I have trouble accepting that more than one person can have the same name. Infantile, I know. I’m always shocked too, when it turns out that people with the same name have wildly differing personalities. I suppose this is the result of me being an only child with an unusual name – how many Vanillas do you know? That’s what I thought.

Similarly, when I hear a piece of music used in a dance/ballet, I always think of that choreography as being THE choreography. The only one. The original.

Therefore, when I first heard the 2nd movement of Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto in this modern ballet, I forever associated it to this choreography.

Vanilla moment: I first saw that piece in my late teens, and my mother had to explain to me what “Petite Mort” stands for (orgasm). I was confused, both by the slang (“Petite Mort” translates literally to “Little Death”) and how the choreography embodied that meaning. Having rewatched it several times, I understand better, but it doesn’t move me. It did, however, introduce me to the choreographer Jiri Kylian’s work. And some of his work is pretty fantabulous. Check this short video out:

Who says ballet can’t be amusing too?!

ANYHOW, recently, I discovered that the 2nd movement of Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto had been used in another ballet, by a different choreographer (Angelin Preljocaj). Funnily enough, this choreography also deals with sex, but in a much more accessible way. And it deals with romance. Would you just look at the kiss from 5:23 to 6:09?

If that doesn’t sell you on the power of ballet to express emotions that can’t be verbalized, nothing will. We’ve all dreamed of being kissed like that, where the room spins, and your body helicopters off this earth. Some of us have been kissed like that. Lucky peeps.

I can’t even imagine what my next discovery for the 2nd movement of Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto will bring.