Vlad Benescu: The Art of Movement between Stage, Dance and Unicycle

Vlad Benescu, a versatile artist blending theatre, dance, and unicycle in a unique performance style, shares his artistic journey and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

Vlad Benescu is a stage artist, specialized and experienced in dance, theatre, performance, circus, light design, and new media technologies.

C&B: If we were to follow a narrative thread of your career or business, what were the key moments that defined you?
Vlad Benescu: My career has been filled with many moments that later defined my direction, and with many synchronicities that significantly influenced or changed my path. The first was during high school when someone came and said they were offering an acting course at the Ion Creangă Theatre, which I attended for two years. Then came the encounter with the unicycle, one of the talents that sets me apart in the acting and performance field. It was a coincidence — during one of my high school jobs, working as an entertainer and balloon seller on the promenade in Mamaia, someone showed up with a unicycle in the apartment I was staying in. We struggled to learn it together, but I picked it up very quickly — after four days I was riding 50 meters, then 100, then 200, and from the next day I could ride it anywhere. Then, in theatre school, someone invited me into a contemporary dance performance with Ștefan Lupu and choreography by Galea Bobeicu. From there, a fruitful dance career started to develop, in parallel with my acting path. In 2016, I went to a casting at WASP for a show by Valentina de Piante, which was later selected for the Impulstanz Festival in Vienna. That was where I experienced contemporary dance and performance at the highest level. More recently, the collaboration with Alexandra Mihaela Dancs has been very impactful — we constantly develop diverse projects that are presented in increasingly varied contexts, on important stages and cultural venues.

C&B: What has been the most difficult moment in your journey so far, and how did you overcome it?
Vlad Benescu: There was a moment in 2016 when I didn’t get a theatre role, and it made me doubt many things. But I kept working, and then came even more important projects that I might not have been able to do fully, or with full involvement, if I had been split between too many places. Actually, difficult moments are constant — sometimes artistic, other times technical — and I always find solutions. That’s my secret: when a problem appears, my brain immediately focuses on solutions, and I go straight into action.

C&B: Is there a dream or ambition that has always guided you, no matter the obstacles?
Vlad Benescu: Yes — I love what I do, and I work constantly on that. I truly enjoy offering people experiences of joy, provoking their imagination, reasoning, and senses.

C&B: What were you like at the beginning of your journey, and how do you feel you’ve transformed over time?
Vlad Benescu: At the beginning, I wanted a lot and understood little. Now I still want a lot, but I understand quite a bit more.

C&B: If we were to talk to your team or collaborators, what do you think they would say about you?
Vlad Benescu: They’d probably say that I’m someone it’s hard to have a conflict with. I don’t understand conflict — I don’t see its potential or purpose — and I’m almost always in a good mood. Sometimes I seem to be “all over the place,” meaning chaotic, but in fact I control that dynamic. And they’d probably wonder where I get all my energy from.

C&B: What is the most important decision you’ve made that changed your trajectory?
Vlad Benescu: The most important decision was to follow this path and then to keep choosing, again and again, that this is what I’m meant to do.

C&B: How did you build your leadership style or decision-making approach? Was it a natural process or something you learned?
Vlad Benescu: The answer is, of course, both. I’ve constantly absorbed knowledge from others in this area, but I’ve always adapted it. I can rarely align with something that’s pre-made — I need to filter it through my own lens and take it to the potential and format that satisfy me.

C&B: What do you think sets your business or professional approach apart from the rest of the industry?
Vlad Benescu: I think it’s the fact that I’m always interested in innovating and evolving in my artistic endeavors. I don’t stick to a trendy aesthetic. And I bring together a wide variety of skills. It’s rare to see acting combined with dance, circus, and technology.

C&B: What does a typical day look like for you now, and which parts of your day bring the most satisfaction?
Vlad Benescu: Usually, I have to do a lot of things and find ways to make it physically feasible to achieve them. If it’s temporally possible to do something, I will always squeeze it into the schedule. I probably have an atypical way of managing my time, though to me it seems logical and natural. My days are very varied — I’m not a fan of routine. The only constant is movement. I move a lot, whether through my activities or through constant training in various movement methods. I’m passionate about somatic movement, and sometimes I practice it during other activities to overlap and optimize the learning and development process.

C&B: What values or principles guide you in your work, and how do you apply them day to day?
Vlad Benescu: You can reach anywhere, but you have to go through the process. There’s no such thing as “too hard” — especially if we can see that something similar has been done before. That means there are ways to achieve those performances or that knowledge.

C&B: How did the idea come to start this business and give it this name?
Vlad Benescu: I don’t have a business — I’m, as one of my theatre professors used to say, an employee of my own institution. I work tirelessly and diligently at the Vlad Benescu Institution. I want it to succeed and stand out in the cultural and experiential space in which it operates.

C&B: If you were to share a message with people who follow your example, what would it be?
Vlad Benescu: Work, observe, think, enjoy, and maybe get tired — but keep working or researching what interests you. If your physical energy is low, there’s still something stored cognitively. Keep going. Don’t waste time on indecision — act, and you’ll become convinced whether the imagined direction is right or not.

Vlad Benescu’s story reminds us that art knows no boundaries, and the courage to explore new forms of expression can lead to unforgettable creations. With every project, Vlad affirms his authenticity and his desire to inspire through movement, emotion, and stage presence.