Crazy Horse Paris: A Mid-Modern Burlesque

When you think of Paris nightlife, images of glittering lights, champagne, and sultry performances often come to mind. Among the city’s legendary venues, Crazy Horse Paris stands apart as a temple of sensual artistry. Founded in the 1950s, this cabaret has become a cultural institution, dazzling audiences with its hypnotic blend of burlesque, contemporary dance, and avant-garde stage production.

Origins of a Cabaret Icon

Alain Bernardin, a journalist and art enthusiast, opened Crazy Horse Paris at 12 Avenue George V, right in the heart of Paris’s Golden Triangle, surrounded by couture houses like YSL, Givenchy, and Balenciaga.

The cabaret was originally called Crazy Horse Saloon, inspired by the Sioux chief Thašunka Witko (Crazy Horse). Its décor mimicked a Western saloon of the 1870s, complete with rustic touches, before evolving into the sleek, modern cabaret we know today.

Bernardin was a passionate admirer of women and sought to celebrate the female form as living art. His innovation was to “dress women in light,” using projections and shadows to sculpt their bodies into surreal, kaleidoscopic visions.

In 1953, Bernardin began integrating influences from New Wave cinema, New Realism, and Pop Art, ensuring the cabaret reflected contemporary artistic movements of the time.

The Acts

What makes Crazy Horse Paris unique is its precision and artistry. Each dancer adopts a mysterious stage name—think “Hippy Bang Bang” or “Etta d’Amour”—and wears the cabaret’s signature bold red lipstick, known as The Crazy Rouge. All performers perform topless with no nipple pasties. A small black patch covers the genitals and iconic colorful banged bobs are worn. The choreography is meticulously synchronized, often blending humor, sensuality, and political commentary.

God Save Our Bareskin

Inspired by the discipline of the British Royal Guards, this routine showcases performers in pared‑down costumes, emphasizing both precision and unity. Their coordinated marching produces a powerful stage image that fuses the commanding presence of authority with the seductive pull of elegance.

Twelve dancers in high boots and bearskin hats. Royal horse guards marching in military step. This act has been a trademark of Crazy Horse Paris show since 1989.

Vestal’s Desire

A mesmerizing fusion of dance and atmospheric music, this performance conjures ethereal beings within a dreamlike, Eastern-inspired tableau. With graceful motions and striking light effects, the dancers create an ambiance that stirs both yearning and allure.

The Bath

One of the earliest iconic acts, The Bath, featured Miss Candida performing in a giant champagne glass. This act was staged over 500 times and later revived by Dita Von Teese in a tribute act called La Bain in 2006.

The Naked Women Dressed by Light

Crazy Horse distinguished itself from other cabarets by creating a new genre with innovative stage production and lighting techniques. They created the naked women dressed by light act. Performances often referenced current events, blending sensuality with satire.

Lighting plays a starring role. Bernardin’s innovation of “naked women dressed by light” remains the cabaret’s hallmark, transforming the stage into a kaleidoscope of color and shadow. This visual artistry elevates the performances into something closer to contemporary dance or performance art than traditional striptease.

By the 1960s and 70s, Crazy Horse had become a magnet for celebrities, artists, and fashion icons. Bernardin’s insistence on artistic rigor—choreography timed to the millisecond, lighting designed like fine art—cemented its reputation as the most artistic of Paris cabarets.

Scanner

Scanner bursts onto the stage with electrifying, rock‑infused choreography that pulses with intensity. Dynamic lighting sculpts the dancers’ bodies in motion, amplifying every beat and gesture. The sheer vitality of the performance captivates the room, leaving audiences entranced by its raw power and spectacle.

Lay Laser Lay

Lay Laser Lay is a stunning solo performance staged on a rotating wheel, mesmerizing audiences with its hypnotic interplay of motion and light. The act gained international recognition when it appeared in Beyoncé’s music video Partition, highlighting both the individuality of the performer and the seamless integration of the cabaret’s daring, avant‑garde aesthetic.

Legacy of Alain Bernardin

Bernardin managed Crazy Horse until his death in 1994, leaving behind a legacy of innovation. His vision transformed cabaret from mere entertainment into a living gallery of sensual art. Today, Crazy Horse continues to reinvent itself, collaborating with guest stars like Beyoncé, Pamela Anderson, and Dita Von Teese, while staying true to Bernardin’s founding principle: the female body as art.

