CanCan Dance

The CanCan dance is a familiar sight to many people, not only from its popularity on the stage but also in movies such as Moulin Rouge. It is both challenging for the dancer and entertaining for the audience, but the dance has changed a lot over the centuries.

What dancers now call the CanCan has its roots in one of the favorite social dances of the 19th century, the [Square Dance Instruction|quadrille]]. Often the final figure of the group dance would have the couples performing high kicks and extravagant gestures with their arms. Starting in Paris, the moves may have been inspired by a popular dancer and entertainer named Charles Mazurier. Mazurier was very athletic, able to perform jump splits with ease – and the CanCan dance (which literally means scandal in French) became a scandalous way for dancers to show off their legs and kick up their skirts, or for the men to show off their own virility and prowess. Like almost all popular dances of any age, there were attempts to repress the dancers, authorities going so far as to arrest enthusiastic kickers, but it was never quite banned in Paris.

Instead, it moved onto the stage, where performers began refining and taking the basic moves further and further into the realm of dance virtuosity. Both men and women performed it – in fact, 1870 saw the formation of an all-male CanCan dance troupe, Quadrille des Clodoches. The real stars, however, were the women, who would dance solo CanCan routines on stages such as the famous Moulin Rouge. Jane Avril and La Goulue were stars of this age, and they were immortalized by the painters Toulouse Lautrec, Georges Seurat, and Picasso, among others.

When the dance moved across the channel and overseas at the turn of the century, solo performers were replaced by lines of dancers, all dressed in large colorful skirts, petticoats, and black stockings. The dance was sort of like the rock and roll of its time, considered scandalous at worst and at best not fit for the gentille folk. The extravagant choreography was still used, with the dancers performing moves such as grandes battements (high kicks) or ronde de jambe (a term familiar to ballet afficionadoes). They also used the costumes much more as part of the dance, twirling skirts and petticoats in complicated and wild patterns. In the early 20th century, as the dance became associated with bars, saloons, and other locations of ill repute, some dancers would titillate their audiences by not wearing any undergarments except for the black stockings, finishing their dances with skirts flipped up over their backs to the enthusiastic applause of the audience.

There are several music pieces associated with the CanCan dance, many of which are featured in musicals and films.

• Jacques Offenbach's Galop Infernal
• Franz Lehar The Merry Widow
• Cole Porter Can-Can (later made into a movie with Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine)
• Khachaturian Sabre Dance
• Fatboy Slim Everybody CanCan from Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge

The CanCan dance has lost a lot of its scandalous nature, though it is still considered somewhat erotic and romantic. Very few social dance teachers actually teach CanCan, though it is a recurring favorite among the burlesque revival groups. However, the moves of the CanCan are also staple choreography for several ballets that are still performed, including Massine's La Boutique Fantastique and Gaîté Parisienne . The choreography for the movie Moulin Rouge combined elements of salsa, modern, and even hip-hop (along with music from Madonna and Kurt Cobain) in its portrayal of the CanCan.

Between visual art, music, and the sheer joy of the moves, the CanCan dance has become firmly entrenched in the Western arts canon. The simple exuberance of couples dancing the quadrille has spawned a body of work that has been enjoyed by millions.

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• Pictures of Limbo Dancing

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• Famous Ballet Dancers