The Can-Can and the Cabaret Revolution

The Moulin Rouge's red windmill had become Paris's most recognizable symbol after the Eiffel Tower, but its significance went beyond tourist postcards. When Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler opened their "palace of dance" in 1889, they revolutionized entertainment by mixing classes, genders, and respectabilities in unprecedented ways.

The can-can, originally a working-class dance considered vulgar by polite society, became the Moulin Rouge's signature spectacle. But these were not spontaneous folk expressions. The dancers—La Goulue, Jane Avril, Nini Pattes-en-l'Air—were trained athletes who could kick head-high while maintaining perfect rhythm. Their performances required strength, flexibility, and showmanship that rivaled any classical ballet.

Louise Weber, known as La Goulue (The Glutton), ruled the Moulin Rouge's early years. Born in Clichy to a Jewish family, she started dancing in working-class balls before Zidler discovered her. Her autobiography, written years later, revealed the business acumen behind the seeming abandon: "People think we just lifted our skirts and showed our legs. But every gesture was calculated. The height of the kick, the swirl of the petticoats, the flash of lace—all designed to give just enough scandal to thrill but not enough to close us down."

The cabaret attracted extraordinary cross-class mixing. At the same table might sit a count incognito, a shopkeeper with his wife, American tourists, artists seeking inspiration, and courtesans seeking clients. This democracy of pleasure scandalized conservatives. "At the Moulin Rouge," complained one society matron, "one cannot tell the respectable women from the other sort. Perhaps that is the point."