Origins of the Cancan

Well, this was probably an obvious post. LOL! But yes, as a former dancer I eventually was going to have to talk about dancing. The cancan is a very high energy dance. Seriously, if you think you are in good cardio shape take a run at it and you will quickly learn otherwise. I certainly did!

The dance consists of much skirt waving, high kicks, and screaming. Lots of screaming. You can see the current troupe of dancers from the Moulin Rouge doing a version on TV here.

“…traditionally performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings.”

-Wikipedia

The cancan derived from a dance called the Galop, often done as the last part of the Quadrille, was popular in the Paris common dance halls. The cancan was considered vulgar because of the lack of control and (oh my!) it left the women out of breath. The dance evolved from a casual haphazard movement to a ritualized dance that was choreographed to a specific score of music.

The dance halls were places that held events more like a public dance than a review with a stage. It was in the early 1900’s that the hall turned into more of a theater style performance. You may notice I set more of a stage like scene in the book in order to create the interaction between the hero and heroine.

The cancan, as performed to Jacques Offenbach’s score was eventually choreographed and performed all over France. It is described as

“A boisterous rhythm, balance, flexibility, on the verge of acrobacy…”

-MoulinRouge.fr

One pervasive myth, is that the dance was performed with no underwear. This can be attributed to the fact that in the early 1800’s when the dance was still appearing in the dance halls, women only wore two tubes of material as undergarments. After the 1850’s with the advent of crinolines and hoop skirts, drawers became a standard undergarment and were worn by the dancers of The Moulin rouge.

Another true story is one that describes the dancers as staging a bet with male patrons. They would bet that they could knock their hats off without using their hands and then proceed to knock it off with a quick high kick. Needless to say this also served as a pointed display to discourage the men from touching the girls.

In the end the dance fell out of favor until it was revived in the late 1960’s. Since then it has continued to be performed as part of a review style show at the Moulin Rouge and many, many other shows.

So, have you ever seen the cancan performed? Ever danced it yourself?

Thanks for stopping by to celebrate with me and remember to comment on each post during the blog tour for more chances to win! (Not sure what I’m talking about? Click here.)

Post Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-can

http://lesfollesjambettes.webs.com/historyofthecancan.htm

http://www.moulinrouge.fr/index_gb.php#/histoire/

The Cancan Dancer and The Duke

Can a lady on the lam and a duke on the make find love at the Moulin Rouge?

Cathedrals and museums are not Lady Charise Colton’s idea of European adventure. Turn-of-the-century Paris beckons, and she wants to grab it while she can…or rather, cancan. Flirting with fate and half of Paris, Charise eludes her chaperones and joins the cancan revue at the Moulin Rouge.

Ethan Greer, Duke of Lofton, is in Paris to settle some estate business. Chafing under his responsibilities, he discovers an enchanting distraction at the Moulin Rouge, a flirtatious dancer who stirs his lust and something more. He must have her—even if it means offering carte blanche.

Terrified of discovery, Charise tries to hold her persistent suitor at bay, though her heart has already surrendered. Will she lose him if he learns the truth, or is love enough to bind the cancan dancer and the duke?

Excerpt:

The singular sound was a soft whisper at first. The audience strained forward to catch even a note of the eerie melody carried on the fetid air of the cafe. As the song picked up, her voice grew stronger, the words more clear. Ethan relaxed into his seat and let the warm rich alto caress him. His body grew warm with the promises carried by the witch’s husky tones.

He remained unaware of anything in the room except the siren walking toward him. Each steady, unhurried step she took further drew him in. His gaze feasted on the curve of her hip, the swell of her breast. Ethan rode the knife’s edge between lust and propriety.

The song described, in lurid detail, two lovers in the throes of passion. Upon reaching him, the dancer propped the toe of her boot onto the edge of his seat—square between his thighs. The luscious creature presented impossibly sheer bloomers which hid everything and yet nothing, causing him to let out the breath he, until now, unknowingly held. His cock grew rigid, the uncomfortable throbbing causing him to shift. The desire to haul her into his arms and demonstrate every action she described with the most sensuous mouth he’d ever seen rode him hard. Her full lower lip begged for his kiss. Ethan wanted to see it slick and glowing pink from his attentions.

The wanton dancer continued to taunt him, but his good breeding won out. Forcing himself to stay seated, his fists balled and his jaw grew rigid with frustration, but his raging lusts remained leashed. The song ended, sending her into the nether regions of the cafe in a swirl of skirts.

Purchase from The Wild Rose Press

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I am giving away three copies of The Cancan Dancer and the Duke. Leave a comment below with a link to your favorite cancan dance video on YouTube!

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I’ve been in possession of the original copy for about five years, and I’ve loved it ever since my first read. It really is, as a reporter for the Kansas City Star gushed in an interview with one of the co-authors, Carol McD. Wallace, “like a 400-page history class”. Needless to say, I certainly did not expect secondhand copies to match the price of a college-level history course when Julian Fellowes told the New York Times it was a direct inspiration for Downton Abbey. Since overpriced secondhand books are my particular bête noire, I was very pleased to discover that this amazing book was being reissued twenty-three years after its initial publication–and better yet, it was also being released e-book format!

You can tell how much I highly, highly recommend this book by the fact that I now own the original copy, the new copy, and an e-book copy. Both print versions are identical inside the cover, so no worries over omissions, edits, or changes, and I can honestly say that the e-book version (at least the epub version, since I own a Sony PRS-700) manages to retain every bit of text and every image in the print book. Since I can’t think of anything more to say besides incoherent gushing over the masses of information, the great photographs and illustrations, and the now-accessible bibliography (thanks to Google Books), go off and buy!

