11 September 2022 | Culture, Tourism
Le Moulin Rouge, Paris
The French Cancan, a French story
The French Cancan dance is eight minutes of performance in front of the public during which the cancaneuses of 1m70 lead the dance on a musical tune by Offenbach. In the 1820s, the quadrille was the dance performed at the public balls in the capital. To the rhythm of original compositions drawn from operas and ballets, the couples indulge in this dance made up of five figures. Quickly, the men appropriated it by performing disorderly figures for a few minutes, a way for them to decompress. The name of this revisited dance: heckling.
Paris, 1850, is effervescent. Public theatres, comedies and balls are booming. Some time after the appearance of the heckling, daring Parisians decide to embark on this wild dance which serves as an outlet for them. During these events, a dancer is talked about. Celeste Mogador, star of the Bal Mabille makes the hearts of Parisians dance with her naturalist quadrille. The success is immediate!
10 years later, Charles Morton, the inventor of the modern Music-Hall presents this surprising dance on the stage of Oxford. He renames it French Cancan because it comes from France and makes noise. Shortly after its appearance in Oxford, this committed dance was banned because it was considered too daring. In the city of Paris, on the other hand, the popularity of this now French Cancan quadrille was growing.
In 1889, these seamstresses from the Butte Montmartre took the stage before the astonished gaze of the spectators. For them, the gossip is a way to challenge the established order. Some of them become emblematic figures. French Cancan shows in the sumptuous hall of the Moulin Rouge became more and more popular.
So popular that it was in 1955 that Jean Renoir decided to draw inspiration from it for the cinema. He then directed the film French Cancan with Jean Gabin playing the character of Danglard.
Even today, the Moulin Rouge and its dancers continue to inspire visitors with sumptuous dinner shows. The opportunity to admire the cancaneuses in superb costumes sprinkled with feathers and sequins. Dinners with show for a memorable evening SHOW + DINNER + CHAMPAGNE Discover and book the offer for an evening at the Moulin Rouge here: https://www.moulinrouge.fr
