This perky cancan dance

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It is generally accepted that the French cancan dance originated in the 30s of the 19th century in Paris at open balls. It originated from the English country dance, known in England as early as the 16th century.

Music for cancan

The French version of this dance came later. It was especially popular in the middle of the 19th century. At first, the can-can dance was known as a version of the square dance. Later, society abandoned it, considering it indecent. They began to dance it in cafes, cabarets, operettas and all sorts of shows. For the cancan, the music must be cheerful, the time signature must be 2/4.

The main elements of the dance are jumps, leg swings, splits and swings of skirts, which became more and more frantic by the end of the dance, because of which the legs of the dancers in fishnet lingerie were exposed. The can-can dance is quite interesting. Photos of girls dancing it attracted the attention of many.

Stages of popularity

The dance was officially born in 1858 on October 21 at the premiere of the operetta "Orpheus in Hell" by J. Offenbach. He wrote the most famous cancan music ever.

The next stage of his popularity was in 1890. Then Paris was seized by frantic quadrilles of the Moulin Rouge cabaret. In 1889, on October 6, this legendary cabaret opened andcreated space for this genre.

At the end of the second half of the 19th century, one pa gave impetus to the birth of an erotic cabaret. Once, young graduates of a choreographic course in Paris celebrated the onset of autumn in a cafe with dances and champagne. Modistes and models joined them. During the dance, the girls began to undress. Half-naked, dancing on the tables, they lifted their skirts and swung their legs a few times. This was the beginning of a new genre - striptease. Since then, French cancan dance has become the style of Montmartre.

Prohibition and approval

Strip dancing has long been banned in Europe. Severe condemnation of depraved exposure was from the side of the church. But at the feasts of noblemen, courtesans showed their charms more than once.

When puritan times began to fade into the past, the cancan dance entered the world stage and established itself among the workers of Paris. At first it was performed in pairs. It was a version of the popular gallop at the time, and quite a decent one.

Soon the can-can dance moved to the stage of the cabaret, where the dancers made it an entertainment for men. At the Moulin Rouge, the performers came up with new dance steps. As a result, the final version of the indecent version appeared here.

Ups and downs

The French dance itself was glorified by Celeste Mogado, who performed it in 1889 at the opening of the Moulin Rouge. She invented the "real square dance" in 1850. After 10 years, C. Morton, an Englishman who organized the first music hall, called it "FrenchIn England, it was considered too obscene and removed from the stage. However, on this side of the English Channel, the cancan dance settled down and gained such popularity that Elizabeth II attended a performance at the Moulin Rouge on November 21, 1981.

Dancewear

A cancan suit weighing at least 10 kg, because it takes about 100 meters of fabric to make a skirt alone. Shoes were considered the most difficult model. To prevent the girls from slipping when performing pirouettes, a thin layer of rubber was glued onto the sole. Heels were made thicker from pigskin and with a special bevel. However, after a couple of months of use, they were already worn out. The fact is that when doing a split, the main blow goes to the heel.

When performing the "tower" trick, its performers need special shoes, otherwise, when pulling their legs to the head by the heel, they can either injure their hand or ruin an expensive costume. The pace of the dance is frantic, there is no time for caution.