Amazon Print and Kindle, Kobo, B&N Nook and Print, and Sony Ebook.

*Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now a traveling meme where bloggers share the books that came into their house last week.

I was offered a copy of this upcoming YA historical release and though it isn’t necessarily my genre of choice, my curiosity got the best of me. I have a hunch that this is the first book in what I predict to be a wave of Downton Abbey-inspired fiction. In tone and plot, this mixes Gossip Girl (or Anna Godberson’s The Luxe series, to be more precise) with Downton Abbey, and I know teenagers newly-obsessed with the Edwardian era will gobble it up. There will be a giveaway for this title later today!

Raymond Asquith is considered one of the brightest stars doused in the carnage of WWI and I admit his fascination endures. When I discovered there was a book of the letters he wrote from 1897 to 1916, the year of his death, I had to obtain a copy. The section devoted to WWI is invaluable! It isn’t an easy read–Asquith was definitely a scholar raised on a classical diet–but his letters make it easy to get into the mind of a brilliant Edwardian gentleman. Amazon

I’d been excited to read this book for months, and it did not disappoint. There were a few coincidences that strained my credibility, but Mr. Churchill’s Secretary perfectly captures the early years of WWII Britain. Maggie Hope is also a pretty plucky protagonist (bet you can’t say that three times fast), and I look forward to the sequel, Princess Elizabeth’s Spy. Amazon

You may or may recall that I blogged about this book upon its release back in 2009 (!). I finally got around to purchasing it, and it’s a nice and meaty, but very readable biography of Ettie Desborough, a leading lady of The Souls and the mother of Julian Grenfell, the famous war poet killed in action in 1915. She’s also the wife of the Lord Desborough I blogged about last week! I’ve been dipping in and out of the text because it’s such a large book, but it is an excellent companion to the book about Almina Carnarvon. Amazon

One hundred years after the tragedy, many feel there is nothing left to be said about the Titanic, that every aspect of the ship, its passengers, and its sinking has been exhausted. While this may be true, the spate of books released this year hope to test that opinion, and I’d say that Richard Davenport-Hines’ Voyagers of the Titanic does its best to convince readers otherwise.

Voyagers of the Titanic tells the tale from a myriad of angles, beginning with the ship’s origins, and ending with the fate of the iceberg which sealed the RMS Titanic’s fate. Sandwiched between is a richly-detailed portrait of an age where wealth seemed endless and power forever in the hands of aristocratic Anglo-Saxons. If you’re a Titanic buff, or have read the multitude of books released in the mid-90s in the wake of James Cameron’s Titanic, Davenport-Hines does not uncover anything new or untapped; however, his elegant prose does make the narrative sprightly and engaging.

I consider the section about the second class passengers the most interesting, for this class–essentially made up of gradations of the typical Anglo-American middle class–is often neglected in the rush to frame the sinking as a matter of rich vs poor (or bourgeoisie vs proletariat). The issues I had with this book is that after a while, Davenport-Hines seemed to gorge on the lavish details of the Edwardian and Gilded Age, and the description became overwhelming and overdone. Also, in stuffing the book with snapshots of nearly every person on the boat, humanity and emotions were nearly erased from the text, and the recitation of their lives and deaths were just as hurriedly impersonal as the slightly distasteful (to me at least) inclusion of the photograph of a victim’s body being embalmed on the decks of the Minia.

For those newly interested in the ship, its passengers, and its sinking, this is a solid place to begin reading, though I feel longtime Titanic aficionados may be frustrated by its redundancy to their libraries.

FTC Disclosure: The book was provided by the publisher

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Some months ago a young man who represented himself to be an unpublished English author in sore straits submitted a manuscript to G.P. Putnam’s Sons. After the usual formalities the work was accepted. The author desired that his name should appear upon the title page as “George L. Myers.” The book was recently brought out bearing the title of “Aboard the American Duchess.” Before many days had elapsed after issue the publishers were informed that “Aboard the American Duchess” was in reality identical with “The Queen of Night,” a novel written by Mr. Headon Hill and published in London, save that “Mr. Myers” had changed the scene of action to New York. Thereupon the publishers sent an honorarium with explanations to Mr. Hill, who is well known in England and Australia as the author of “Guilty Gold,” “Zambra, the Detection,” and “The Rajah’s Second Wife.” “The Queen of the Night” is not copyrighted in this country, so Mr. Hill will probably feel gratified when he receives the unexpected message. The publishers have also issued the following notices that the American version of the novel may not be purchased under a misapprehension:

“G. P. Putnam’s Sons regret to have occasion to announce to the reading public that the story recently published by them under the title of ‘Aboard the American Duchess,’ a story purporting to be the work of an American author who writes under the name of George L. Myers, is a plagiarism of a story published some years back by Headon Hill, of London, entitled, ‘The Queen of Night.’ Mr. Hill’s material has been appropriated by the American writer, such appropriation constituting a wrong against the English author and his publishers, and also, of course, the American publishers, who accepted as an original work the story ‘The American Duchess.’ The publishers are making this announcement in order to caution American readers against the purchase under a wrong impression, of the story issued under the title of ‘Aboard the American Duchess.’”

~ The New York Times, February 10, 1900

I was able to find a copy of Aboard the American Duchess (complete with note from the publisher), and though I have not been able to find a copy of The Queen of the Night, there are scans of a few pages here.

So do you feel the claims of plagiarism bear true? Who do you think ratted “Mr. Myers” out? And more importantly, what do you think happened to Myers?