Dance inside the Louvre: World's largest museum opens for special activities

Imagine you are in the empty Louvre and for the next ten minutes, you want to use as much of the space as you can, guided by dancer and choreographer Salim Bagayoko. You might be among the 60 lucky people in two groups attending a sold-out dance class. The space where the dance class is held is the reception room known as Salle des Cariatides, used as a ballroom in the 17th century. It’s also where some famous playwriters of the time performed some of their plays for King Louis XIV. Nowadays, the space’s purpose is to showcase a collection of Greek and Roman sculptures that are part of the largest museum, the Louvre.

This special event is titled ‘Courez au Louvre’ and offers you the unique experience of starting the day by dancing and exercising amongst works of art, in a crowd-free Louvre. The event is hosted by the Louvre in collaboration with the dance company CCN. There is a series of events in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics and is taking place throughout May before the opening hours.

Created by dancer and choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche, who trained in contemporary dance, you will train with talented instructors, each of whom is teaching a workshop in a different part of the museum’s wing during the hour-long session.

After Bagayoko has made you perform a series of dance moves, including hip bumps, a sassy runway walk, and a Saturday Night Fever-style ‘disco finger’, you're warmed up and ready to move on to the next workshop. As your team leader, dancer Jérémie Sibethal, hurries you to the next class, you jog through the empty Galerie des Antiques. There are giggles of incredulity. No one can quite believe you’re here, working out in leggings and running shoes at the break of dawn.

It feels instinctively wrong to run too fast – partly out of respect, and partly to have time to admire the artworks around you. But there’s no time to waste. In less than an hour, visitors will be flooding through the doors and, across the museum, staff can be seen getting ready for their arrival. As you turn a corner into a room filled with ancient Greek sculptures, Sibethal makes an exception and grants you a moment to admire the Vénus de Milo, one of the Louvre’s most known artworks. Enjoy this moment without pictures and in silence, because it’s a unique experience! 

Then, jog through the Galerie d’Angoulême, home to the oriental antiquities collection, five adjoining rooms housing some of the oldest treasures in the Louvre’s collections, until you reach the impressive place under the glass pyramid, which is sunbathed in the morning light. 

Blazin’ teaches you some Dancehall moves such as a ‘Willie Bounce’, which involves bouncing up and down to the beat whilst adding playful arm and hip movements. As you put your heart and soul into your moves, shaking your hips and shoulders, Blazin’ reminds you that dancing here places you in the same privileged category as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who chose the Louvre as the setting for their 2018 Apeshit music video, in which the couple appears alongside artworks including the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

By the time you say goodbye to Blazin’ you need a moment to catch your breath. It’s time for your final workshop: yoga. Your yoga instructor will be Laure Dary and will invite you in a beautiful space for mindfulness. She speaks softly over the calming music playing in the background as she walks you through a series of stretches. In the meantime, you can admire all the statues that were once in lush gardens, surrounded by luxurious fountains. What could be more perfect than that?