Canadian dancer Laura Renstad (third from the right) and fellow cast members of the Moulin Rouge prepare for their performance at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“Music!” someone yells from the back of the stage.
As a booming, technofied version of Le Galop Infernal – the French Cancan – blasts out of the sound system, dozens of dancers lined shoulder-to-shoulder launch into a fit of perfectly timed kicks, splits and cartwheels. There’s a kick, kick, kick, then a cartwheel, back bend, partner lift.
“Oops, you’re in the Seine,” Cameron Greentree, the assistant to the artistic director, says to a dancer who came down a foot too far forward.
For the second time in history, dancers from the iconic Moulin Rouge will be performing outside the historic theatre at Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony in Paris. (The first time was in 1981 for Queen Elizabeth.) All together, about 80 dancers will perform on a narrow stage along the edge of the Seine River, which curls throughout central Paris, alongside some of the City of Light’s most iconic landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and the Louvre.
And when they take the stage, five Canadians will be among their ranks.
The Moulin Rouge’s performance, along with everything involved in the opening of the Paris Games, has been a closely guarded secret, but earlier this week, the company let The Globe and Mail in on one of its last rehearsals.
Canadian dancer Kyle Heck takes a break during a rehearsal at the Moulin Rouge.
“When we found out we’d be in the opening ceremony, it was like a dream come true,” said 33-year-old Kyle Heck, who is from Calgary. “I love the Olympics. I watch the Olympics every year and I’m such a patriot when it comes to Canada winning. And I actually had a bunch of friends perform in the closing ceremonies in Vancouver in 2010.”
The show has come together quickly. After months of rumours, the dancers got the final confirmation that they would be performing in the Olympic show about a month ago. The rehearsals have been running for four hours a day for the past two weeks – in addition to the troupe’s two regular shows.
“It’s been tiring, because we also have to work at night, but worth it,” he said.
Despite his enthusiasm, Heck admits he’s a bit nervous about falling in the Seine. “You take one wrong step and you’re in the river. I know it’s ‘swimmable’ but I don’t know if I want to be the one to fall in!” (At the group’s only outdoor practice along the river, two dancers lost music devices in the water.)
The iconic Moulin Rouge theatre in Paris. For the second time in history, dancers from the Moulin Rouge will be performing outside the historic theatre at Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony in Paris.
It is believed the Moulin Rouge has never had so many dancers perform at once in a line. In fact, their formation is so long they haven’t been able to rehearse the number as a full group because their stage at the theatre is not wide enough. Instead, they are running the routine in sections.
Paris’s opening ceremony is the first ever to be held outside a stadium. Athletes will be parading through the city by boat along the Seine. The river itself has been divided into a series of tableaus that reflect different aspects of French art and culture. The Moulin Rouge is slated to perform in the first section – Enchanté. The performance is only about a minute and 15 seconds long, but every beat has a movement, which has to be executed in perfect unison and in the exact right spot.
“Yes, I’ve been kicked in the face. It happens,” Kelly Nimens says with a laugh. She joined the Moulin Rouge a little more than a year ago. The 28-year-old from Markham, Ont., grew up training in all styles of dance – she was also a competitive gymnast – but the French Cancan was new. Getting used to dancing in such close proximity to others and getting comfortable with some of the unique skills – such as the jump split, where a dancer launches high into the air and lands in a full split – took a couple of weeks.
“With the split, the trick is you land on your heel. The back of these boots are wood,” Nimens said. “It’s a bit scary at first, but becomes fun.”
The Cancan, with roots going back to the 1820s, is famous for its risqué high-kick lines, acrobatics, shouts and swishing petticoats. (Today, every skirt includes 200 metres of frills.) It was a dance of revolution performed by the linen maids of Butte Montmartre – a rebellion against the patriarchy, the church and the military. The police even attempted to ban the dance. By 1889, the Cancan made the Moulin Rouge cabaret famous.
“When we perform it at night, you can just see the crowd get excited. It’s my favourite number in the show,” Nimens said.
The Moulin Rouge’s offering for the opening ceremony will be pure Cancan.
From right, Canadian dancers Laura Renstad, Allie Goodbun, Kyle Heck, Megan Rota and Kelly Nimens at the Moulin Rouge in Paris.
For Megan Rota, 26, joining the Moulin Rouge was a long-time dream – especially because they not only welcome tall dancers, they demand it. Women performers are required to be at least 5 feet 9 inches.
“It’s the one job where they basically want tall girls – I’m 6-feet,” she said.
Rota has auditioned three times, although she was too young at the first one. For her last audition, she flew all the way to Australia (the company holds auditions around the world) from her hometown of Vancouver.
This time she made it – and just in time to be part of Olympic history.
“It’s surreal,” she said.