CABARET VILLE MAGAZINE. P37. Cont'd from P36

Louise Weber executing a belly dancing routine outside her modest joint.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

LA GOULUE FRENCH CAN CAN  INFLUENCED ZIEGFELD FOLLIES AND RADIO CITY ROCKETTES.  

 

The French Can Can which was created and nourished with the talent of Louise Weber has been immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec in his paintings, posters and drawings, by Jean Renoir in his elaborate productions and stage sets and by Jean Gabin and Maria Felix Berger in their movies. It took the French 40 years to transform Can Can  into a choreographic perfection and a visual delight. In 1850, Can Can became an institution and  a shrine to cabaret dancers. At its dawn, it was accepted at face value as a pure French artistic innovation and a Parisian invention. It did not evolve into an international art platform until Celeste Mogador took it to the second level by incorporating the “Quadrille” and Rosa Pompom by adding more human substance to its feminine acrobatic forms and figures. The colorful character of Pompom who was known to the French as the self-proclaimed legal heir and illegitimate daughter of King Charles X gave a big boost to Can Can, for in addition to its artistic attributes, Pompom’s notoriety paved the way to Can Can’s  grand entrance to  the vast landscape of gossips, newspapers columns, “potins”  and social “rubriques”. As soon as it was introduced to the Brits by Charles Morton (Father of the modern Music-hall) and performed for the first time in London in 1861, Can Can became an international sensation. However, it did not take long, before Great Britain banned it in England under the pretext that it was too risqué and immoral. This ban of course fueled the flame of success of this delightful French madness and added more mysteries and gossips to its mystique.  American businessmen saw it differently. American showbiz tycoons found in Can Can a gold mine. The first to copy the French Can Can, metamorphosed  it into a showbiz enterprise were of course,  the Americans. They brought it to the United States, made it look like a new French-American Follies, added more “Salt N Pepa” and extravaganza to it, Et Voila a Vaudeville-Burlesque-Great Gatsby-Follies-Ziegfeld Bonanza was created. CONTINUES NEXT