Ever wonder what a dancer’s life is like? Claire Patronik, who had studied dance in Paris beginning as a child in hopes of becoming a ballerina but finally gave it up, did. To find out, she looked up some of her former dance-schoolmates who had become professionals – Anna Chirescu, Louise Djabri, Hugo Mbeng and Claire Tran – and made a documentary, Comme Ils Respirent, about where life had taken them. Although slightly overlong, the film is a touching investigation of their everyday struggles, coping mechanisms, triumphs and disappointments. The thread holding it together is a dance performance choreographed and performed by the former classmates, all of them in their mid-to-late 20s.
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