Obsession with Baroque dance. Passepied by Jean Michel Blais

A special journey, a teenager’s obsession with Baroque dance. With punchy colour and rawness, the film dives into the young man’s imaginative inner world following his journey of self-discovery and self-expression through his intense love for the passepied, a historic French court dance.

The young shifts feverishly between his modern-day urban realities and his decadent Baroque fantasies – eventually spinning into one delirious, heady dance of escapism.

In docufiction style, director Adrian Villagomez sets Jean-Michel’s passepied to a film of vulnerable beauty and striking visuals, poignantly depicting reality and dream states through the pairing of 16mm (real-life documentary) and digital (dream) film.

The title of Jean-Michel’s piece passepied references the lively, fast-paced dance popular in the 17th and 18th-century French court. Composer Claude Debussy composed his version of the dance in his Suite Bergamasque for piano. Inspired by Debussy, Jean-Michel wrote a new passepied for the 21st century, which features on his new album Aubades.

aubades is his first journey into writing for a chamber orchestra. The release is a vibrant and expressive album of warm tonalities and rich instrumentation, taking its title from Medieval love songs about lovers parting at dawn.

Jean-Michel Blais. Our Saturday music video. (Official Music Video). METALOCUS MUSIC PROJECT.

Credits.-

Director.- Adrian Villagomez.
DOP.- Juliette Lossky.
Assistant director.- Charlotte Danais.
1st AC.- Olivier Aubé.
Steadicam operator.- Kes Tagney.
Chief Gaffer.- Pierre-Luc Jobin.
Chier Grip.- Brice Bodson.
Grip.- Ludovic Pilon.
Swing.- Tom Berthelot.
Best-Boy.- David Booth.
Choreographer.- Lauri-Ann Lauzon
Stylist.- Marianne Blais, Cloé Fortier.
Styling Assistant.- Sophie Vincelette.
HMU.- Arianne Tremblay, MaryJane Khalif.
HMU assistant.- Amanda Doucet.
Production.- Consulat.
Producer.- Elyse Belmont-Stroh.
Production Coordinator.- Samuel Petitclerc.
Production assistant.- Nicholas Gonos, Tiffany St-Surin.
Site conservation technicians.- Samuel Villagomez, Timour, Marie Pontais, Mathilde Thomas.
Offline editor.- Vinoth Varatharajan.
Online editor.- Adrian Villagomez.
Color grading.- Simon Boissoneaux.

Cast
Protagonist.- Sacha Barbants.
Antagonist.- Vladimir Belova-Mourkes.
Artist.- Jean-Michel Blais.
Dansers.- Jordan Faye, Brittney Gering, Misheel Ganbold, Nicholas Bellefleur.
Figuration.- Amanda Doucet, Charlie Kunce, Devon Bates, Emma Cocchrane, Gabriel Cordova, Laurent Bélanger, Malaika Raymond, Ludovic Balmir, Marilou Richer, Paolo Marmin, Dominic Harrisson Danis, Arnaud Barbants, Larissa.

Supplier
Mtl Grande.- camera equipment.
Cineground.- Camera equipment.
Cinepool.- Cinema equipment.
Multi-service luna.- protection equipment.
MainFilm.- 16 mm camera.
MELS.- 16 mm dev + scan.

Special Thanks
La Belle Tonki and the Keenan Residence
L'École Supérieure de ballet du Québec.

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