Moulin Rouge turns 120, features Russian can-can

The Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill), the world- famous cabaret which opened on October 6, 1889, has turned 120. Today the Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction offering music and dance entertainment to adults from around the world.

In its early days, Moulin Rouge dancers did the "quadrille naturaliste," where they would lift their skirts and throw their legs in the air; the dance later became known as the French can-can. There was no stage, and the girls danced among the guests.

The Moulin Rouge was one of the few clubs in Paris which had electric lamps.

Today’s Moulin Rouge is a theater offering shows featuring outstanding dancers recruited from 17 countries. Photo: Yegor Kornev, Marina Lotnik and Leonid Glushchenko, Russian dancers at the Moulin Rouge.

Marina Lotnik has been dancing at the Moulin Rouge since 2000. She started with the French can-can, worked as a backup for three primas, then joined the topless show. At the start of her career at the cabaret, there were 15 Russian dancers. Now there are only three.

Leonid Glushchenko (top right) is from a St. Petersburg music hall, and came to France on a tourist visa. “It was my dream. I have been here for more than five years now. I came for a casting call and was lucky to get in on my first audition. Some dancers try four or five times and fail,” he says. Photo: Russian dancers Marina Lotnik, Leonid Glushchenko and Yegor Kornev.

Another Russian dancer, Yegor Kornev, replaced his father as a can-can soloist. His father came to the Moulin Rouge from Russia’s famous Moiseyev Dance Company. “My father went to France when I was 11; it was his dearest dream. He had been with the Moiseyev Company for 13 years as a leading soloist through the 1990s, and decided to advance his career. He met with Moulin Rouge choreographers, passed an audition but was told that his height did not fit with the group. So they offered him a position as a French can-can soloist,” Kornev says.

It is not easy to get a place in the Moulin Rouge cast, the cabaret owners say. “We require a high-level of choreography skills and an ability to perform on stage. Our dancers also go through a training program recognized by the world’s most renowned dance schools,” says Moulin Rouge president Jean-Jacques Clerico. Photo: the owners of the Moulin Rouge, the father and the son Clerico with a mocked-up set for a new show.

The latest show, Féerie (Fairy), has been running for a decade. It cost 8 million euros to produce it. However, according to the owners, the cabaret always makes a profit, whatever the times or economic conditions.