Cliff Simon’s memoir Paris Nights, tells the story of the beginnings of Simon’s journey toward stardom. His big stepping stone and the basis of this book, is his year in Paris as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge.
The book starts off with Simon receiving a call from his friend Gavin about the Moulin Rouge needing a new dancer. Gavin asks Simon if he would like to fill the position, and at the drop of a hat, Simon sells his car for a one way ticket to Paris — a bold move to make, and just one of the many risks you’ll see Simon take throughout the book.
Simon arrives in Paris looking forward to his new job only to find out he still has to audition — something Gavin failed to mention — and if he doesn’t make it, well then he just gave up all he had in South Africa for nothing.
Obviously Simon makes the cut, but before we get to the part in the story where he auditions, the book takes us back to Simon’s childhood.
Simon grew up in a whites only neighborhood in South Africa during the apartheid — a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party, the governing party from 1948 through 1994. Eventually as the war between the National Party and the African National Congress (ANC) intensified, his family decided to move to London while Simon was in highschool.
In London, Simon focused a majority of his time training to become an Olympic swimmer, with the goal of making it to the 1984 Olympics. Although he says he could’ve easily made it to the Olympics, something was telling him he needed to go back to South Africa, even if that meant being drafted into their military.
And so Simon joined the military, which although hellish, he found that it was what he needed to put him in his place after living such a privileged life. It not only gave him a newfound perspective of what it meant to truly struggle, it also gave him the strength that would help him kick off his dancing career.
Flash forward to the audition and we begin our journey alongside Simon in his year at the Moulin Rouge, a journey that widened Simon’s outlook of the world as he is exposed to things he never really encountered in South Africa: homosexuality, interracial couples, mobsters and freedom.
The book is not only a good read for dancers and actors, but also for those interested in historical and cultural perspectives, seeing as the most interesting part of this book is his transition from a narrow-minded South Africa to a very liberal France, which opened many doors for him. Although the title may suggest that this is solely based on his career at Moulin Rouge, there is much more the book explores that makes it a highly suggestable read.
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