Celebrate the great outdoors!
Yukon Rendezvous Festival has planned four possible versions of the festival this year, to quickly adapt to changing health regulations.
Can Can
Bigger and better than ever
The countdown is almost over, with only days left until the official Rendezvous Kick Off, presented by the Hougen Group of Companies.
Get your lips ready!
What is one to expect when one decides to go to a 2018 Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous event in November?The Ultimate Lip Sync Battle!
Spring rendezvous in the midnight sun
On June 7, the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous (YSR) will host their first spring auction, a must-add for everyone’s calendar.
Dining with future queens
Enjoy two high-class afternoons with the Quest for the Crown Rendezvous Queen candidates The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Quest for the Crown competition features opportunities for us to dress in gold rush era finery and spend a civilized afternoon visiting with the women hoping to be Queen: the Queen’s Tea and Social and the Queen’s …
Meet the 2018 cancan line
The 2018 Eldorado Line: Steal Your Fella Ella (left), Last Call Liz, Razzle Dazzle Rachel, Lollipop Ginger Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous season begins in February, but for some people it is a year round commitment. The women of the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Cancan Line are arguably the most in-demand group during Rendezvous, and their appearance bookings …
The Legacy of the Klondike Cancan
The cancan that began as an 1830s dance craze in Paris was a direct revolt against the rules imposed by men, society, press, clergy and narrow-minded citizens. From the beginning the cancan was a statement, and it became a symbolic statement through the various revolutions and movements from that point forward. As the great cancan …
The Cancan Arrives at the Klondike Gold Rush
On November 28, 1891, the New York Sun dedicated a full page to the cancan. Titled “Eccentric Paris Dance,” the article highlights Paris cancan stars of the day who describe intricate cancan dance moves. After the two decades of being attacked in the press by misogynist newspaper editors and pious moral reformers, the Sun article …
Can You Do the Cancan, Kate?
During the 1890s, the United States was a melting pot of entertainment – and vaudeville became the perfect vehicle to showcase this wealth of diversity. From New York to Victoria, B.C., vaudeville reigned supreme as the most popular entertainment in every city and many small towns. The key to vaudeville’s success was that it allowed …
The Cancan Under Arrest
Appearing nightly in vaudeville, burlesque, ballets and operas, on tiny rustic stages of the Wild West mining camps and in the frontier theatres of the Pacific Coast, by the 1870s the cancan was in North America to stay. When the cancan first became a part of the entertainment fabric, it was celebrated in newspaper reviews …
The Trekkers Will Soon be Here
The Trekkers are coming again, and this year’s Trek Over the Top from Tok Alaska to Dawson City, will have a substantial increase in numbers over the last two years. Paul Robitaille, marketing and events manager with the Klondike Visitors Association (KVA), reports that the Tok Chamber of Commerce has taken over the promotion and …
The Secret Life of a Can Can Dancer
What does it Take to be a Can Can Dancer? Six months of determination, of going straight to practice after work, of trying that spin and skirt flip over and over again until you get it just right. It means that when you hit the stage at Can Can Kickoff and the schedule shifts into …
Take a Midwinter Break
“Her Majesty’s Royal Feast is a brand new and exciting event,” says Dave Blottner, executive director of Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous. This event will feature a five course meal catered by six local restaurants, with a speech by the Rendezvous Queen and a string quartet. The event will take place at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre …
The Cancan as Theatrical Spectacle
On June 20, 1819 the composer who was destined to pen the cancan theme song was born. His name was Jacques Offenbach. Born in Cologne, Germany, he grew to be a virtuoso cellist. At 14 he was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire and travelled there to begin his studies. The year was 1833 and a …
The dance craze with a kick!
In her book “DANCING” Lilly Grove describes the invention of the chahut which evolved into the cancan. “About 1830, a stage dancer called Mazarie played the part of a monkey in the Theatre de la Porte St. Martin. He invented for the occasion a figure dance which he called ‘chahut,’ which surpassed in its …
The Laundress and the Kick
Although women of Paris played an integral role in the French Revolution, once the dust settled they were given a stern message by the new men in power: Stay home, tend to the children and leave the important business of governing to us. By 1825, the post-revolution preoccupation of keeping women in their place was …
A Sourdough Scrapbook
How much do Yukoners look forward to Rendezvous? A quick glance at the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous website gives you a hint: they have a clock counting down to the start of the 2015 festival — and it’s accurate to the second. Whether your preferred event is flour packing, the one dog pull, or just a good …
No folly to come up to the Yukon
Five guys are sitting, standing or dressing in this small makeshift room. I’m on the floor, my legs on steps leading back down to my corner, where I store every costume I’ll need for the Frantic Follies, the Yukon vaudeville show. Lyall Murdoch sits on a chair next to the mirror and make-up table wearing …
Rendezvous 101
Canuck Chuck Lands Difficult “Job” Wrangling a bevy of beautiful can-can dancers and introducing them to the world is a tough job, but Canuck Chuck, aka Charles Frisbee Tiberius Mackenzie, handles his duties with style and grace. The Rendezvous can-can MC originally hails the small coastal town of Inverness, Nova Scotia. At a young age …
Confessions of a Newbie Kicker
For anyone under the impression that Rendezvous week makes cancan dancers magically appear as if from thin air like so many green fairies to light up the stages of venues across the city – I’m here to tell you you’re mistaken. Being a cancan dancer is hard work. Really hard work. Four-hour-reheasals hard work that takes …
