The Muses of Crazy Horse Paris
They are the muses, the icons, the guardians of a unique artistic language of a cabaret which has always stood, long before it was fashionable, on the side of women who dare.
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
Alain Bernardin described Rita Cadillac 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 treated like princesses” recalled Zara Nevada. 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
... Rita Xenon 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 TV series inspired by the hidden lives of Parisian showgirls, featuring icons like Monica Bellucci, Christian Louboutin, and showgirl legend Line Renaud.
Lova Moor
Lova reimagined cabaret as an avant-garde expression of French glamour, merging the aesthetic codes of French chic with the liberated spirit of the 1970s. Her performances dissolved the boundaries between eroticism and art, mastering the power of pole technique and the theatricality of Eartha Kitt. In one night, she could shift from the precision of a choreographed piece to crawling onstage lip syncing to a lion’s growl.
Polly Underground
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.
