The Folies-Bergere Cabaret: The Last Two Shows

Territories in Question: Routes in Territories
By Francine Fourmaux
English

On the basis of an ethnographic survey carried out from 1989 to 1996, this article analyzes the ritualized practices developed at the time of the closure of the Parisian music hall the Folies-Bergère and the creation of a new spectacle for its temporary reopening. The symbolic and social stakes of various transgressions, reproductions, or innovations of these two specific shows (the last and the new one) are interpreted according to the processes used: inversion, intrusion, borrowings, and to the artistic and economic context at the time. The observed facts seem to signify a change of status for the theater and the end of a “house” for its employees, rather than the real disappearance of a genre on the Parisian stage.

Keywords

  • closure
  • show
  • body
  • dance
  • music-hall
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