DEAR VASLAV

Short fiction film

Written and directed by Sidney Leoni, Dear Vaslav is a 2024 short fiction film that offers an intimate and subjective portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky, perhaps the most iconic ballet artist of the twentieth century. The film traces Nijinsky’s life, from his notable success in Paris with the Ballets Russes company, to the moment when his mental state deteriorates and he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nijinsky describes his onset of psychosis in his diary, where he is plagued by sexual obsessions, the fear of losing his job and the horror of the First World War. A few years earlier, Nijinsky has a love affair with Romola de Pulszky, a young girl from high society who joins the Ballets Russes with the sole aim of seducing him. After a series of misunderstandings with the impresario of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, who was both his domineering mentor and possessive lover, Nijinsky impulsively marries Romola.
Dear Vaslav is a sensitive testimony, a window on the human soul, which gives a special place to the poetic expression of feelings, the real driving force behind Nijinsky’s revolutionary creation.

Written, directed and edited by Sidney Leoni Cast Elias Girod, Halla Ólafsdóttir, Manon Santkin, Christine De Smedt, Sidney Leoni Narrated by Caroline Donnelly, Caroline Mozzone, Clive Mitchell Cinematography Artur Castro Freire Original music score Yoann Durant & Sidney Leoni Makeup design Valko Costume design Jennifer Defays & Rachel Lesteven Production Sidney Leoni Duration 30 minutes

FLY

Film dance performance

FLY is a film-dance-performance that dives into the mind and work of the legendary choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, who finds great success in Paris with the Ballets Russes company in the early 20th century. A decade later, Nijinsky is in exile in a civil war-ravaged Bolshevik Russia. He is tormented by sexual obsessions, the fear of losing his job and the horror of the First World War. He writes a diary in which he describes his visceral need to love, and testifies to an incipient psychosis that will later turn into schizophrenia. 

FLY is like a vessel journeying through space and time, in which a cast of contemporary International dance artists are catapulted back to the last century, invited to embody Nijinsky, his entourage and the Ballets Russes against a backdrop of artistic revolution, war, conformity and sexual repression.

On the borderline between film and performance, the events projected on the screen serve as a backdrop and as counter- and co-players to the dancers on stage. In this hybrid performance, everything is put at the service of a spiritual and timeless quest for love, where historical facts mingle with the imagination and feelings of the characters, in a dreamlike and experimental way.

FLY est une performance de danse-film qui plonge dans l’esprit et l’œuvre du légendaire chorégraphe Vaslav Nijinsky, qui connaît un grand succès à Paris avec la compagnie des Ballets Russes au début du XXe siècle. Dix ans plus tard, Nijinsky s’exile d’une Russie bolchevique en proie à la guerre civile.
Il est tourmenté par des obsessions sexuelles, la peur de perdre son travail et l’horreur de la Première Guerre mondiale. Il tient un journal intime dans lequel il décrit son besoin viscéral d’aimer, et témoigne d’une psychose naissante qui se transformera plus tard en schizophrénie.

FLY fait figure de vaisseau traversant l’espace‑temps, dans lequel une multitude d’artistes de la danse contemporaine est catapultée au siècle dernier. Ils y incarnent Nijinsky, ainsi que son entourage et les Ballets Russes sur fond de révolution artistique et de guerre.

À la frontière entre film et performance, les événements projetés sur l’écran servent de toile de fond et de contre- et co-joueurs aux danseurs sur scène. Dans FLY, tout est mis au service d’une quête spirituelle et intemporelle de l’amour, où les faits historiques se mêlent à l’imagination et aux sentiments des personnages, sur un mode onirique et expérimental.

SPRING & SUMMER TOUR DATES 2023

IN BELGIUM

23.03.23 Culturcentrum De Spil – Roeselare
30.03. 23 STUK – Leuven
01.04.23 Charleroi/Danses (Festival Legs) co-presented with Kaaitheater – Brussel

IN SWEDEN

with Dansnät Sverige
12.04.23  Jönköping teater – Jönköping
15.04.23 Uppsala konsert & kongress – Uppsala
18.04.23 Dalateatern – Falun
20 & 21.04.23 Dansens Hus – Stockholm
23.04.23 Studio Acusticum – Pitea
25.04.23 Västeras konserthus – Västeras

