The Legend of Moulin Rouge
By Elyse Weingarten

At the close of the 19th century when belle époque was still in full fury, the legendary cabaret, Moulin Rouge (meaning Red Windmill) opened on October 6, 1889, joining in what was the epicenter of bohemian living, in Paris’ Butte Montmartre, the neighborhood surrounding Sacré-Coeur on the northern edge of the city. Prostitutes, criminals, artists and writers lived side-by-side here, collectively rejecting the bourgeois decorum of Parisian respectability, in what used to be a drowsy village of gardens, windmills, and vines. While Moulin Rouge was only one of the cafes/cabarets/bars of its kind, it quickly emerged to legendary status. From its opening, Moulin Rouge was sold out every night. High society came from the rich parts of Paris to mix with the artistic intellectuals and delinquents, and watch the most beautiful women in the world perform a dance that pulsed with a new kind of subversive energy: every evening, just before 10pm, the audience would gather eagerly as three female dancers and one male dancer gathered and began leaping around the dance floor. One by one, the girls would lift the hems of their flowing skirts and do pizzicatos with their feet. Then, one of the dancers would break away and lift her leg up--high in the air-- revealing the length of her stocking-ed leg up until the buttocks. Each of the girls would follow in turn, sometimes knocking the top hat of one of the more “boisterous” gentlemen onto the floor. All was rowdy and good fun until the finale, when the girls suddenly ended in a split. This dance was the quadrille naturaliste, later affectionately named the French Cancan by a member of the British royalty. According to legend, artist Toulouse-Lautrec, who memorialized this scene in his art work [see example above right] showed up at every performance, and sat by the bar, shouting “Life is beautiful; here comes the French Cancan. ”

	Moulin Rouge Website

Through out the years, Moulin Rouge has survived two world wars; transformed its from a ballroom to a concert hall, to a night club (a very avant guarde move in 1937) back into a dinner cabaret; played host to the likes of Colette (before she was a writer), Edith Piaf, the Cotton Club, Frank Sinatra, Elton John and Liza Minnelli. Now, Moulin Rouge is over 115 years old and without a doubt, has drastically changed, as has also, of course, its place in the social order. No longer is Moulin Rouge a carnivalesque experience where the rich rub shoulders with the dirty and bohemian, in the hopes of witnessing a creative explosion they are too ashamed to call their own. Seats now cost a minimum of a hundred euros, and it seems that great cabaret now caters to foreigners and tourists, primarily; very few Parisians venture towards the spinning red windmill that hangs iconically over the building’s door. Still more, no longer is Moulin Rouge the only place in the world to see an extensive and complicated cabaret dance show; surly equivalent ones exist in Vegas or New York or Tokyo. And no longer is Moulin Rouge the fantasy of young, curious clean cut boys hoping to view the maximum of womanly body parts available. Besides breasts, which are bared as part of the elaborate costumes, one would see more flesh on MTV than in this surprisingly tame show. And yet, Moulin Rouge continues to thrive, maintain its legacy. It is now a veritable institution, one of the last vestiges remaining of what Paris was epochs ago: that reverie of colorful cafes and salons and artists and writers and freedom. This is because Moulin Rouge is Moulin Rouge is Moulin Rouge as a rose is a rose is a rose, of course. Moulin Rouge has been sung about, painted about, had movies made about. Moulin Rouge is Paris and that Paris is a dream that no longer exists—anywhere, today.

Where as Moulin Rouge was once significant because it provided a forum where the suppressing barriers of society were cast aside and the middle class could go “slumming,” now in a time when those barriers have been crushed and thrown away, where nothing is taboo and there is little hope of the revolution coming anytime soon, Moulin Rouge does not so much perform a cabaret show, as much as accomplishes the feat of enacting the past

The Show: Féerie

Féerie, Moulin Rouge’s first show of the 21st century opened in 1999, was created by Doris Haug and Ruggero Angeletti, and choreographed by Bill Goodson. The show uses a troupe of 100 performers, including the 60 Doriss girls (the legendary Moulin Rouge beauties/dancers); 1000 costumes of feathers, sequins, rhinestones, leather and other fabrics; and extensive sets that includes moving staircases, a gigantic aquarium that rises from the ground, lifts that swing women from the ceiling, horses, pythons and other live animals, and colorful backdrops.

Féerie consists of four original acts. The first, “The Moulin Rouge today and yesterday, the Moulin Rouge forever” opens with the entire troupe dancing in an enchanted garden. The second act is a lukewarm segment entitled “Sandokan,” set on a pirate ship anchored in Indonesia, with choreography striking similarity to that of the first. The only relief of Sandakan is when an aquarium rises from the floor, and a diamond clad girl jumps in and dances underwater. The third segment, “The Circus,” follows, which is, undoubtedly, the highlight of the entire show. The circus comes to town with….Siamese twins, pierrots, acrobats, jugglers, wild animals, horses and a parade of Doriss Girls. At one point, the dance performance is interrupted with an ‘amateur-ish’ clown involving the audience in a comedy sketch. The grand finale, The Moulin Rouge from 1900 to…” tells the story of Parisian women through time, ending fabulously with the famous French Cancan.

Overall, Féerie is very entertaining. Although the choreography is perhaps a little uninspired, what elevates the show to a kind of greatness is how visually arresting it is. If nothing else, Féerie is a feast for the eyes…and a feast it is! The best part of Féerie are the vibrant and multicolored costumes which range from diamond encrusted diapers and diamond string tops to orange feather wings to cowboy boots and clown pants matched with jeweled shirts. As the best- dressed dancers this side of the Atlantic, the Doriss girls make the show work by continuing to perform in the ambiguous manner of strict, athletic professionalism mixed with unrestrained sexuality that originally made the Moulin Rouge the emblem of Parisian heyday it was, and remains to be, today.