cancan

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cancan

cancan , a lively French dance marked chiefly by high kicking. It was developed in Paris in the 1830s and became a popular social dance there. By the mid-19th cent. it was incorporated into dance revues and stage productions. Jacques Offenbach wrote the best-known cancan music. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made celebrated paintings and lithographs of famous cancan dancers.

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can-can

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music | 1996 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

can-can (or chahut). Boisterous (and supposedly indecorous) Parisian dance of quadrille pattern which came into vogue in 1830s, having originated in Algeria. Best-known example is Offenbach's from Orpheus in the Underworld (1858). Involves high kicking by a line of women in pretty dresses.

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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "can-can." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 3 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "can-can." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (December 3, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-cancan.html

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "can-can." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved December 03, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-cancan.html

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