I fell in love with the Louvre one morning while doing my disco dance moves to Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” Charity Hall.
The museum, a former medieval fortress and later a royal palace, had not yet opened, and I was directed to catwalk, butt-touch and finger-pointing in the large room where Louis XIV once hosted plays and balls.
The sun casts a warm light through the long windows, streaking the pink and white checkered floors and bathing the marble arms, heads and wings of the ancient Greek statues around me.
“Dot, dot, dot,” shouted dance instructor Salim Bagayoko. So I put on my best John Travolta pose, pointing around the room, my eyes falling on Artemis’ delicate sandaled feet, Neobia’s wings, and Apollo’s stone penis superior.
The woman next to me caught my attention. We giggled.
Over the years, I’ve felt a lot of things at the world’s most visited, and arguably most famous, museum—annoyed, exhausted, and a little surprised.
This time, I felt joy.
In a few months, the Summer Olympics will be held in Paris, with museums and galleries across the country Have been competing to put it on Olympic themed performances.One of the Louvre offerings is an hour-long dance and exercise circuit throughout the building that museum officials are calling “Curez au Louvre” — which means running to and within the Louvre.
Luc Bouniol-Laffont, the museum’s director of performing arts, explained that the museum seemed to be a natural training ground. It’s so big that staff wear running shoes to cover the 400 rooms, which are stretched together over 9 miles. The exercises will provide different connections to some of the 33,000 pieces.
“This is not what gods are like,” he explained. “It’s the body.”
he proposes Mehdi KkoushA local choreographer, who toured with the curator, was given carte blanche to design the course – with just one small request.
“Forget the Mona Lisa for a moment,” Mr. Buñol-Lafont said. “There’s a lot of other stuff to see.”
The classes, which cost 38 euros (about $41) for adults, sold out within an hour of going live. They will last until the end of this month.
The big draw is the timing. Dancing begins one hour before the museum opens.Every morning, about 60 lucky people are divided into two groups of 30 people, and can experience what is usually only Beyoncé, Jay-Z and others.
No long lines, no crowds, no selfie sticks: we have the Louvre to ourselves.
Here’s a secret: While the French are gallery enthusiasts, they’re not crazy about the Louvre. About nine million people fill its halls every year, but the vast majority are not French. The place is too big and crowded.The experience of viewing the Mona Lisa Similar to squeezing into the subway during rush hour; Approximately 30,000 people perform compressions in front of it every day. There are over 100 museums dotted around the city filled with wonderful things, but with less foot traffic, why endure the pain?
Even Mr. Kkoush admitted that he had not been in the building since he was a child. “All Parisians are the same,” he said. “I ride my bike in front of it every day from one part of the city to another. But I just don’t look at it anymore.”
Arriving at the Louvre alone in front of crowds gave me the space to really see it. Boy, is it breathtaking.
In the center of the outer courtyard, I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid shone purple-blue in the morning light. I walked into the museum and floated down the escalator to the museum’s modern foyer, with reflections of the building’s ornate stone facades, columns and statues scattered around me.
I felt like a character in a Disney cartoon. This is amazing.
Mr. Kkouche’s idea was to host a four-part conference in four different rooms close to each other in two of the Louvre’s three wings. Otherwise, time would be consumed by commuting, he said.
He asked four collaborators—three dancers and his fitness instructor—to help design a 15-minute class for each space. Everyone is inspired by this room.
The disco in the Salle des Cariatides, which once hosted royal balls, is obvious – for him, disco is the modern version of ballroom dancing. “We have to return to the original purpose of this room,” he said.
From there, my team walked into the next room and did a quick stretch next to the bed. Venus de Milo Then run down to the basement to the oldest part of the building. There, we did warrior training—lunges, squats, and jumping jacks to the rhythm of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”
The event is in keeping with the Louvre’s origins as a fortress built around 1200 to protect the medieval city from the Normans while King Philippe Auguste was on his Crusades . Over the centuries it was converted into a royal palace and greatly expanded. In 1984, during an extensive renovation of the building, Archaeologists unearth The base of the original rough limestone wall.
We ran up and down the steps Great Sphinx of Tanis, which guards the entrance to a collection of Egyptian antiquities. I pictured its pursed lips in a slight smile, its huge stone tail swaying gently with feline delight.
We cheered and the echoes washed through my body as we ran up the stairwell to our next class. I was told that the coaches played hide and seek the first time they practiced together. They maintain that playful feel.
Everything is so otherworldly and silly. I felt the excitement and freedom I felt at summer camp as a kid.
We were instructed to dance into the next class, passing through a tunnel consisting of the massive bodies of two stone bulls with eagle wings and the heads of bearded men. Entering the interior, we are greeted by the reconstructed 2,700-year-old courtyard of Khorsabad, the palace of King Sargon II, leader of the Assyrian Empire. Abandoned shortly after his death, the palace was excavated in 1843 by the French vice-consul in Mosul in what is today Iraq. The parts were quickly sent to the Louvre for display.
The giant statues inspired Mr. Kerkouche to offer classes in ballroom, an urban dance in Jamaica whose movements are grounded, powerful and sensual.
“We’re living statues,” says dance instructor Queensy Blazin’ as she leads us through round after round of twerking, stomping her feet, crossing her arms, and crouching to Sean Paul’s The deep beat of (Sean Paul)’s “Get Busy” screams “ha!”
This joy is contagious and irresistible.
Even the security guard was dancing on her post. She admitted that she had never seen anything like this in her 34 years of working here.
I realized that beauty shouldn’t just be stared at. It should be enjoyed and celebrated.
Our last stop was a part of the Louvre that was once the parking lot of the Ministry of Finance, whose offices had been housed on one side of the building for more than a century. As part of a 1984 renovation, museum directors transformed the space into a peaceful courtyard with potted trees, benches and Carrara marble statues from the Royal Gardens of Palazzo Marly. It was once a resort for Louis XIV, who came here to relax in the beautiful gardens, complete with beautiful waterfalls, woods and pools.
We did yoga right there. The teacher led us in downward dog and pigeon poses in front of giant statues of horses and hunters—a nod to the king’s favorite pastime.
I noticed seagulls circling over the huge glass roof.
“Typically, yoga is very introspective,” instructor Raul Darri later explained to me. “But the environment here is different. I have to tell them to open their eyes.”
She guides us to focus on a statue as a spiritual keepsake. I stared into the stone eyes of a marble boar, speared by a tunic-clad hunter.
Finally, with rosy faces, the students gathered around the teachers to express their deep gratitude. Our endorphins are high.
“It’s one of the highlights of life,” laughs Benny Nemer, a 50-year-old Canadian artist who has lived in Paris for four years.
My only criticism: 15 minutes per room isn’t enough time. I need to go back and examine them carefully, as well as some of the others I glimpsed in passing. Mr Bunol-Lafont of the Louvre said that was exactly the purpose – to draw Parisians back to the building and remind them of the majesty of the place.
Because once you fall in love with a place, you don’t want to leave it.
