Do you think you can can-can?
BONJOUR -- and ooh-la-la! Today we're celebrating France's national birthday
commemorating the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789.
And into Melbourne on Friday glides Mademoiselle Janet Pharaoh, who has the magnificent title of Maitresse de Ballet, Bal du Moulin Rouge, Paris.
Mmme Janet is here looking for Australian dancers -- boys and girls -- to perform in the legendary home of the can-can.
"We're looking for tall, good-looking dancers who have excellent classical and jazz training," she told us.
"There are 80 dancers in our company and we have 20 Australians performing at the moment."
Get yer legs up
DANCING at the Moulin Rouge ( founded 1889) is hard work.
Two shows a night, six days a week. One day off.
But Parisians and tourists love watching tanned, healthy Australian dancers and "you have such good dance schools" says Janet, who actually hails originally from the south of England
The can-can?
"It's an integral part of the show," she says.
"Originally in the 1880s it was really the hip hop of the time, performed by seamstresses and other girls in Montmartre who liked to go out and have a dance."
Pharaoh will be holding auditions for the Moulin Rouge this Sunday from 1pm at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Dance, 234 St Kilda Rd, Southbank.
