Dance in Film · 2009
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009)
Frederick Wiseman observes a single Paris Opera Ballet season across seven works—from Pierre Lacotte's Paquita and Rudolf Nureyev's Casse-Noisette to Pina Bausch, Wayne McGregor, Mats Ek, Angelin Preljocaj, and Sasha Waltz—making the company's labor and stylistic range the documentary's subject.
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet is a 2009 dance documentary centred on ballroom and social dance. For dancers, it's a chance to see the style performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 6 indexed dance sequences ↓
Where to watch: Streaming through participating U.S. libraries on Kanopy; Zipporah Films also sells region-free DVD/Blu-ray editions for home viewing in North America. Availability verified 2026-08-08.
Trailer
Official trailer.
The dance sequences in La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
6 sequences, 6 with a timestamp — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
Danced by Aurélie Dupont; Hervé Moreau · Choreography Sasha Waltz
Dupont and Moreau embody the doomed couple in a performance passage framed by the work's transformation of a dance of death into a dance of life.
The performance places Waltz's contemporary ballet language inside Berlioz's dramatic score, using the lovers' physical relationship to carry the work's tension between love, death, and renewal.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Timestamp follows HDVDArts' observations of the Zipporah North American disc and is medium-confidence because provider editions may differ. Runtime listings conflict: Zipporah states 158 minutes, TV Guide states 159 minutes, and Kanopy catalog metadata has also circulated as 152 minutes. On 2026-08-14 a Los Angeles County Kanopy title page was reachable while TV Guide reported no general U.S. streaming; availability uses rental as the closest allowed enum for institution-authenticated library access. No independently verified LODance Legend slug was found.
Danced by Paris Opera Ballet dancers · Choreography Wayne McGregor
McGregor's energetic coaching and dancers working through Genus's unusually segmented, high-tension movement.
Wiseman watches McGregor coach the dancers through the extreme, complex articulations of Genus, making the rehearsal process—and the translation of Darwinian ideas into bodies—the scene's subject.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Timestamp follows HDVDArts' observations of the Zipporah North American disc and is medium-confidence because provider editions may differ. Runtime listings conflict: Zipporah states 158 minutes, TV Guide states 159 minutes, and Kanopy catalog metadata has also circulated as 152 minutes. On 2026-08-14 a Los Angeles County Kanopy title page was reachable while TV Guide reported no general U.S. streaming; availability uses rental as the closest allowed enum for institution-authenticated library access. No independently verified LODance Legend slug was found.
Danced by Marie-Agnès Gillot · Choreography Pierre Lacotte
Gillot's classical precision emerging through close, repeated rehearsal work on Paquita.
The rehearsal exposes classical ballet as a chain of exacting corrections rather than effortless finish, letting viewers see Gillot refine placement, line, and épaulement under repertory coaching.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Timestamp follows HDVDArts' observations of the Zipporah North American disc and is medium-confidence because provider editions may differ. Runtime listings conflict: Zipporah states 158 minutes, TV Guide states 159 minutes, and Kanopy catalog metadata has also circulated as 152 minutes. On 2026-08-14 a Los Angeles County Kanopy title page was reachable while TV Guide reported no general U.S. streaming; availability uses rental as the closest allowed enum for institution-authenticated library access. No independently verified LODance Legend slug was found.
Danced by Delphine Moussin; child performers · Choreography Angelin Preljocaj
Medea's children are overtaken by red paint as Moussin completes the ballet's chilling central act.
The performance turns Medea's irreversible choice into stark contemporary-ballet theatre, with choreography, character intention, and blood-red stage imagery converging in one climactic action.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Timestamp follows HDVDArts' observations of the Zipporah North American disc and is medium-confidence because provider editions may differ. Runtime listings conflict: Zipporah states 158 minutes, TV Guide states 159 minutes, and Kanopy catalog metadata has also circulated as 152 minutes. On 2026-08-14 a Los Angeles County Kanopy title page was reachable while TV Guide reported no general U.S. streaming; availability uses rental as the closest allowed enum for institution-authenticated library access. No independently verified LODance Legend slug was found.
Danced by Laetitia Pujol; Nicolas Le Riche · Choreography Rudolf Nureyev
Pujol and Le Riche dancing together in the finished Nutcracker performance; the Paris Opera also preserves this passage as an official excerpt.
The passage brings rehearsal discipline to completion in sustained classical partnering, with Pujol and Le Riche carrying the formal clarity and theatrical scale of Nureyev's production onto the stage.
Watch this sequence · Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Timestamp follows HDVDArts' observations of the Zipporah North American disc and is medium-confidence because provider editions may differ. Runtime listings conflict: Zipporah states 158 minutes, TV Guide states 159 minutes, and Kanopy catalog metadata has also circulated as 152 minutes. On 2026-08-14 a Los Angeles County Kanopy title page was reachable while TV Guide reported no general U.S. streaming; availability uses rental as the closest allowed enum for institution-authenticated library access. No independently verified LODance Legend slug was found.
Danced by Marie-Agnès Gillot; Laetitia Pujol; Paris Opera Ballet ensemble · Choreography Mats Ek
Gillot, Pujol, and the ensemble punctuating the Bernarda household's repression with speechlike sounds and screams.
Ek's ensemble choreography combines shaped movement, vocalization, and mounting dramatic pressure, showing how the company shifts from classical repertory into contemporary narrative ballet.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Timestamp follows HDVDArts' observations of the Zipporah North American disc and is medium-confidence because provider editions may differ. Runtime listings conflict: Zipporah states 158 minutes, TV Guide states 159 minutes, and Kanopy catalog metadata has also circulated as 152 minutes. On 2026-08-14 a Los Angeles County Kanopy title page was reachable while TV Guide reported no general U.S. streaming; availability uses rental as the closest allowed enum for institution-authenticated library access. No independently verified LODance Legend slug was found.
Poster artwork from TMDB.
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