Les puissances de la danse

This article evokes two phantasmagorical transformations of Jane Avril through the cinema. A first attempt, oriented towards reverie, is exploited by V. Minnelli: dance is not only a vector of remembrance, but a means of transfiguring reality. As if caught in a time crystal, Mulligan, the hero, sees himself as a “white nigger”, dancing in the arms of his beloved who has taken on the features of Jane Avril. Another attempt, this time focused on the frightening nightmare, operates a stronger hybridization. The figures of the Black and the Madwoman now merge. All that remains of Jane is the “epileptic dance” performed on a scary zombie body. It is no longer a question of transfiguring reality, but of showing the liberating powers of dance.