Dancers eager to prove their skills were in Vancouver today to audition for the Moulin Rouge. The famous Paris cabaret is recruiting right here in the Lower Mainland.
Vancouver is world famous for producing great dancers, and show producers often visit the city in hopes of uncovering raw talent.
Today’s auditions were held at the Harbour Dance Center on Granville Street, with dozens of dancers in attendance.
The recruiters are making their last Canadian stop in Vancouver after visiting Toronto and Montreal.
There are 60 performers involved in the show and the recruiters are looking to fill up to eight vacancies.
They travel all over the world every year to find that “diamond in the rough.”
“We want the best,” says artistic director Janet Pharaoh. “It is very difficult to find what we are looking for. Because not only do they have to be a good dancer with a good classical technical base, but also be able to do jazz and hip hop, and have a good personality on stage.”
Pharaoh says height is also a big factor.
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“I am looking for tall dancers!”
Coquitlam dancer Saskia Wedding has been dancing for 13 years and says auditions of this calibre are not common in B.C.
“I am so excited. I have been looking forward to it for a while. It is the Moulin Rouge that everyone talks about.”
The Moulin Rouge has been around for well over a hundred years and is a high maintenance business.
“It’s fun,” says Pharaoh. “People want to go out and be entertained, be happy and smile. The formula works…We take a lot of care with the quality of the show. We invest a lot… The shows cost a fortune to put on.”
Pharaoh says they were in Canada a couple of years ago and took a couple of Canadian dancers back to Paris, one of them from Vancouver.
Dancers who pass this year’s audition process will be notified in September and can be shipped off to Paris as early as October.
With files from Ryan Sang
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