Daniil Simkin

‘Diorama’ is a dance film with ballet stars Maria Kochetkova and Daniil Simkin who have been dance partners for over a decade. When the pandemic started they found themselves in different countries and unable to dance together. The question was how to make them dance together while apart.

Inspired by silent movies we wanted to create a work that was a surreal and bizarre chase after oneself and to portray the sensation of being caught in the space of separation between artist and audience; artist and muse; artist and life. ‘Diorama’ was filmed in both the vast dunes of Skagen, Denmark and inside the empty Deutsche Oper in Berlin with two separate film crews.

The film is also a collaboration with Kronos Quartet who were confined and unable to perform just like Maria and Daniil. They reached out with the idea of doing something together and this is how this project came to life.
The two pieces of music that are performed by Kronos Quartet in the film were created for their ’50 for the Future’. A project where Kronos Quartet commissioned 50 composers to create works that would be made available online for musicians to download and play for free, so they wouldn’t only have to play music of the past.

‘Diorama’ was selected as the 2021 San Francisco Dance Film Festival competition winner in the “Screendance Under 10 Minutes” category.