IN AUSTRIA

31.07.23 & 02.08.23 Impulstanz – Vienna

Concept, direction and choreography by Sidney Leoni Cast for live performance Elias Girod/Philip Berlin, Linda Blomqvist, Manon Santkin/Stina Nyberg, Sidney Leoni Costume designers Jennifer Defays & Rachel Lesteven Lighting design for live performance Tim Wouters & Anton Andersson Narrated by Caroline Donnelly, Caroline Mozzone, Descha Daemgen & Clive Mitchell Cinematography Artur Castro Freire Original music score Yoann Durant & Sidney Leoni Makeup Valko Production management Caravan Production Duration 90 minutes

BiO

Sidney Leoni

Sidney Leoni (1984, Toulon, France) lives and works in Brussels & Stockholm as a choreographer, dancer-performer and filmmaker. His artistic research explores the field of immersive and experiential theatre and cinema, in which he focuses on the processes and effects of the audience’s imaginary and sensory perceptions.

Sidney’s latest project, dance-film-performance FLY (2022, premiere at Moderna Museet, Stockholm) proposes an intimate and very subjective portrait of perhaps one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century, Vaslav Nijinsky.

With his previous performance projects Undertone (2010) and Hertz (2013), the theatre space is plunged in complete darkness, becoming the stage for the orchestration of sensory movements such as surround-soundscapes, live music, smells, vibrations, airflows and temperature fluctuations, in correlation to performative situations of encounter and mutual reliance between performers, musicians and audience members.

Sidney’s first feature film Under Influence (2015, Hiros, premiere at Dansens Hus, Stockholm)) is a work of fiction that he also wrote, directed and produced, starring choreographers-performers Halla Ólafsdóttir and Christine de Smedt. The picture portrays the mysterious and psychotic journey of an actress during the shooting of a motion picture entitled ‘Being Kate Winslet’.

In 2008-2009, Sidney took part in the master’s programme Research in Choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts, and in 2002- 2006 he followed the bachelor’s and master’s programme Research in Dance at the Sophia Antipolis University in Nice. Before that, in 1990-1998, Sidney trained as a ballet dancer at the Toulon National Opera in France.

As a performer, Sidney has taken part in works by Mette Ingvartsen: Giant City (2009) and The Artificial Nature Project (2012), Andros Zins-Browne: The Host (2010) and Welcome to the Jungle (2012), and Stina Nyberg: Splendour (2015).

Sidney Leoni (1984, Toulon, France) travaille comme chorégraphe, danseur et cinéaste entre Bruxelles et Stockholm. Ses projets multidisciplinaires de scène et de film explorent le domaine de l’immersif et de l’expérientiel, dans lequel il accorde un intérêt particulier au potentiel de perception sensorielle et imaginaire du public. 

Son dernier projet FLY (2022, première au Musée d’art moderne de Stockholm), se tient à la frontière entre film et performance et propose un portrait intime et très subjectif de l’un des plus grands danseurs du XXe siècle, Vaslav Nijinsky. À la frontière entre film et performance, FLY fait figure de vaisseau traversant l’espace‑temps, dans lequel une multitude d’artistes de la danse contemporaine est catapultée au siècle dernier. Ils y incarnent Nijinsky, ainsi que son entourage et les Ballets Russes sur fond de révolution artistique et de guerre.

Le premier long métrage de Sidney, intitulé Under Influence (Hiros, 2016, première à Dansens Hus, Stockholm), avec les artistes Halla Olafsdottir et Christine de Smedt, dépeint le voyage mystérieux et psychotique d’une actrice lors du tournage d’un film intitulé ‘Being Kate Winslet).

Dans ses chorégraphies – Undertone (2010) et Hertz (2013) – l’espace théâtral est plongé partiellement ou entièrement dans la pénombre, et un ensemble de variations sensorielles – comme des paysages sonores en son surround, de la musique live, des odeurs, des tremblements, des courants d’air et des changements de température – sont générés en corrélation avec des situations performatives de rencontre et de dépendance mutuelle entre un groupe de performeurs, de musiciens et le public.

En 2008-2009, Sidney a suivi le programme du Master de Recherche en Chorégraphie à l’Université de Danse de Stockholm. Entre 2002-2006 il a suivi le programme de Licence et de Master en Recherche en Danse à l’Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis. Sidney a précédemment suivi une formation de danseur de ballet à l’Opéra de Toulon en France.

En tant que performeur, il a participé aux projets de Mette Ingvartsen – Giant City (2009) et The Artificial Nature Project (2012), d’Andros Zins-Browne – The Host (2010) et Welcome to the Jungle (2012), et de Stina Nyberg – Splendour (2015). Depuis 2008, Sidney est membre de mychoreography, une organisation indépendante basée à Stockholm.

Contact

leoni.sidney(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com
+32 476 56 39 34