The Crazy Horse Cabaret Theatre , near the Champs Elysees has been an institution in Paris since 1951 and is internationally renown for its artistic nude revue. More a nude, semi-nude and erotic dance troupe ,it has developed a distinctive look of stylized movements and choreographed performances. The aesthetic remains sensual and erotic without traces of the vulgar and crude.
Crazy Horse Saloon, Paris
A new show ‘‘Crisis What Crisis” based on the recession, is an example of increasingly complex and sophisticated performance art admittedly, of the popular variety for the well-heeled. Crisis was created by Philippe Decoufle, a designer of renown ,whose credits include the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 2007 Rugby World Cup . Trained in ballet, all the dancers are integrated into the full choreography, often creating a juxtaposition of visual effects through an odd fusion of ballet, modern dance, burlesque and popular performance art which results in a collage of styles.
The Crazy Horse has attracted concert artists who have been influenced by the arrangements and thematic conceptions and appropriated elements of the provocative to lend status to their act.
Celebrities including Madonna and fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier have nestled in the dimly lit theatre’s ruby velvet chairs and line-ups have featured sex sirens such as Carmen Electra and Pamela Anderson. Also, Arielle Dombasle has performed an erotic song and dance routine of stylized 1940′s and 50′s songs that evoke Kurt Weill and the glitzy,arty decadence of Weimar Germany. She appears in a Marlene Dietrich style tuxedo while maintaining her trademark balance between vamp and Lolita.“I’m a feminist, a 21st-century feminist – which means choice and freedom. One has the right to be both glamorous and ethically structured.”
To her, appearing at Paris’s Crazy Horse was something infinitely French, subtle and sophisticated. She wouldn’t do it in America. “I said no to the Crazy Horse in Las Vegas because there I felt I would have been a piece of cheap merchandise in a place of money, tears and perdition. Las Vegas is a kind of abhorrence.”
“I have been interested for a long time in working on a show about nudity. I don’t know why,” said Decoufle, who said he had been careful to respect and adapt the Crazy Horse’s distinctive look of stylized movements and fluorescent wigs. Decoufle,s previous credits were known for routines and costumes which modified body shapes, somewhat similar to the production values of the Cirque Eloize and even the Cirque de Soleil.
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