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©AFP/File / Olivier Laban-Mattei

The Paris Lido opened in 1946

PARIS (AFP) - They called her "Bluebell" or "Miss Bluebell" because of the colour of her eyes. From this week on, the Paris Lido remembers the Irish-born founder of the leggy troupe -- Margaret Kelly, born 100 years ago.

"She rehearsed the girls into the 1980s, she was amazing, always immaculate, she always looked gorgeous," Australian former Bluebell girl Annette Hirsch told AFP.

"The first time I saw her she was in her late 50s but didn't look it. She'd kick her leg up high and tell the girls to do the same."

From next weekend, spectators at the cabaret will be given a glimpse of Kelly training the dancers in a short film tribute to the woman who created the legendary troupe and trained most of the 10,000 "Bluebell Girls" in feathers who have since kicked high.

Born in Dublin on June 24, 1910, Kelly turned up at the celebrated Champs Elysees cabaret with her girls after the war, accompanied by US choreographer Donn Arden.

Hirsch remembers her as "a survivor", an orphan girl who left Ireland in the 1930s and ended up in France after a stint dancing in Nazi Germany. The Lido, which opened in 1946, spotted her at the Folies Bergere, where she created a troupe, and talked her into moving over two years later.

"You had to be at least 1 metre 78 (five feet eight) tall at the time," said Hirsch. Today's standard for the girls' height is slightly less, at 1 metre 75 (five feet seven).

"They were all very tall girls and well-proportioned, and each girl gave out a unique aura. Bluebell liked girls with personality on and off stage, people who were a bit feisty," like herself.

©AFP/File / Olivier Laban-Mattei

Paris Lido remembers the Irish-born founder of the leggy troupe, Margaret Kelly, who was born 100 years ago

She was tough but respected her girls, said Hirsh. "She fought her whole life. She could be adorable or an iron woman."

Miss Bluebell died in 2004 aged 94 after a 40-year reign over the Lido's exaggeratedly leggy women, more glamorous, more sensual, though with less bounce than the shorter can-can kicking dancers of Paris' equally renowned Moulin Rouge.

"Miss Bluebell made an impact on the history of music-hall and the Lido," said the cabaret's current choreographer Pierre Rambert. "She invented the idea of the untouchable 'showgirl', who was an accomplished female artist with a rigorous spirit of discipline."

"We still hire long-legged dancers with well-proportioned bodies and with personality," he told AFP. "If you look for personality, the show is a success."

Rambert auditions wannabe showgirls several times a year in Paris, New York, London and Las Vegas, and gets 50-odd spontaneous applications a week.

There is no age limit, with the troupe currently made up of two generations of dancers from 14 different countries, several of them English-speaking.

Hirsch said that many of the girls like her had trained in classical ballet since their childhood but had been booted out of class for being too tall. "I measured 1.78 at 13, and at the time that was far too tall to dance with a boy partner."

Under Kelly's ground rules the "Bluebell Girls" must "continue to present the same technical and physical attributes as the day they were hired" -- meaning no extra weight and constant rehearsals. To encourage the 45-member troupe to stick to the rules, the Lido pays half of a dancer's gym expenses.

Hirsch, a New South Wales native now in her 50s, originally auditioned at 15. She danced at the Lido for 11 years, never left Paris and is now studying psychology.

She will be among hundreds of ex "Bluebell" dancers from four generations to gather in Paris on June 24 to remember the founder's birthday -- a date posted on Facebook as well as on www.showbizfriends.com.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand

RIYADH (AFP) - The chorus of Pays-Basques singers which greeted Saudi King Abdullah at a Riyadh fair would have been unremarkable elsewhere, but was a whiff of change for the conservative Muslim kingdom.

In Saudi Arabia, where Islamic clerics severely repress public music, film and other modern arts, it represented the wedge of domestic reformers and a key thrust of French diplomacy.

Abdullah visited the French pavilion on the opening night Wednesday of the Janadriyah festival in the desert outside the Saudi capital, the sole outpost of foreign arts at the annual two-week event.

He was welcomed to the pavilion, decked out by mini-Eiffel Towers and French-style cafes, by French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand.

In an address Mitterand praised the king's promotion of traditional Arab culture, adding: "France, also with age-old traditions... shares with your majesty this unique message."

Playing to King Abdullah's perceived desire to open up his ultra-conservative nation to more modern arts and entertainment, France is parlaying its own music, film and museum-heavy culture for closer ties between the two countries.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz attends the opening ceremony of the annual Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture

This, the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes as well, will help French businesses grab more of the hundreds of billions of dollars Riyadh is spending on development projects.

Sarkozy himself has pushed hard, visiting Riyadh three times in less than two years to see Abdullah, and sending his ministers on regular visits.

"France is not satisfied with the current level of the relationship," said Antoine Basbous, director of the Arab Countries Observatory in Paris.

"There are two goals. One, good (political) relations which would allow France to become an interlocutor in the region," he said, adding the "second is commercial."

Saudi Arabia is spending about 400 billion dollars in 2008-2013 on scores of huge infrastructure projects, making it a battleground for foreign economic suitors.

But only France is emphasising the culture angle as a way of getting a chunk of the energy and transportation projects which are the lion's share of Riyadh's spending.

The Janadriyah participation, with a number of arts performances scheduled and a normally banned mini-movie theatre inside, is just one of a growing number of Paris-promoted cultural events with the Saudis during 2009-2010.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

Camels are seen at the annual Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture

In early March Paris hosted the week-long "A Look at the Saudi Society" with seminars and lectures at the Senate and the Arab World Institute. It was overseen by influential Mecca province governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal, an arts fan hugely popular with progressive Saudis.

King Abdullah has been invited to inaugurate a Saudi archaeological exhibit at the Louvre in July, and be the foreign guest of honour at the Bastille Day celebrations.

Cleverly, say some, and riskily, others, France is playing to the reformist sentiments of Abdullah, who more through actions than words has appeared to want to overcome the bans on public music, movie theatres, drama and other arts.

The French are the most active among a number of embassies which put on the occasional film, concert or other art activity, almost always in Riyadh's restricted-entry diplomatic quarter.

Even so, it is always an uphill battle.

Last year the French embassy held a modest exhibition of works by Saudi women, an event marred by the inability of several of the artists themselves to gain entry to the diplomatic quarter to attend, due to Islamic restrictions.

Conservatives also nearly succeeded in blocking a long-planned recital by a French soprano put on for women only outside to embassies district.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

France's Frederic Mitterrand (C) poses with countrymen during the Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture

Some Saudis see France as helping to advance Abdullah's unspoken agenda against the religious conservatives, with whom he has to act cautiously.

Mitterand would not comment on that, or the commercial hopes of the French thrust.

"Of course I would be pleased if Saudi Arabia built a French Metro," he told AFP.

"But I would like maybe next year to bring an orchestra to Riyadh, to play some Mozart. Or maybe Beethoven. That would be nice."