The Can-Can Dancer

& the Prince of Wales

Molly Crabapple

One day in the 1890s, La Goulue, the star can-can

dancer of the Moulin Rouge, kicked the hat off the Prince of
Wales.
In one flick of the toe, La Goulue summed up the demi-
monde, and all its class inversion. La Goulue grew up wash-
ing laundry. She stole customers’ drinks. She embroidered a
heart on her underwear's ass. She danced like an athlete at a
time when respectable women caged themselves tits to knees
in corsets. She was arrogant, business sharp, and sexy as hell.
She was showbiz.
Sitting across from her, hatless, was the future king of
England.
For one moment, you knew exactly who was superior.
That's how David Sweetman tells it in Explosive Acts, his
triple biography of Oscar Wilde, Toulouse Lautrec, and Felix
Feneon. Explosive Acts tries to prove that Toulouse Lautrec,
. 31 .