FLY
FLY is a film-dance-performance that dives into the mind and work of the legendary choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, who found great success in Paris with the Ballets Russes in the early 20th century. A decade later, Nijinsky is in exile from 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.
The performance functions as a journey through time and space. A cast of contemporary international dance artists is 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.
• Sidney Leoni works as a choreographer, dancer and filmmaker between Sweden, Belgium and France. His multidisciplinary stage and film projects explore the field of the ‘immersive’ and the ‘experiential’, in which he puts particular interest in the potential of sensory and imaginary perception of the audience. He presented the work War of Fiction at Kaaitheater in 2011.
presented by Charleroi Danse - Festival LEGS 2023
concept, direction and choreography Sidney Leoni | cast for live performance Elias Girod, Halla Ólafsdóttir, Manon Santkin & Sidney Leoni | costume designers Jennifer Defays & Rachel Lesteven | light design for live performance Tim Wouters & Anton Andersson | film cast (in alphabetical order) Alain Siebert, Alexandra Cismondi, Andros Zins-Browne, Aurélia Bézia, Aurélia Guinta, Christina Vantzou, Christine de Smedt, Eleanor Bauer, Elias Girod, Emilio Tomé, Estelle Gautier, Fabrice Pio, Guillem Mont De Palol, Halla Ólafsdóttir, Jaime Llopis, Manon Santkin, Marco Herløv Høst, Mette Ingvartsen, Mikko Hyvönen, Miriam Balloussa, Olivier Valkeners, Sidney Leoni, Stav Yeini, Xenia Ingvartsen Charmatz & Zoë Poluch | narration Caroline Donnelly, Caroline Mozzone, Descha Daemgen & Alain Siebert | cinematography Artur Castro Freire | original music score Yoann Durant & Sidney Leoni | make-up Valko Executive | production Caravan Production (Brussels, BE) | administration The Artist Cooperative Interim Kultur (Stockholm, SE) & Plate-Forme POLY (Paris, FR) | co-production Weld (Stockholm, SE), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk, BE), the National Choreographic Center of Caen (French Ministry of Culture and Communication, FR), Moderna Museet (Stockholm, SE) & Dansinitiativet (Luleå, SE) Residencies Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk, BE), the National Choreographic Center of Caen (FR), Weld (Stockholm, SE), Dansehallerne (Copenhagen, DK), Inkonst (Malmö, SE), STUK - Huis voor Dans, Beeld en Geluid (Leuven, BE), Pact Zollverein (Essen, DE), Howest - 'The level' / Campus for Digital Arts and Entertainment (Kortrijk, BE), the National Opera House of Toulon (FR), Dansinitiativet/Luleå dance residency (SE), Kunstenwerkplaats (Brussels, BE) & Kaap (Bruges, BE) | with the support of the Swedish Arts Council, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, the Flemish Community, the French Ministry of Culture (Dance Delegation), the City of Stockholm, the French Institute in Sweden & the Arts Promotion Center Finland
tickets via charleroi-danse.be