Lectures start promptly at 2:15PM
Visitors are very welcome, paying £8 on the door.
French Can-Can has long been synonymous with the "Gay Paree" of the Moulin Rouge, immortalized by Parisian artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. While researching the history of can-can Jonathan was surprised to discover that this famous dance, supposedly the "national dance" of the French, in fact owed its origin to London as much as to Paris. In this lecture, he reveals how an unlikely Anglo-British, cross-Channel exchange of artists, impresarios and tourists led to the creation of can-can: a fusion of a revolutionary Parisian dance (the chahut) and London's rather more coy skirt-dancing.
Jonathan Conlin
Jonathan is a historian and author particularly interested in the history of great museums/collectors. His talks draw on his own research, allowing him to take audiences behind the scenes: sharing the surprise discoveries as well as the questions that we still haven't been able to answer. In 2024 he wrote (and spoke to ASTV about) the National Gallery's official bicentenary history, Previous books include a biography of the oil baron and art collector Calouste Gulbenkian and a comparative history of Paris and London.
Alongside lecturing for Arts Society groups, Jon is Professor of Modern History at the University of Southampton. He has a first degree from Oxford, and MA from the Courtauld and a PhD from Cambridge
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GALLERY 
OTHER EVENTS
Society
Mr Christopher Bradley
17 Jun 2026 - 14:00
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Castle Street
Castle Street
Online Event
Coffee- From Arabia to the Coffee House: The Art and History of Coffee Drinking
Speaker: Christopher Bradley