The Muses of Crazy Horse Paris

Miss Fortunia

“At the beginning of my career, in October 1952, I saw at Folies Bergère a dancer with angel wings named Fortunia… a magnificent artist… they had not given her the place her beauty deserved.”

So recalled Alain Bernardin in 1971, speaking about the woman who would become the first dancer of Crazy Horse Paris.

Rita Cadillac

Described by him as “tall, slender like a thoroughbred, with a body of warm amber color, long hair with red highlights, and green eyes with a strange lilac gaze,” he created her first solo: a satin dress slowly coming apart beneath fur coat. To a fast modern rhythm, she emerges from a lingerie set. She leaves the stage as a white fox slides along her body. That performance made her a sensation across Paris.

Zara Nevada

“We were teated like princesses,” she later recalled. But that level of visibility came at a cost. Between shows, rehearsals, TV appearances, photoshoots, and press, there was barely time for anything else. Offers came her way, but being a Crazy Horse Paris dancer wasn’t just a job it was total commitment.

Rita Xenon

... She also appeared in films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but perhaps her most unexpected legacy came decades later: her memoir inspired producer Dominique Besnehard to develop ‘Ça, c’est Paris!’ (2024), a series  inspired by the hidden lives of Parisian showgirls, featuring acting icons like Monica Bellucci, Christian Louboutin, and showgirl legend Line Renaud. Honestly, very iconic.