From Versailles to the Moulin Rouge: a history of dance

Inspired by her recent visit to the birth place of court dances in Versailles and the Moulin Rouge, Johane Casabene has choreographed a new show taking audiences on a journey through a history of dance.

Principal of the Dance Unlimited Studios, Ms Casabene has produced and directed Paris Danse, which will involve all of the school's 143 students and is to be staged at St Agatha's Auditorium in Rabat on September 28 at 8 p.m.

The production is being held under the patronage of the French Embassy and in collaboration with the Alliance Francaise de Malte.

"I wanted to produce something which was topical yet which gave audiences a taste of the legacy of dance at the same time," Ms Casabene said in an interview.

Ms Casabene, who holds a Masters degree in dance and related subjects and is a licentiate member of the Imperial Society Teachers of Dancing, set up her school in Zejtun four years ago.

The school grew from strength to strength and a year ago she moved her studios to bigger premises in Zabbar, where students also have access to a library of dance material.

Paris Danse traces the birth of classical ballet as a form of art with its own integrity and identity in the courts of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, The Sun King, to the feather boas and sequins of Moulin Rouge.

The narrator, Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, an Italian Ballet Master, interpreted in the show by Tyrone Grima, explains the legendary repute of Catherine de Medici.

Widowed at a young age, Catherine de Medici became Queen of France for 30 years and employed the ballet master to create various Ballet de Cours.

The Ballet de Cours were always a cause for celebration, from the marriage of her sons or as a means of distracting them from the affairs of state.

These lavish performances continued to grow over the next 100 years giving France supremacy in this field.

In the first act of the show the school's students will interpret a variety of numbers to mark the evolution of dance with music from Rondo Veneziano, Mozart and Pachelbel.

In the second act the narrator is transformed into Charles Zidler, the manager of the Hippodrome, a theatre specialising in large-scale equestrian shows at the end of the 19th Century.

It was during this period that the butte Montmartre neighbourhood was famous for its steep streets, picturesque taverns, bad boys and artistic cabarets.

Zidler, together with Joseph Oller created in Montmartre a 'pleasure palace' mainly targeted at middle-class Parisians to create what is still known today as Moulin Rouge.

This act promises to be packed with magic, glamorous costumes, colour and lively entertainment with music from the latest cinema blockbuster Moulin Rouge and original shows in Paris such as Lady Marmalade and Offenbach's Can Can.

Throughout the two-hour performance there will be a variety of dance forms including modern jazz, tap, flamenco, tango, hip hop and cabaret.

Tickets for Paris Danse cost Lm4.50 and are available from Benetton outlets in Sliema and Valletta or by calling Dance Unlimited on 21662550, 9942 7933 or 21311017.