The bed is a cocoon where a young child continues to grow and develop ; it is a private, snug and cosy place. In realistic fashion the dance traces the stages in the development of psycho-motility in the first year of life, portraying the baby’s movements as it acquires the first signs of autonomy–pushing with its hands, turning on its back or belly, crawling, walking on all fours–up to being able to walk upright. The child is present in its body and its immediate environment, discovering it through touch and sight. For the dancers this means unlearning movement, shattering coordination, being at ease in the body in order to return to the gestures of a baby, rediscovering that primal force.

Between the ages of 4 and 8, the child learns to express himself and to manage his emotions, to channel his exuberant energy. It is a period when the child abandons the desire for omnipotence, and is confronted with the desires of others.

Here the bed is shown as a place of punishment, of solitude, of a refuge necessary for calming down and overcoming anger. In this tableau a very angry little girl is sent to her room, where she lets her anger explode to the point where she damages a favourite toy. After the storm she discovers how to calm down and regain her equilibrium. On stage the little girl is surrounded by three dancers who, echoing her emotions, amplify her angry movements.

Alone in his bedroom a bored 8-year-old boy dreams of superheroes, characters in a movie he is making up. The bed becomes his camp, a territory to be defended, a battle ground. It is through the eyes of this little boy that things appear and disappear. In a surrealist, ever-changing world that pays veiled tribute to comic books, the dancers incarnate incredible situations imagined by the boy–being kidnapped, escaping, fighting evildoers, facing danger, turning into a Transformer.

Between the ages of 12 and 16 the child enters into a period of noise and disorder, of change, of contradictions, of rebellion against the established order. The bed is moved from the bedroom to the basement. The bed is jumped on, shifted here and there, becoming a site for pillow fights and for partying, until it’s time to leave childhood and the family home behind. The dance here is more energetic, more rock ‘n roll. The structure of the bed unfolds and is dismantled, becoming a percussion instrument and a ladder leading to the adult world.