Kirrwiller (France) (AFP)

"More dancers applied because nobody had a job": at the "Royal Palace" cabaret in Kirrwiller (Bas-Rhin), whose lights come on again on Saturday, the coronavirus has truncated the season but has boosted artists' applications weaned from contracts that have poured in from all over the world.

This weekend, it is the excitement on the stage and behind the scenes of the biggest cabaret in the province: after seven months of forced shutdown, the recovery is looming, with Saturday evening the big premiere of the new magazine called "Talents".

The technicians take care of the last details while behind the scenes, the artists finish preparing for the spinning of a show gleefully drawing on the ingredients that made the success of this room nestled in the middle of the Alsatian countryside: dances, conjuring, acrobatics, songs ...

But Covid obliges, this start of the season will have a special flavor: "we will have 470 people" on Saturday in a room with a thousand seats and whose gauge has been set at 700, explains its founder, Pierre Meyer, 67 years old.

- "Online Castings" -

The sanitary protocol is "strict", continues this pioneer of the rural music hall: ozone disinfection portico, compulsory mask for spectators during the show, hall and backstage disinfected after performances ... As for the artists, they have suffered two PCR tests and their temperature is taken daily.

Fourth big cabaret to reopen in France after Michou, Crazy Horse and Paradis Latin, the “Royal” normally welcomes more than 200,000 spectators each season.

This year, its receipts will seriously plunge: "we will have 6 million losses", cowardly, laconic, Mr. Meyer.

A situation like the world of entertainment, strangled by a health crisis that dragged on.

A lean season also for artists asked overnight to store their stage costumes in the cloakroom.

To adapt and anticipate the following season, the "Royal" had to innovate, especially in its recruitment.

"This year was completely different", explains Camilla Keutel, ex-dancer at Kirrwiller and who piloted the casting for the 2020-2021 season in March and April.

With the closing of the borders, exit the hearings in real situation.

Camilla therefore opted for online castings: "I had 300 applications", she explains.

In a normal year, "I have around 150 physical auditions", continues this Englishwoman living in Germany where she organizes shows.

"We had (candidatures) from South Africa, South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand ...", an "unusual" diversity for Kirrwiller, who draws more from the breeding grounds English or Ukrainian.

“More dancers applied because no one had a job,” she says.

Out of the 300 applicants, six were finally selected (five women and one man) to join the troop of 21 dancers of the "Royal", very happy to get a 10-month contract in the midst of scarcity.

Among them, Tyrone Lang, a 27-year-old Australian dancer.

"The confinement in Australia was very strict", and "to spend 48 hours of dancing a week to nothing, that's a lot", slips this young Melbournien.

- "Fortunate" -

When the pandemic broke out, Valerie De Haan, 22, was preparing to "travel around the world": "I had to dance on a cruise ship", a sector that provides jobs for artists but that the Covid has placed it in dry dock, laments the Dutchwoman.

For Lacey Edwards, 2020 should have been her "busiest" year, with contracts in Japan and Macau.

There again, sudden stop: "in my country, none of my friends work. England is very affected" by the virus, explains this Briton of 23 years.

Before the Covid, "it worked very, very well ... Overnight, everything stopped", explains Nicolas Besnard, 42, who performs an acrobatic act with his partner Ludivine Furnon.

The duo were able to get back on their feet thanks to a contract with the "Royal".

"We feel lucky when we see our colleagues on the floor at the moment", continues the forties.

"We restart the machine, we can't wait!"

© 2020 AFP