Rich, engrossing backstage documentary. Slavik Kryklyvyy, a former world Latin American dance champion, returns to competition with a new young partner. “Kryklyvyy is a superb physical specimen, and his dancing is sublime.” — Variety
Slavik Kryklyvyy, a Ukrainian gypsy of volatile temperament, is a superb physical specimen, and his dancing is sublime.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2012
Ballroom Dancer 2011
Impossibly handsome Slavik Kryklyvyy, a former world Latin American dance champion, is making a comeback after a ten-year hiatus. Accompanied by gorgeous Anna Melnikova, herself an amateur world champion, his new partner and lover, he is determined to win back the crown. Anna may just be the girl who can cope with his fiery temperament and exacting nature: Slavik is convinced that he and she will eventually ‘learn to dance together’. The galling success of his ex, reigning champ Joanna Leunis, and her new partner stokes his competitive fires to full blaze. From intensive training sessions to international competitions from Moscow to Hong Kong, this intimate, superbly shot film captures the pair’s every move, misstep and extraordinary spin. It is a rich, engrossing portrait of coupledom, so perfectly idealised on the ballroom dance floor, and so very awkward to choreograph in real life. — SR
“Kryklyvyy turns out to be a filmmaker's dream. Almost hyperbolically handsome, with diamond-cut cheekbones to outdo Johnny Depp, he’s a brooding matinee idol and self-destructive genius – a master craftsman undone by his own gloomy, preening perfectionism.” — Eric Hynes, Village Voice