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The Conversation
The Conversation
Will Visconti, Teacher and Researcher, Art History, University of Sydney

Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes takes us beyond the showgirl’s feathers and frills

Hans Christian Andersen Taylor Swift Brett Boardman Moulin Rouge
Brett Boardman/Belvoir

While Taylor Swift has been breaking records with the release of her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, a more compelling heir to the showgirl tradition offers audiences a glimpse into the world behind the feathers and frills.

Directed by Kate Champion, Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes is her latest interpretation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, following The Little Match Girl (2012) and The Little Mermaid (2016). Here she asks what happens with the passage of time to women who are, in Meow Meow’s words, “wrong, forgotten, gone astray”.

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