Thought Picnic: In praise of high heeled jinks

And I cried

I am not a great fan of reality television and the rapid descent from the real celebration of talent to just feeding our innate voyeuristic proclivities has made this type of entertainment the staple of mass broadcasting.

However, every once in a while, these talent shows, one of which is Britain’s Got Talent does reveal a piece of common coal about to metamorphose into a glittering diamond.

Usually, someone sends me a link to a YouTube video and as I watch, tears come to my eyes as amazingly raw talent without any polishing is revealed in a gift to humankind that we can only appreciate and celebrate.

Even watching Paul Potts [YouTube, he won in 2007] or Susan Boyle [YouTube, she came second in 2009] today still fills me with emotion, as you see the yearning to be recognised and acknowledged earnestly demonstrated, time and again, your faith in humanity is renewed. The very best are usually not the pushy, notorious, gregarious or extrovert ones.

Men doing girlie better

Yesterday, I got to see one of those gems of talent, some French guys came to England, Yanis Marshall, Arnaud and Mehdi, Yanis being the lead dancer and choreographer, they join the ranks of men who would supposedly beat the other gender at what they are supposed to be good at.

As I was busy getting over the spectre of Conchita Wurst [YouTube] who won the Eurovision Singing Contest 2014, bearded with a body any woman would die for, the voice of an angel and the dress … it just takes your breath away, these men were dancing in high heels, I would wager that they would beat Beyonce in any dancing matchup.

Having seen Beyonce dance in high heels and wondered out loud how anyone could do that, these guys have perfected the art to the point that Yanis Marshall gives choreography lessons around Europe.

After watching their performance on YouTube, I did not cry but I might be off to a cobbler to get me a pair of high heeled shoes. This was not drag, this was cheeky and camp elegance with a touch of professionalism – this has taken them into the final.

I wish them good luck, besides, I guess everyone secretly wants to dance in high heels like that. Enjoy their first performance and how they got to the final.