Public dances had a large impact in Paris. The atmosphere at the Salle Saint-Honoré, l’Opera or des Variétés, was legendary, and some orchestra conductors achieved stunning celebrity. People praised the talents of Pilodo, king of the waltz and the polka, but first place went to Napoléon Musard (1789-1853), the ‘supreme master of frenzied music’. Capable of transforming the slightest refrain into a wild tune, Musard conducted the orchestra in an unforgettable way and outdid himself in the ‘gallop’, the last dance of the evening, going as far as to resort to a canon to produce enthusiasm, zest and joyfulness. Spectacular and often compared to a cavalry charge, sometime even to a Sabbath, the gallop was one of the new ‘frenzied dances’ young Parisians were so fond of. The polka, the cancan, the cachucha or ‘chahut-chat’ [a wild Spanish folk dance] all lent themselves to strenuous, excited movements which put the athletic prowess of the dancers on display.
The Carnaval had a number of heroes: around 1840, there appeared the harlequin Chicard, characterised by surprising get-up, boots and torn clothes, yellow gloves, a huge headdress comprising a cardboard helmet painted bronze, topped by a magnificent, thick , broken feather. This character seems to have had an exceptional personality and a capacity to lead crowds, so much so that his appearance at dances or restaurants coincided with highlights in the dancing or drinking. Such was his reputation that he is sometimes credited with the invention of the square dance and the cancan.