Documentaries

In the intimacy of his Parisian workshop, Petia Iourtchenko is making a skirt commissioned for the stage. Metres of fabric, the choice of a colour, the challenge of working with silk, precise yet intuitive gestures… Through this meticulous work, much more than a costume takes shape: a memory, an identity, and a way of passing something on.

A former dancer and choreographer, Petia knows well that a skirt can only dance with the performer who wears it. It must interact with the body, the music, the light and the choreography. It must reveal a character and bring a persona to life. It is part of the artistic process.

But this making process tells, above all, a story. At its origin lies an old skirt brought back from the world of Soviet ballet, taken apart to understand its secrets, then reinvented to become a singular and deeply Rromani creation. Petia does not seek to reproduce a tradition frozen in time: he keeps it alive, transforms it and passes it on.

Romain Claris’s camera thus explores what is truly passed down from one generation to the next: actions, techniques, a sense of excellence, but above all, the freedom to create. Because for Petia, learning does not mean copying. It means receiving the tools, being encouraged, and then finding one’s own voice.

As the making progresses, the skirt comes to life. It becomes an extension of a choreography, a piece of music, a light, a body. And behind this spectacular object emerges a philosophy: to create is to share. To give someone a little beauty and joy, to leave a trace, however fragile, so that something of oneself may continue to live.