For better or worse, we all know by now that beautiful women are frequently used as fodder for selling products. The practice has become commonplace and expected, and often times the model’s image, the production design and the styling in general overshadow the ad campaign to the extent that we don’t really know what is being sold, and usually hardly care. Beauty is a lure… And of course when you add dance that is well executed, nicely choreographed, and beautifully shot to the mix, that lure is undeniable, and certainly can lend the product – whatever it might be – some additional cool.

As such I often troll the website Nowness, concentrating on fashion with hopes of finding something relatively new and interesting in which dance plays an integral, if not central part. This week I scored, finding this short from 2014, Nike Women x Pedro Lourenço, a compelling film that takes place both by day and by night in multiple locations seemingly in and around the desert. From the opening shot in which we see a dancer seemingly rotating and suspended mid-air over the asphalt of a remote two-lane highway, I was captivated.

While the music – “As If,” performed by Jessy Lanza – seems somewhat stylistically off with the film, it supports it well in the end and contributes to making it an arresting short overall. Directed by Abteen Bagheri, starring Hajiba Fahmi in contemporary balletic choreography by Aaron Sillis and produced by Scott O’Donnell, Nike Women x Pedro Lourenço has beautiful sweeping camera moves by Jaime Feliu-Torres with great moments of editing that begin mid-move in one location and end elsewhere at perfect musical points. And because throughout my life, my own dreams of flying have always involved running through the air, the closing shots are particularly moving and poignant for me.

Enjoy.