Peter Ivanov
Creative direction
Peter Ivanov
Show direction
How do you throw a creative birthday party for a business community? Cast entrepreneurs as 20th-century icons and send guests off to discover the business secrets of history's great creators!
I directed and hosted the birthday of Ushanka, a French business club, and turned it into a costume ball called "Midnight in Paris": time travel in business class, with champagne and caviar.
Inspired by Woody Allen's film, I took 100 guests back to 1920s Paris, when entrepreneurs were artists and artists were entrepreneurs. The venue was the Rachmaninoff Conservatory mansion, with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Chaliapin, Mayakovsky and Rachmaninoff himself once worked in this house.
I cast ten club members, and each of them chose a hero of the era. Getting emotion out of iron-willed businesswomen and serious gentlemen wasn't easy, but on the night, the magic happened.
The result was a 50-minute surreal show of dance, song, poetry, stand-up and an art auction. It shared business insights from Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Peggy Guggenheim, Chaliapin, Mayakovsky and others. I played the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and wove the acts into one story. The finale was Mathilde Kschessinska: a ballet sketch that turned into a DJ set mixing Romanian techno with Russian pop hits.
On top of that, we had a jazz band, retro business interviews, champagne towers (not prosecco), black caviar and a cake printed with a million euros.
The club saw itself in a new light: as a community that can afford to speak the language of art.
I directed and hosted the birthday of Ushanka, a French business club, and turned it into a costume ball called "Midnight in Paris": time travel in business class, with champagne and caviar.
Inspired by Woody Allen's film, I took 100 guests back to 1920s Paris, when entrepreneurs were artists and artists were entrepreneurs. The venue was the Rachmaninoff Conservatory mansion, with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Chaliapin, Mayakovsky and Rachmaninoff himself once worked in this house.
I cast ten club members, and each of them chose a hero of the era. Getting emotion out of iron-willed businesswomen and serious gentlemen wasn't easy, but on the night, the magic happened.
The result was a 50-minute surreal show of dance, song, poetry, stand-up and an art auction. It shared business insights from Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Peggy Guggenheim, Chaliapin, Mayakovsky and others. I played the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and wove the acts into one story. The finale was Mathilde Kschessinska: a ballet sketch that turned into a DJ set mixing Romanian techno with Russian pop hits.
On top of that, we had a jazz band, retro business interviews, champagne towers (not prosecco), black caviar and a cake printed with a million euros.
The club saw itself in a new light: as a community that can afford to speak the language of art.
Petr
Ivanov
Ivanov
