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Photos © Jose Aragon, Richard Termine
Photos
Video
LE PETIT MORT
The facts of life and death remain the same. We live and die, we love and grieve, we breed and disappear. And between these essential gravities, we search for meaning, save our memories, leave a record for those who will remember us. - Thomas Lynch

Le Petit Mort exposes postmortem ecstasy somewhere between a dream and a memory. Raw, unsettling, emotionally charged images ask questions that are ultimately unanswerable - questions of the matters of the end. Scenes of disquieting stillness and agitation, haunting traces of life past living, will leave a residue that can't be washed off.

CREDITS:
World Premiere: December 7, 2006; Performance Space 122, New York City

Direction and Choreography: PAVEL ZUŠTIAK
Performed by: BENJAMIN ASRIEL, GINA BASHOUR, ELLEN CREMER, SAAR HARARI, MARYA WETHERS, PAVEL ZUŠTIAK
Projection Design: TAL YARDEN
Lighting Design: JOE LEVASSEUR
Set and Costume Design: NICK VAUGHAN
Sound Design: PAVEL ZUŠTIAK
Music: DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH, MICHAEL NYMAN
Foyer Photography Installation: JOSE ARAGON
Approximate running time is one hour.
PRESS:
"Mr. Zuštiak was born in the former Czechoslovakia, and Le Petit Mort has a compellingly surreal aspect and a genuine darkness reminiscent of the work of Josef Nadj, another Eastern European choreographer who creates inscrutable works about displacement and death...its disturbing images of alienation, thwarted intimacy and sexual violence aren't easy to forget."
Roslyn Sulcas, THE NEW YORK TIMES <read full review>

"...the show succeeds at communicating actual risk. There are 'trust falls' that make you gasp. There are 'trust falls' that no one catches. And for a show about death and love, it's important that risk be part of the equation. ...work this exciting is not "saying goodbye" for long.
Helen Shaw, THE NEW YORK SUN <read full review>

"You may want to get out of a room so fraught with danger, but you won't forget what you've seen."
Deborah Jowitt, THE VILLAGE VOICE <read full review>

"Zuštiak's fascinating if unsettling choreography... abundant, surrealist imagery."
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, INFINITEBODY <read full review>