World-famous Moulin Rouge hosting Vancouver audition to seek new dancers
Credit to Author: Stephanie Ip| Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 14:06:43 +0000
The creative minds behind the world-famous Moulin Rouge will visit Vancouver later this month to audition new dancers for its troupe.
The cabaret, located in Paris’ storied Montmartre neighbourhood, is preparing for its 130th anniversary on Oct. 6 with audition stops across Canada in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
During the audition, dancers will perform for the show theatre’s artistic director Janet Pharaoh and resident choreographer Erik Sorensen.
The pair will be looking for dancers with strong classical dance training and minimum height requirements of 5-foot-9 for women and 6-foot-1 for men. Well-balanced figures and proportionate, muscular bodies are desired, but “mainly the personality, the charisma and the capacity to assimilate choreographies with class and distinction,” read an audition notice.
French dancers from Paris’ popular cabaret ‘Moulin Rouge’ perform at a Gala Dinner hosted by the Alliance Francaise de Bombay, in Mumbai late 01 December 2005. Some 20 dancers came to the Indian financial capital to promote the cultural and historical significance of Moulin Rouge. The dancers were scheduled to perform at special events in Mumbai and New Delhi, organized by the Alliance Francaise.
The successful performers will earn the opportunity to travel to Paris for a month of rehearsals before joining a team of more than 60 artists representing 14 different nationalities to perform in the cabaret’s marquee show Féerie. The nearly two-hour show sees the troupe donning 1,000 feathered, rhinestone-studded and sequined costumes almost nightly on a stage set with a 60-tonne aquarium.
The cabaret was immortalized in the 2001 Baz Luhrmann-directed feature film Moulin Rouge!, starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. The film was later adapted for stage, first opening for previews in Boston in 2018 before transferring to Broadway earlier this summer.
The Vancouver audition will take place Sunday, Sept. 22 at 2 p.m. at the Scotiabank Dance Centre in the Kraul Studio (677 Davie Street).