A PARTY IN PARIS
DANCER Rhylee Hensler has gone from Cairns to doing the cancan in Paris, to mark the 130th anniversary of the famous Moulin Rouge.
Ms Hensler, who joined the show last year after acing an audition in her hometown of Cairns, was one of 50 dancers who performed the cancan last Sunday night in front of thousands of people who massed outside the Montmarte institution to celebrate.
She said the show had come a long way, but was still true to its roots.
“We still do the same cancan. It’s spectacular to do what they were doing in the ’50s, it’s such a very special thing to be doing on the Moulin Rouge stage, still, to this day, it’s 130 years later. It’s crazy,” she told British television station ITV.
Police blocked off the famous boulevard for the event, which began with music and a light show projected on to the iconic red windmill, recounting the venue’s Belle Epoque era origins.
A sole dancer then appeared on the roof, braving the autumn chill in one of the cabaret’s skimpy sequined costumes.
Then, as fireworks boomed overhead – red, naturally, later mixed with whites and blues – around 50 long-legged dancers wearing the same colours emerged to perform their famous cancan.
Opened in 1889 – the same year as the Eiffel Tower was completed – the Moulin Rouge has become a must-see for millions of tourists to the French capital, even if only from the outside.
The two nightly shows, two hours each, are almost always sold out seven nights a week, 365 nights a year, with tourists and locals attending in roughly even numbers.
The renowned cabaret performance has also become a touchstone in popular culture, not only with Australian Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 hit film starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor but before that in 1952 with John Huston’s version starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jose Ferrer and Christopher Lee.