It can be tempting to think of human beings as living lives of either mind or body. Or it can feel like the interior life is the true and real life, while the body is just a container for the brain. This is an especially understandable reaction to being physically awkward—sloppy, imprecise—when your mind is comparatively agile. 

No wonder so many of us find dancing a daunting prospect. The idea of moving not just for prosaic reasons like transport, or for the satisfaction of athletic achievement, but purely for joy, for artistry, for abandon—what could be more repulsive for the inwardly inclined? There’s a reason that, so often, people only dance when drunk, at times of high drama and high intoxication like a wedding.

In his film Happy End, Michael Haneke explores the relations...