If you can see only one dance event this month, catch the celluloid performance by Paris Opera Ballet in La Danse, playing through Thursday at Northwest Film Forum. UPDATE: Run extended through December 16.

Blessedly free of interview or voiceovers, Frederick Wiseman’s documentary (his 36th!) is a portfolio of still, painterly images stitched to long episodes of sublime, varied dancing along with illuminating bursts of blathering administrative hassle, a la Francaise.

Over 158 minutes, in hallowed studios and stages, Wiseman’s footage displays the process in which a dance phrase is first grasped by muscles, then seized upon mentally, then swooped up into a higher group consciousness that exists way beyond any words. He also captures the complex mandate of 21st-century ballet companies (to offer both the strenuous story ballets along with mind- and body-bending new works), and at the same time, shots of white male choreographers suggests the continuing classist hierarchy of this stylized 16th-century French-court art form.

Wedged between the full-throttle performances, rooftop shots of Haussmann’s boulevards appear like a slideshow, as do plates piled high with elegant lunch arrangements. Better fuel—better art?

Dance- and non-dance audiences need nourishment for this long, narration-less journey so NWFF has lined up introductory speakers to assist. Tuesday night’s guest is Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal; Wednesday night’s speaker is dancer/critic Dean Speers, a Cornish College grad and founding member of the Seattle Ballet Ensemble.

Hurry now for tickets—the show has been selling out every night. And if you can’t get in, mark your calendar for the presentation of a new 35mm print of the iconic film The Red Shoes (NWFF, February 12-18). —Jean Lenihan