“Japonism”*, a movement of Far-Eastern inspiration which used Japanese influences in French art, was at its height. Toulouse-Lautrec, with his famous Japanese engravings, was one of its most famous disciples at that time. The atmosphere fitted perfectly the appearance of the first cabarets, such as the Moulin Rouge in 1889.

The most famous cabaret in the world opens its doors

On the 6th October, at the foot of Butte Montmartre, the atmosphere was pretty festive: a new music-hall was opening in the Jardin de Paris, the Moulin Rouge, and it wasn’t going unnoticed.

The public came in mass to Place Blanche, to discover this extravagant place with its huge dance floor, mirrors everywhere, and galleries that were the last word in elegance, to mix with the riffraff and girls of easy virtue, in a garden decorated with a big elephant with rides on donkeys for the ladies’pleasure. There was such a wild atmosphere that the show was not only on the stage but all around : aristocrats and louts in caps had fun side by side, in an atmosphere of total euphoria.

The masters of the place were Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler. They nicknamed their establishment Le Premier Palais des Femmes (the first Women Palace) and bet on their success, enthusiastically claiming to whoever listened that the Moulin Rouge would become a temple of music and dance. On the very first day, their hopes were fulfilled, the other music-halls just had to learn !!!

http://www.moulinrouge.fr/histoire/periods?lang=en

     The Cancan is regarded today primarily as a music hall dance, performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings, harking back to the fashions of the 1890’s. The main features of the dance are: lifting up and manipulation of the skirts, with high kicking and suggestive body movements. The dance was also known as the chahut. Both Cancan and chahut are French, Cancan meaning “tittle-tattle” or “scandal”, hence a scandalous dance, while chahut meant “noise” or “uproar”.

     The dancers or “High Kickers” as they were called emerged over time and ended up in Paris, France. In the late 19th century Paris was still the dance centre of the world. Today’s Cancan developed from the Galop, a popular dance in the public dancing gardens and dance halls of Paris in the early part of the 19th century. When it first appeared in 1830, the Cancan was really an exaggerated form of the Galop, with high kicks and other gestures with arms and legs, mostly originally performed by men and later by women. It was viewed as shocking by the “respectable” people because it implied a lack of self-control and involved more bodily contact between participants than was thought acceptable. The women in particular were not supposed to become hopelessly out of breath, which the dance’s energy inevitably produced. The Cancan became a device with which to undermine Victorian values, and was part of a growing movement for change.

     The dance shocked many in its daring challenge to social, moral, and political conventions of the time when morality had become almost institutionalized. A devoted patron of the Moulin Rouge, the famous painter Toulouse Lautrec, captured it poetically in the exclamation: “La vie est belle, voila le quadrille!” translated to ‘life is beautiful, here comes the Cancan!’

     By the 1890’s individual Cancan dancers became very renowned and were highly paid for their appearances at the Moulin Rouge and elsewhere. In Britain, the USA and Canada, the Cancan achieved popularity in music halls, where it was dance by groups of women in choreographed routines. This style was later imported into France in the 1920’s for the benefit of tourists, and the French Cancan was born-a highly choreographed routine lasting ten minutes or more. The main moves are: the high kick or battement, the rond de jambe (quick rotary movements of the lower leg with knee raised and skirt held up), the port d’armes (turning on one leg, while grasping the other leg), the cartwheel and the grand ecart (the flying or jump splits). The authentic quadrille is very demanding of its performers, each of whom must have superior qualities of balance, rhythm and stamina.