I CAN’T WAIT

apartment in Paris so I had to improvise and use my kitchen work surface as a ballet bar.

“We were in limbo. None of us had any idea how long we would be out of action, so it was important for us to stay in shape the whole time so we were stage ready.

“We are like one big family and we have supported each other over the last 18 months, motivating each other to keep going and keep dancing.”

Lucy, who has 12 costume changes in each show and 24 in a night, has been back in intense training for weeks ahead of the September 10 reopening at the iconic red windmill-topped theatre in the city’s Boulevard de Clichy.

She said: “We dance six days a week with one night off so we need to get our bodies ready for that again. We have been back at in- person classes for a while now and will return to full-on rehearsals at night next week. We also need to practise wearing our costumes and not getting injured.

“Walking gracefully down a staircase in a very high pair of heels with a huge feather backpack takes a lot of finessing, especially if you haven’t done it for a while.”

All the dancers have to work hard for their place in the famous cabaret – best known as the spiritual birthplace of the can-can dance, which until lockdown had been performed there every night since 1889.

The original Moulin Rouge theatre, which burned down in 1915, was co-founded in 1889 by

Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia.

The aim was to allow artists, the middle classes, businessmen and foreigners passing through Paris to rub shoulders and the cabaret quickly became popular. In 2001, it was the subject of a Baz Luhrmann blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

Lucy, who is one of three Scots in the show, says it’s the best job in the world and cannot imagine doing anything else.

She said: “I have been dancing since I was five years old. I was 11 when I decided it was what I wanted for my career. I grew up in Glasgow and went to the Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood.

“When I was 16, I moved to London to complete my training at