‘A whirling mass of limbs and lingerie’: the salacious, riotous story of the high-kicking cancan
It started out as a dance for men who risked arrest for indecency – and grew into a legs-flying, bloomers-revealing sensation. We go behind the scenes at Bottoms, a thrilling new show about the cancan
‘Our chorus line was never going to look like the Moulin Rouge’s,” says Katherina Radeva. And everyone knows what that one looks like, don’t they? The high-kicking cancan chorus line with long legs flying up in a blur as women show off their bloomers to the sound of Offenbach’s irresistibly infectious music – a riot of frills, thrills, whoops and garters. Well, that’s certainly one version. But Radeva is talking about Bottoms, a show she has put together with co-director Alister Lownie and their company Two Destination Language. Bottoms takes the cancan as its muse, its creators having discovered that the real story of the dance phenomenon is much more interesting than the tourist-friendly cliche.