Droit debout is representative of Françoise Sullivan’s conceptual experiments in the first half of the 1970s. She posits immobility as a radical means of concentrating the energy of the body in thought. In that regard, the work reflects the influence of John Cage on Françoise Sullivan, who was receptive to exploring a spare, even minimalist, form of choreography. Placed at random, the dancers are motionless and do not interact; their posture conveys a reflective presence. Listening to a text-poem intoned as a sort of “imaginary line” that enumerates the parts of the body from head to toe, they experience the power of emptiness, solitude and silence. The work was presented four times between 1973 and 1975 and re-enacted in 2017 at the Galerie de l’UQAM at the same time thousands of women in Montreal and six hundred cities around the world took to the streets, standing up in solidarity to denounce the misogyny of an unworthy American president. Droit debout – standing straight – the only position possible in the face of today’s world, was performed before an audience that was virtually hypnotized by the incantatory nature of the text and the imposing, statuesque immobility of the dancers’ bodies.