DOING THE CANCAN IN YOUR FORTIES AND FIFTIES
A few years ago me and my good friend Lesley, tired of our unglamorous, woolly jumpered, single mother lifestyle, decided to set up a CanCan troupe. We both were very proud of our splits and had a few satin basques in our dressing up clothes, so decided to give it a go. Lesley had spent her childhood at dance school and one of the dances she'd had to learn was the CanCan. She remembered a lot of the moves that she'd learnt thirty years ago and with a bit of help from youtube we were up and away..We enrolled some of our friends, got out our needles and thread and started stretching like mad.
We all live in the countryside, so it was hilarious to see us arrive at our rehearsal space in our wellies and old, worn out clothes and transform ourselves into fit, flexible, acrobatic beauties! In the end, our troupe were pretty much all hard working, single mothers in the throws of middle age. The confidence we gained from the CanCan was immeasurable. We left our sometimes dreary, domestic situations at the door and indulged ourselves in both a fantastic workout and a journey into our own sexuality.
Has anyone heard of The Calender Girls? They were a group of British women from the Womens Institute (a very formal, conservative institution that has been running for years and normally involves baking scones and flower arranging.) Anyway, they took their clothes off for a charity calender and took the world by storm. They discovered things about themselves they had previously never let themselves discover.
well,
We felt like them.
(Only a bit younger, a bit hippier and not so naked!)
When most of your days are spent digging carrots and picking up lego off the carpet, you cannot imagine how liberating showing your knickers to strangers is! It's Art, darling!
Seriously, seriously, seriously, it is Art. Dressing up and finding a saucy persona, a French accent and a silly stage name, then kicking your legs expertly and dancing with other women all doing the same, is Art.
My mother, who is in her sixties and has an identity as a feminist, didn't like me doing it. She thinks she didn't spend the 1960s and 1970s fighting for womens rights in order for me to portray myself as a sexual object for a mans gaze.
She doesn't realise how empowering it is for a woman to safely flaunt her sexuality in the company of other women. To laugh at ourselves and at the men enjoying watching us. To play with the stereotypes in a slightly cynical way. To make fun of being sexy, but to enjoy it too. To be silly and sexy and in control as a perimenopausal or menopausal woman. To enjoy teasing our audience with the reality of our flexibility, eyelashes and pout, when mainstream societies view of us as sexual women is that we're past it.
Anyway, it's a laugh!
And very popular too. We were inundated with women wanting to join and people wanting us to perform at their event.
We even started doing CanCan-A-Grams, where we would sit the surprised guest in the centre of stage and dance just for them. The audience loves seeing them squeam. Maybe I have a sadistic interest in embarrassing men.
We did themed CanCans too. We were cowgirls on hobby horses at a horse racing event.
[cow girls 2 .jpg]
We've been scary, very unsexy witches at Halloween. Next theme is to do a CanCan-O-Gran where we will come on with Zimmer frames and thermal underwear, then show everyone that we've still got our wonderful legs!
Rehearsals have stopped lately. A few people are complaining of joint issues and bad backs. It's harder to stay fit as you age, if you don't warm up properly muscles are easily pulled. The key is to be consistant, to keep going with exercise and not have big periods of inactivity.
Never say: "I'm a bit old for all this"
Because that's when you stop.
So come on fellow CanCanners, Springs approaching. Lets get that spring back in our step.
