Often described as the dancer who came closest to founder Alain Bernardin’s artistic ideal, Polly Underground didn’t just become one of the most famous showgirls at Crazy Horse Paris. She became the standard.

In her, Bernardin found a reference point, and ever since, dancers have been measured against her. No surprise. She had it all: technique, beauty, presence. 

Born Magdalena Rosenberger-Harper to an African-American father and a German mother, she was raised in Germany and trained in music and dance at the Mannheim Academy of Arts. Three years in, everything collapsed.

Both of her parents passed away, and with no financial support, she and her six siblings were sent to the United States to live with relatives in Carolina. Her formal training ended, but her relationship to performance didn’t.

She joined a rock band, following a drummer she was in love with. That’s how her career started. “I was so in love with him that I did everything for him. To always be close to him, I followed him through American clubs. He was a drummer, and I as a go-go girl.” She told Reeperbahn Sex Illustrierte, in 1974.

But life in the U.S. brought a different reality. In Germany, she had rarely felt defined by race. In America, she did. Doors closed before she could even knock. Eventually, she decided to return home.

Back in Europe, she began working as a performer at the Rote Mühle cabaret in Munich. That’s where Alain Bernardin saw her and immediately invited her to join Crazy Horse Paris. From there, everything accelerated.

Her signature number “My Name is Polly Underground” later evolved into “But I’m a Good Girl”,  an iconic act of Crazy Horse Paris repertoire, which has reached global audiences through the film “Burlesque”, performed by Christina Aguilera.

Polly Underground passed away in 2019, but her presence never really left. Even after her time as a performer, she stayed on as a captain and coordinator, shaping generations of dancers who followed.

The lounge bar overlooking the stage was eventually named after her. An acknowledgment of how deeply she became embedded in the identity of Crazy Horse Paris.