Early 20th century, a penthouse in Paris. Leaning over his desk and clutching his pen, he lets his worries spill over the pages. The words are imbued with the horror of the First World War, sexual obsessions and the fear of losing his job. The scattered letters belong to him, Vaslav Nijinsky - God's dancer.

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Venue

Hallen, Mårbackagatan 11

Duration

90 minutes

20 Apr

19:00

21 Apr

19:00

In Sidney Leoni's performance FLY we meet legendary dance choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. We follow his career with the Russian Ballet, his family relationships and his diligent diary writing. These fragmented texts reveal an incipient psychosis, which will soon turn into schizophrenia.

A combination of film and dance weaves together a historical epic that takes us on a journey through time and space. Fusing fact with fantasy, artists - both living and dead - come together to remind humanity of what they need most: love.

About Vaslav Nijinky

The most brilliant dancer who ever lived, an epithet many would attribute to Vaslav Nijinsky.

Born in Kiev in 1889 as the second child of three other travelling Polish dancers, he acquired a taste for the art form as a Colt child. Trained at the Mariinsky Theatre's Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg, Vaslav became one of the dancers in Sergei Djagilev's internationally touring Ballet Russes company. Vaslav was soon recognised for his powerful yet graceful technique and unusually inventive role interpretation skills. But Nijinsky wanted more; he became interested in creating his own work. It wasn't long before his choreographies would cause a stir. The works, 'A Faun's Afternoon' and 'The Rite of Spring' were certainly innovative, but caused a scandal. Violence erupted in the audience as the performances were deemed to have crossed the boundaries of both traditional ballet and decency.

Vaslav's last performance took place at a private party in St Moritz in 1919, during which he kept a detailed diary that would reveal his mental illness. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to the state hospital in Zurich. He was then periodically hospitalised at home and in private nursing homes for the rest of his life.

The performance toured the country with Dansnät Sweden.

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Sidney Leoni

Sidney Leoni is a choreographer, dancer and filmmaker trained at Toulon Opera, Sophia Antipolis University and DOCH Stockholm. Based in France, Belgium and Sweden, he works multidisciplinary between stage and film projects.

Leoni's work is usually based on the audience's experience and its sensory and imaginary perception. He likes to play with fiction and reality, which in FLY provokes reflection and blurs the line between dance and film art.

Sidney Leoni - portrait - Sidney Leoni

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20 April at 18.15

Introduction with author and cultural writer Erik Näslund before the first performance. A specialist in modernism in theatre and the legendary Russian and Swedish ballets in Paris, Näslund has contributed to many exhibitions and books and in 2000 he organised an extensive Nijinsky exhibition in Stockholm, Paris and Hamburg. Erik Näslund was previously director of the Dance Museum.