3:40 pm, Paris 7. 

On January 7, 2015, the shock of the Charlie Hebdo attack and those of the days that followed, shifted our modes of existence. We then entered into a state of emergency regime that, from emergency to emergency, we have not left since. In 7 years, we have changed the world, by successive shifts or tipping points. The reasons which, on the evening of January 7, 2015, prompted me to invest the tiny degree of action of which I feel capable in the face of this murderous madness, still remain alive today. I wanted to respond then, with an interstitial sensitivity in the face of this incredible violence, to dance rather than remain petrified, to go out with others rather than hide myself, to pass on life rather than death. I had a vital need to affirm the importance of freedom of expression, of the sharing of sensibilities through art, of the beauty of differences. Faced with the extreme gravity of the events, any attempt to respond seemed derisory, I all the same tried to express my solidarity, in my own way, by dancing, by engaging my body in the harshness of the city. I tried to weave something, inviting porosity, sensitive alliances, seeking the gaze of passers-by in the winter rain. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just had to do it.

“I am Charlie”. People then rallied round this cry out of heart, in solidarity with the victims, and to defend the values ​​which are the foundation of democratic societies. The use of these words has sometimes been criticized since, for various reasons. But I can say today, after 7 years of daily dancing, without missing a single day: I am still Charlie.