Meet the Leeds woman 'too tall for ballet' who ended up dancing with the famous Moulin Rouge

“Not everyone can get a job - we are looking for two boys and eight girls (they have 80 in total) - but I think it is important that everyone has a good experience.”

The last auditions were held in 2019 prior to the pandemic, although it has been seven years since Pharaoh returned to Leeds.

Although the pandemic saw the Moulin Rouge be one of the first things to close and last to reopen, Pharaoh says demand for the cabaret is as great as ever.

“We have had to make some adaptations. We don’t have as many people in the audience as we used to, but one of the hardest things has been getting everyone back off furlough but once they are back on the stage they remember what they loved about it.”

She says they travel as far afield as Australia and Canada to recruit dancers for forthcoming shows. And while she may delegate some areas of her job to her “wonderful assistants”, seeing the dancers for herself isn't something she will ever hand over to anyone else, she says.

“People say all the time you should look at this girl or you should really have this girl in your team but I won’t take on anyone until I have seen them for myself.”

And while she is looking for height, beauty and dance ability (all dancer aged between 18 and 30) she says personality is just as important.

“I am looking for, what I call, sparkle. It’s star quality but also the ability to fit in as it is all about teamwork.”

The successful dancers will travel to Paris for a month of rehearsals and will join the team of 80 artists, from 16 different nationalities. The 2nd most represented nationality is British and although Brexit means they now need visas Pharaoh says it hasn’t caused any problems.

"We always used to need a visa and we have to have visas for the dancer from Australia and America so it hasn’t been a problem – unless I need someone quickly.”

The Moulin Rouge celebrated its 133rd birthday this week and Pharaoh is more than aware of the tradition she is upholding.

“Yes we have modernised in some ways, but we have kept the essence of the Moulin Rouge.”

It was her mother who encouraged her to become a dancer.

“Although most people seem to start dancing at two or three, I was five-years-old. I didn’t go to a full time dance or stage school. I did my normal schooling at Rothwell Grammar School and then I’d get the bus to the Mullen Dance Academy in Leeds after school and then back home to do my homework. We did the same exams as those at the boarding schools, but in many ways it is harder as you have to get transport.

“I was good but I was never going to be a ballet dancer as I was too tall. I would have loved to have gone into musical theatre, but those roles tended to go to the smaller girls. And so it was my mother, who was always my biggest supporter, who suggested I apply to the Blue Bells.”

She passed the audition when still a teenager she joined the dancing troupe and moved to Spain. But it was a time of deep unrest in Spain and when she was approached by the Moulin Rouge to join them in Monte Carlo she accepted. “I stayed there for two and half years, I was still very young, and then I moved to Paris and became dance Captain in 1997.”

When the artistic director retired Pharaoh was offered the job and she jumped a the chance. Her passion for the Moulin Rouge is clear in her voice and she defends the scantily clad dancers.

“People say that what we offer is outdated and not what people want any more. But we do two shows a day and both play to packed audiences so we must be giving people what they want,” she says,

“It is pure escapism, We are offering them fun without any agenda and I make no apology for that.”

The Moulin Rouge opened in 1889 and while it may not be the original building made famous in the famous paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec, it is still on the “sacred ground” of the original building.

It’s most famous and risque dance the Cancan remains, although Pharaoh admits it has changed slightly.

“The Cancan started out as a dance for working girls having fun after work,” explains Pharaoh. “We may have made it a bit more professional but we still have the music of Offenbach and have kept the essence of the Cancan.”

In the Guide to Paris nightlife, edition 1898, the French Cancan dancers are described as an army of young girls in Paris who dance this divine hullabaloo the way its fame demands it… with such an elasticity when they launch their legs upwards that we are allowed to presume that they are at least as flexible with morals.

The current Féerie' is a 1.45 hour-long show with 1,000 costumes of feathers, rhinestones and sequins, sumptuous settings in shimmering colours, a 60 tonne-water aquarium and the famous French Cancan. It welcomes every year more than 600.000 spectators from all around the world.

“The Moulin Rouge has been entertaining people for more than 133 years and although things have changed a little we are still very much for the people,” says Pharaoh.

Auditions took place yesterday and tomorrow at the Yorkshire Dance Studio 3 – St. Peter's Square – Leeds LS9 8AH.

Pre-Registration is required on https://auditionsmoulinrouge.softr.app/