Version française
 

Law-flouting women

The defiant origins of France's famous dance

A wild dance that police break up

Eugène Sue, Les Mystères de Paris, 1844

 

 

 

 

  • A former Moulin Rouge soloist who is now France's leading cancan choreographer...


has created a performance about the origins of a dance whose celebrity comes from insolence.

 

"Women of humble origin asserted themselves against an elite that despised them," she says.

 

"The cancan was extremely individualistic, with physical exploits, costumes, noms de guerre... 

 

Today's shows, with artists of the same height, same costumes, same make-up are an entirely different story."

 

Her program exuberantly illuminates a famous yet little-known aspect of France's past.

 

 
With Princesse Anne
  • Every step taunts authority...

 

 

"Cathedral"
With us, 2001

 

 

  • ...or belies the prejudice of women's frailty

 

 

 

 

  • Costumes are as individual as the dancers

 

 

 

 

  • The show ends with Marianne, symbol of the Republic

 

 

Many of the privileged called the Republic "the whore"...

 

Our dancer choreographed the routines for the Offenbach performances at the celebrated Opéra Comique, "La vie parisienne" from 2002 to 2005, (which travelled to Washington's Kennedy Center in 2004) and "La veuve joyeuse" in 2006. She produced a major cancan performance at Berlin's Friedrichstadtpalast in 2007.

 

She calls upon the best cancan dancers in Paris.

 

A cancan lesson can follow – please CLICK.

 

 

• Costs: Please CLICK

 

 

 

Credits: black-white photo / supplied by the artist; other photos / Felix Sinpraseuth

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