Nine bodies passing through mirrors, the dancers of the Ballet Preljocaj walk on a tight rope, investigating the edges of existence. They examine an intermediary space, where the envelope of flesh exults and abandons itself at the same time. Near Life Experience is inspired by the instants where the being loses itself in ecstasy, when in a trance, when it loses conscience, or in the extreme intensity of orgasm. The subject of NDE, “Near Death Experience”, declared clinically dead, comes back to life after being bathed, he says, in a swathe of light at the end of an incandescent corridor. Angelin Preljocaj and his dancers opt for a similar experience, but one that is firmly rooted in life itself. They explore “an accessible space, far from death, where the spirit momentarily forgets the body,” says Preljocaj, “even if the body is at that instant actually very much needed.” The group, Air, who composed the score for the film Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola, has also written the music for this performance. Since Marché Noir in 1984, Angelin Preljocaj, has made his choreographic world on the border between classical heritage and avant-garde. In twenty years of producing new pieces, his inventive dance and technically spectacular style, has united contemporary creations and the sacred mammoths of dance repertoire. Romeo and Juliet and the Rites of Spring, or Paysage après la Bataille and Helikopter, have exhibited all the physical states of being with virtuosity and energy, be it beauty, pain, or desire. Near Life Experience says Prejlocaj “brings us back to the notion of \'rapture', which defines equally a luminous sensation and abduction. The subject leaves, he is abducted from himself, he is \'enrapt.' It is a place where rapture evokes at the same time a certain ecstasy and a moment of absence.” Here the body is magnified in writing which is initiated by a mystical yet corporal research.
Distribution
choreography Angelin Preljocaj
cast :Leonardo Centi, Claudia de Smet, Céline Galli, Sergio Diaz Gomez, Emma Gustafsson, Alexandre Nipau, Baptiste Oberson, Zaratiana Randrianantenaina, Nagisa Shirai musique groupe Air, Jean-Benoît Dunckel et Nicolas Godin
scenography :Tom Pye
costumes :Gilles Rosier
Production
Coproduction :Le Ballet Preljocaj-Centre chorégraphique national de la région Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur, Théâtre national de Marseille-La Criée, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Festival Montpellier Danse, le groupe Partouche-Casino municipal Aix / Thermal