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Russia, in the 90s. Polina is a promising classical dancer who has been influenced since childhood by the rigour and exacting standards of her teacher, Bojinski. As she prepares to join the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet, she attends a contemporary dance performance that profoundly affects her. It was an artistic shock that shook everything she believed in. She decides to leave everything behind and move to Aix-en-Provence to work with the talented choreographer Liria Elsaj and try to find her own path.

A film by Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj

Starring Anastasia Shevtsova, Niels Schneider, Juliette Binoche, Jeremie Bélingard, Aleksei Guskov

Born in 1957 in the Paris region, Angelin Preljocaj began studying classical dance before turning to contemporary dance with Karin Waehner, Zena Rommett, Merce Cunningham, then Viola Farber and Quentin Rouillier. He then joined Dominique Bagouet until he founded his own company in December 1984. Since then he has choreographed 60 pieces, ranging from solos to large-scale works, and regularly works with other artists in a variety of fields, including music (Goran Vejvoda, Air, Laurent Garnier, Granular Synthesis, Karlheinz Stockhausen), the visual arts (Claude Lévêque, Subodh Gupta, Adel Abdessemed), design (Constance Guisset), fashion (Jean Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaïa), drawing (Enki Bilal), literature (Pascal Quignard, Laurent Mauvignier) and animated film (Boris Labbé)...

His creations have been performed throughout the world and included in the repertoires of numerous companies, from which he has also received commissions, including the New York City Ballet, the Berlin Staatsoper and the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris. He also makes short films and films featuring his choreography. He has received several awards including the ‘Grand Prix National de la danse’ (1992), the ‘Benois de la danse’ (1995), the ‘Bessie Award’ (1997), ‘Les Victoires de la musique’ (1997), the ‘Globe de Cristal’ (2009) and the ‘Samuel H. Scripps Award’ from the American Dance Festival for his body of work (2014). His first feature film, Polina, danser sa vie, directed with Valérie Müller and adapted from the comic strip by Bastien Vivès, was released in cinemas in November 2016.

In April 2019, he was appointed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the new choreography section. In the same year, he created Winterreise for La Scala in Milan, as well as Soul Kitchen with inmates from the Baumettes Prison Centre in Marseille, the results of four months of workshops held within the prison. The same year saw the release of the documentary Danser sa peine, directed by Valérie Müller, an intimate look at this creative process in a prison environment. The film won first prize at Fipadoc in 2020.

After Swan Lake in 2020 and Deleuze / Hendrix in 2021, he will choreograph and direct Lully's opera Atys for the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2022. At the same time, he devised a short choreography for the ‘Danse Europe!’ application, a participatory project open to all. For Dior, he created the choreography and film Roman Night with the dancers of the Rome Opera Ballet as part of International Dance Day. He also took part in the television series Irma Vep by Olivier Assayas, as an actor and choreographer.

In July 2022, he presented his creation Mythologies for the dancers of the Ballet Preljocaj and the Ballet de l'Opéra de Bordeaux to original orchestral music by Thomas Bangalter. In February 2023 he created Birthday Party for senior dancers at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, commissioned by Aterballetto, and Torpeur in June 2023 at the Festival Montpellier Danse. His latest creation, Requiem(s), saw the light of day in May 2024.

The Ballet Preljocaj now has 30 permanent dancers and performs an average of 120 dates a year throughout the world.

More information

preljocaj.org

After studying cinema at Panthéon-Sorbonne University, where she took classes with Éric Rohmer, Valérie Müller worked as a production assistant and stage manager at Ex Nihilo. She made her first short film, Un matin blanc, in 1995, followed by La Surface de réparation in 1998, starring Marion Cotillard. The following year, she made L'Effet Casimir for France 3, the culmination of several films on the work of dancer and choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. As part of Canal +'s Écrire Pour collection, she directed Les Hommes s'en souviendront in 2007, starring Marina Foïs in the role of Simone Veil.

Her first feature film, Le Monde de Fred, was released in 2014.

In 2020, Danser sa peine, in which the filmmaker again films Angelin Preljocaj's work with women incarcerated at the Baumettes prison in Marseille, won the Grand Prix Documentaire national at the FIPADOC.

She is currently working on a new documentary about three generations of women boxers for France Télévisions, looking at how women take on male stereotypes and their relationship with the body.

Source: CNC