Review: 'Aviva' explores the intricacies of love with tender artistry, raw sexuality, and a lot of dance

At the intersection of dance, drama and sexuality lies “Aviva,” writer-director Boaz Yakin’s life-affirming depiction of a young couple’s meeting, romance, marriage and disillusionment — all depicted in dance.

It starts with a naked woman, who describes herself as an actress — actually a dancer, because, as she explains, the decision was made that teaching a dancer to act is easier than the other way around. This woman, played by Bobbi Jene Smith, tells the story of Eden, a guy in New York who starts an email correspondence with a woman, Aviva, living in Paris.

Eden is played by Texas-born dancer Tyler Phillips, and Aviva is played by Zina Zinchenko, a dancer from Russia. Except sometimes Eden is depicted as a woman, played by Smith, and sometimes Aviva is played by a male dancer, Or Schraiber — who is Smith’s real-life husband, and her collaborator on the movie’s raw, explosive choreography. Sometimes, one of the Edens will be speaking to both of the Avivas, or vice versa. And sometimes they won’t be speaking, but having sex.

This sounds confusing, but in practice it’s sensible, and serves Yakin’s narrative that each of us has a male spirt and a female spirit, each responsible for elements of our personality. At one point, near the downslope of their relationship, when Eden and Aviva are having sex, it’s the male Eden failing to make the female Aviva climax — and the female Eden, exasperated, eventually steps in to provide the orgasmic touch the male Eden can’t give on his own.

Yakin — whose resumé includes the ‘90s coming-of-age drama “Fresh” and the Disney-fied football saga “Remember the Titans” — follows Eden and Aviva through the first throes of new love, the impulsiveness of Aviva pulling up roots to join Eden in New York, and the realities that threaten their romance nearly from the beginning. Yakin deploys a running motif, showing every notable character fully nude on our first meeting them, whether it’s the globetrotting lothario who introduces the couple or the aged immigration lawyer who advises them to marry so she can get a green card. The nudity may seem gratuitous, but it also makes literal the idea that everyone is a person first and the rest is embellishment.

The stars of “Aviva” are the elaborate, kinetic dance sequences through which the two lovers — as duets, trios or quartets — show their lust, love, anger and remorse. Some of the numbers are big and showy, like the flashback of young Eden that ends with literal fireworks at Coney Island. The sequence that packs the biggest punch, though, is Smith’s solo piece in a studio, in which she enacts every detail of Eden’s fateful trip to Los Angeles and into the bed of another woman.

“Aviva” is not for every taste — especially if you’re uncomfortable with full-frontal nudity and highly charged sex scenes. For those willing to go on this exuberant, erotic rollercoaster, “Aviva” delivers an emotional and artistic payoff that only a risk-taking high-wire act like this can achieve.

——

‘Aviva’

★★★★

Available Friday, July 3, on the Utah Film Center virtual cinema and other rental platforms. Not rated, but probably NC-17 for explicit nudity and strong sexuality. Running time: 116 minutes.