This is the rarely seen larger format of a poster for the Bal Tabarin, which opened in 1904, and eventually became home to the cancan, then later the Charleston, or whatever the latest dance craze was. It allegedly looked from the outside like the entrance to a tomb, but inside it was hot and, as the magazine Candide put it: “The star of the Tabarin, that’s woman” (3/4/1937). To say this graphically, Colin uses one of his favorite techniques, a multiple exposure portraying the history of dance at the Tabarin: Jane Avril does the cancan, La Argentina swishes her flamenco skirt, and Josephine Baker struts toward us doing the Charleston.
Imp. H. Chachoin, Paris
literature: Colin, 25; Colin Affichiste, 172; PAI-L, 215