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PARIS - Crazy Horse, the upmarket Paris cabaret that insists its strip show is art, is revamping its decades-old revue to include a number that presents clothes removal as a solution to economic crisis.
The cabaret off the Champs Elysees, which has seen stars like Madonna, U2 and Gerard Depardieu sip champagne in its red velvet seats as they watch women undress, has hired star choreographer Philippe Decoufle to update its show.
Decoufle, who staged the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the Albertville Winter Olympics ceremonies in 1992, will launch the new revue next Monday after months of rehearsals.
"We work with a tiny idea for each number, and for which we put one, two or 12 girls on stage: they're stunning, naked, with high heels and wigs," the 47-year-old said at a press preview of the show this week.
One number features dancer Fiamma Rosa, dressed in a severe business suit, sitting at a desk while stock market prices flit across a screen behind her.
She fields a phone call that, judging by her dismayed reaction, brings bad news for her business. Her response is to begin removing her clothes and dance and drape herself provocatively across her desk.
"Another number is like one of those pens that you turn upside down and the woman's clothes fall off," said Decoufle.
The routine he has called "Scanner" features several dancers gyrating between poles as a strip of light -- meant to represent the light that runs across a document in a scanner -- moves up and down their near-naked bodies.
The cabaret's management says that the real economic crisis has not hit the club, where 100 euros (145 US dollars) gets you a ringside seat and a half bottle of champagne and 1,000 euros gets you a VIP box.
In recent years, it has spiced up the shows by bringing in big names like Dita Von Teese, the global superstar of strip, and "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson for guest performances.
The Crazy Horse was opened in 1951 by Alain Bernardin and he always insisted the dancers be indistinguishable on stage in height, breast size and body shape.
Bernardin shot himself dead in his backstage office in 1994 but the rule on same-size dancers holds today in the club, which is still owned by his family and which now has an offshoot in Las Vegas.
The Crazy Horse prides itself on being the most sophisticated of the Parisian topless cabarets, and likes to boast it is "avant garde" and intimate compared to the large-scale adult revues at the Moulin Rouge or the Lido.
It insists its shows present a celebration of female beauty and are not tacky titillation dressed up as art for a mostly male audience.
"Women at the Crazy Horse are never submissive," said artistic director Ali Mahdavi. "They're in charge and conscious of their bodies and of their desire. And their desire and pleasure are more important than those of men."
- AFP/ir
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