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 For two performances every evening, 60 performers from 14
different countries twirl, kick and dance their way through the
"Feerie" show, the review that is now the mainstay of the Moulin
Rouge’s repertoire.
But backstage – unseen by the 600,000 audience members who watch
the show each year and quaff their way through nearly a quarter
of a million bottles of champagne – is a different kind of
choreography; the sophisticated machinery of costume changes and
scenery-pulling needed to make the show happen.
"The whole team including dancers, aides and technicians need to
be very organized," said Claudine Van Den Bergh, a 27-year-old
Irish dancer who has been dancing at the Moulin Rouge for seven
years and has been principal for three years.
"A little mistake or a little delay and you can miss your
entrance. You really need to be at the right time at the right
place."
Each show requires 1,000 outfits, all crafted in the workshops
that have been supplying the Moulin Rouge for decades. Each
dancer has to make between 10 and 15 costume changes per show,
with about 90 seconds to complete each one before they have to
be back out on stage.
Every time a number finishes out on stage, the same scenario is
repeated. The troupe of dancers rushes backstage. There, the
multicolored costumes, many encrusted in rhinestones, have been
laid out in order by an army of assistants. Rows of pink feather
boas hang from rails.
Pink and black thigh-high leather boots, with sequin decoration,
hang from racks. Elaborate constructions which go over the
dancer’s shoulders and create the illusion they have sparkling
butterfly wings and ostrich feathers sprouting from their backs,
sit in rows on tables.
Each dancer heads to the costume they require. While they
change, technicians shift the scenery in time for the next
number.
The dancers are changed in an instant. Then, the troupe rush
back out onstage into the glare of the footlights. Without a
pause, the costume assistants backstage put away the outfits
that the dancers removed, then lay out a new set of outfits so
they are ready for the next costume change and the next number.
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"A MAGICAL PLACE"
"At the moment I rush out to the backstage, I know exactly where to
go, what to do, where my next costume is for the next part," said
Claudine Van Den Bergh, one of the principals.
The performances at the Moulin Rouge still hold true to the
traditions established at the cabaret’s founding on Oct. 6, 1889,
when women who made a living washing linen by day transformed
themselves into dancers at night.
One of them, La Goulue (gluttonous), flanked by her partner
Valentin-le-desosse (boneless Valentin), were among dancers painted
by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec on Moulin Rouge advertising posters at
the end of the 19th century.
The shows featured dancers with stage names such as Nini Pattes en
l’air (Nini legs in-the-air), Rayon d’or (golden ray) and La
Sauterelle (Grasshopper). Nowadays, Olga, Jasmine, Claudine or
Esmeralda shine on stage.
Critics say some aspects of the performance – especially the fact
that many of the female dancers are topless or wear see-through
costumes – is a sexist objectification that is out of step with
modern times.
To mark the Moulin Rouge’s 125th anniversary, in 2014, two activists
from feminist group Femen climbed onto the theatre’s roof and
shouted that women’s bodies should not be for sale.
For Olga Khokhlova, a dancer from ex-Soviet Kazakhstan who performs
a cancan solo and has been at the Moulin Rouge for 12 years, the
spirit of the cabaret is timeless.
"I love the adrenaline of the stage. The Moulin is a magical place
where I live out my passion," she said. "When I'm on stage, I know
that I am the inheritor of famous dancers who for 130 years have
made the Moulin Rouge."
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
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