Past Film/Video | Visiting Filmmakers | Documentaries

Why We Dance

(Nathalie Bibeau, 2022) 

Author Kimerer L. LaMothe in person  
Q&A follows

Three girls are dancing in unison while a group cheers behind them.

This compelling documentary proposes that we are all dancers and that dance connects us to each other, our environment, and makes us human. 

Part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s long-running series The Nature of Things, Why We Dance explores the evolution of dance and how all living things express themselves through movement and rhythm. The film is based on Dr. Kimerer L. LaMothe’s book Why We Dance: A Philosophy of Bodily Becoming (2015, Columbia University Press). Dr. LaMothe is a dancer, author, playwright, and philosopher of religion and is a visiting scholar with Ohio State’s Center for the Study of Religion. A Q&A with the author follows the screening. (50 mins., DCP)

Cosponsored with Ohio State’s Center for the Study of Religion, Melton Center for Jewish Studies, and Department of Dance. 

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
National Endowment for the Arts 
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Ohio Department of Development

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc 
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme 
The Columbus Foundation 
Nationwide Foundation 
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Mike and Paige Crane 
Axium Packaging 
Nancy Kramer 
Ohio State Energy Partners 
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection 
Larry and Donna James 
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang 
Bruce and Joy Soll 
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle 
Jones Day 
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Past Film/Video

Why We Dance