Dance with Me

The impressionist, lyrical style of the film is a departure for Nicolaou, who describes this film as “one half documentary and one half fictional narrative.” The film is a collage visually and thematically, though the narration serves to anchor the piece with a freestyle kind of story telling. Nicolaou drew upon experiences in her own life when creating the film. She incorporates footage from her family’s home movies of the 60s and 70s. “A haunting portrayal of the yearning for intimacy between parent and child.” – Henry Mietkiewicz, Toronto Star Life always appears to be more joyous in old home movies, and Nicolaou liked contrasting the vibrant and beautiful mother and grandmother figures in the past with the more melancholy and damaged images in the present. The comparison is especially interesting, as Nicolaou’s own grandmother, Mary Christo, plays the role of the Baba in this film. Nicolaou also used her experience coming to terms with her own mother’s illness – Multiple Sclerosis- to explore the parallels between the lack of acceptance of homosexuality and of disease in a traditional Macedonian family. The literal loss of sensation and mobility that the disease brings becomes in “Dance With Me” a metaphor for an emotional numbness and an inability to engage. The invitation to dance becomes a call to communicate, to celebrate and ultimately to accept. Awards: Best Experimental Film, Yorkton Short Film Festival ,1998; Audience Award, Best Short, Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 1998