The Dancer

The Dancer follows Loïe Fuller, a young American woman from the West who dreams of a life on the stage. After a stage accident leaves her tangled in her own dress, she turns the mishap into a new kind of movement, whirling beneath yards of fabric with wooden rods extending her arms. The dance she invents makes her a sensation in Paris during the Belle Époque, where she performs under coloured lights at the Folies Bergère and wins admirers in artistic circles. Her demanding technique costs her: her back suffers and the intense stage lighting damages her eyes. Her relationship with a patron becomes complicated, and the arrival of the young, ambitious dancer Isadora Duncan, who becomes her protégée, unsettles both her art and her personal life.

Stéphanie Di Giusto directed the film, her first feature, from a screenplay she wrote with Thomas Bidegain and Sarah Thibau, and it was her only directing credit until Rosalie in 2024. SoKo plays Loïe Fuller, with Gaspard Ulliel as Louis, Mélanie Thierry as Gabrielle, Lily-Rose Depp as Isadora Duncan, François Damiens as Marchand and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing as Armand. The production was a Belgian, French and Czech co-production with a budget of about 8 million dollars, and it took roughly 2 million dollars worldwide. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 207 votes.