“The dancer detaches his body from natural functions to achieve pure expression. Dance frees life from what in it was only survival. Paul Valéry, in...

“The dancer detaches his body from natural functions to achieve pure expression. Dance frees life from what in it was only survival. Paul Valéry, in his Philosophy of Dance, evokes “the mystery of a body which, suddenly, as if by the effect of an internal shock, enters a kind of life that is both strangely unstable and strangely regulated”. This "kind of life" is interior life, real life, the one where the body frees itself from its utilitarian destiny, to invent purely expressive gestures. Paul Valéry, Hegel, Rousseau, Alain for the philosophers, Nijinski, Isadora Duncan or Pina Baush for the dancers, Billy Elliot, Rize or Les Chaussons Rouges for the films, all will help us to grasp the meaning of this higher life which seems to cross the body when it dances.” (Ollivier POURRIOL) Ollivier Pourriol, associate of philosophy and specialist in cinema likes to mix the two. Based on scenes from famous films, he explains to us the concepts of philosophy, which take shape in reality.