Can Can Brasserie, Richmond

Though cancan began as a dance for couples in 1830 at the working class dancing gardens, it reached its zenith in the early 1900s in Paris. Initially attracting disapproval from 'respectable' society (for a number of reasons, but mostly because it implied a lack of control by those participating - 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. It was with its adaptation from the dance gardens to the professional stages of the Moulin Rouge that the cancan became an aphrodisiac, with its new aspect of flaunting legs and underwear in an erotic manner. Adolphe Willette, the artist who designed the Moulin Rouge, spoke of the dance as "a whirlwind of pleasures and vices." The dance shocked many in its daring challenge to the social, moral, and political conventions of a time when morality had become almost institutionalized. It was was depicted very early in one manuscript as "a total dislocation of the human body, by which the soul expresses an extreme energy of sensation; it is a superhuman language, not of this world, learnt assuredly from angels or from demons." A devoted patron of the Moulin Rouge, the famous painter Toulouse-Lautrec captured it poetically in exclamation: "La vie est belle, voila le quadrille," translated to 'life is beautiful, here comes the cancan.' Though cancan came to be regarded as the epitome of french naughtiness and was continually criticized by moralists as lewd exhibitionism and exploitive, the dance inspired many artists and became the focus of works from Seurat to Picasso, and continues to be reveled today by classical ballet troupes and lavish theatres. Today, it inspires our creation, and with it an effort to hear once again Toulouse-Lautrec's palpable refrain from a chorus of new-century guests.