loud laugh and quiet sign of relief. We look back at the angst of discovering sexuality with different eyes and see it for the comedy of errors it truly is.
Notice : Can not enter after the house-open