If there’s a nonconformist way to approach something, Two Destination Language will find it. So you’d be forgiven for raising an eyebrow of curiosity at the notion their next show is inspired by the can-can. Exuberant though it may be, today’s can-can is rooted in uniformity, both in its synchronised steps and the people who deliver them. Dig a little deeper, however, and lurking behind the Moulin Rouge heels and head-dresses, lies the fascinating history of this high-kicking French dance. For the can-can’s origins began not on a glamorous Parisian stage, but in the post-work watering holes of ordinary folk during the industrial revolution. 

‘There are no proper recordings of what the can-can was like choreographically,’ explains Two Destination Language’s co-founder Katherina Radeva. ‘We just know that people kicked their legs high. And what’s important to note is that men started this in public halls, and it was the working classes after a hard day’s work that would go and have a pint and a dance. So it was the opposite of the social dances of the middle classes, which were a lot more formal. We absolutely loved this bit of history, which was born out of letting loose, letting rip and letting go of the working day.’

Radeva and company co-founder Alister Lownie were exploring music hall and cabaret when they discovered all this, and it felt like the perfect fit for them. Allowing the work to germinate for a couple of years, Bottoms slowly began to take shape and follow in the footsteps of previous thought-provoking productions such as 40/40 and Fault Lines. ‘As with most of our work, we don’t do it straight,’ says Radeva. ‘You will recognise the can-can for sure, but we like to twist and turn and shapeshift. And none of the five performers in Bottoms would fit the Moulin Rouge. We respect their choices, but we’re going to do it our way.’

‘If you look at the Moulin Rouge audition rules, you’ll see that they know exactly what they want,’ says Lownie, picking up the thread. ‘There’s the uniformity of that chorus line and the very particular kinds of body types; there is definitely an audience for that but this was an opportunity to take it apart, deconstruct it and apply a kind of creative distortion.’ A quick search confirms that if you want to grace the Moulin Rouge stage, you’ll need to be a minimum of 5ft 9″ with a ‘slim graceful figure’ (women) or 6ft 1″ with a ‘well-proportioned muscled body’ (men). Instead, Bottoms celebrates the individuality of each performer. 

‘The people on stage might be doing the same thing,’ Radeva adds, ‘but they’re all doing it a little bit differently from one another, rather than attempting to precisely replicate the same thing across all the bodies on stage.’ Size and shape aside, Radeva and Lownie are also keen to address the societal history of who performed the can-can. And while the show’s title could refer to the body parts on show when the dancing girls throw their skirts over their heads, there’s also something deeper at play. 

‘The history of the can-can and cabaret is about taking pretty girls who are from families in need of money and creating a frame that gave them opportunities but very little agency,’ says Lownie. ‘And it’s about taking what would be the “bottom” of society and giving agency to people. We’re interested in difference, not in creating a kind of uniform desirable iconography.’

With all their work, Radeva and Lownie like to leave room for audience reflection, in this case posing a question about how we appreciate and pay for art and the people who produce it. ‘We’ve had years of austerity and cuts on culture,’ says Radeva, ‘and yet we all know that it’s good for us; it’s food in another way. But as artists, a lot of the time we feel like we’re very much at the bottom of the chain. So we work very hard for our audience in Bottoms; it has a cheeky twist that I’m not going to reveal, but which deals directly with how art is valued. Our work doesn’t present answers, but it does make space for conversations around these themes.’

Bottoms, Tramway, Glasgow, Wednesday 14 & Thursday 15 May, as part of Dance International Glasgow.