Since 2006, Crazy Horse has been under artistic direction of Andree Deissenberg.

Exclusive Standards

Behind the dazzling artistry of Crazy Horse Paris lies a strict tradition of performer standards that have shaped the cabaret’s distinctive aesthetic. Dancers are typically selected for their tall, slender physiques, with height and body symmetry considered essential to maintaining the visual precision of the choreography.

While these standards have sometimes been critiqued for their exclusivity, they remain central to the cabaret’s identity, ensuring that every performance achieves the seamless, kaleidoscopic effect that has defined Crazy Horse for more than seventy years.

“Le Crazy is always looking for new talents, both dancers and variety artists. To audition, aspiring dancers must have a background in classical dance training, a charismatic personality and meet the physical criteria established by Mr. Bernardin. Variety artists are required to have developed an exceptional, unusual and unique act!” – Desirs (2015)

According to “Desirs” by Crazy Horse Paris, “The legendary Crazy Girl measurements” are as follows:

Height – between 5’6″ and 5’8″
Proportions – leg length compared to torso= 2/3 – 1/3
Distance between nipples = 8.3in
Distance between the belly button and the pubis = 5.1in

Collaborators

In 1965 Director Woody Allen shot his film What’s New Pussycat? at Crazy Horse Paris. French artist Cesar created his famous Sein (breast) in which a Crazy Horse dancer modeled. Demi More came to Crazy Horse Paris to find inspiration for her role in the movie Striptease in 1996. David Lynch photographed dancer Nooka Karamel for the poster of the 61st Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, Christina Aguilera performed “But I’m a Good Girl”, a famous song from Crazy Horse Paris, in the movie Burlesque. In 2012, Christian Louboutin was the first guest creator, created the show Feu. Actress and model Noemie Lenoir performed with the cast in acts created or revamped for her. In 2013, Beyonce chose to shoot her music video for Partition with the Crazy Girls at Crazy Horse Paris. (“Desirs” by Crazy Horse Paris, 2015)

Living Legends on Stage

Over the decades, Crazy Horse Paris has hosted 150,000 visitors annually, including celebrities, fashion icons, and curious travelers. The shows run nightly, lasting about 90 minutes, but audiences often describe the experience as timeless—an intoxicating blur of glamour and seduction.

The cabaret continues to reinvent itself, collaborating with guest stars like Beyoncé, Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra, Violet Chachki and Dita Von Teese, while maintaining its core identity as a celebration of feminine sensuality and Parisian chic.

Dita Von Teese at Crazy Horse

Violet Chachki at Crazy Horse

Why It Endures – Pop Culture

While rooted in mid‑20th century Parisian cabaret, Crazy Horse Paris has become a touchstone for the neoburlesque revival that swept across Europe and North America in the late 1990s and 2000s. The cabaret’s iconic aesthetic has been featured in movies like Moulin Rouge! and Midnight in Paris, bringing its magic to audiences worldwide. Beyoncé famously drew inspiration from Crazy Horse for her sultry performance in the “Partition” music video, showcasing its enduring relevance in modern pop culture.

Its emphasis on precision, theatricality, and the female body as art directly inspired contemporary performers who sought to reclaim burlesque from kitsch and reframe it as a sophisticated, feminist‑inflected performance genre.

Guest stars like Dita Von Teese bridged the gap between historical burlesque traditions and modern reinterpretations, proving that the cabaret’s aesthetic of “women dressed in light” could coexist with the playful striptease heritage of Gypsy Rose Lee or Sally Rand. In this way, Crazy Horse Paris not only preserved burlesque’s sensual lineage but also re‑energized it, ensuring that the art form continues to evolve as a living, breathing practice rather than a nostalgic relic.

Crazy Horse Paris endures because it embodies the paradox of Paris itself: classic yet avant-garde, sensual yet intellectual, playful yet profound. It’s not just a show; it’s an experience that challenges perceptions of art, beauty, and desire!

Illuminating the Future

The legacy of Crazy Horse Paris continues to ripple through contemporary performance, influencing stars who reinterpret its signature artistry for new audiences. The cabaret’s hallmark of “women dressed in light” has inspired countless acts like Lizzo’s electrifying “dressed by light” performance, where she too became a living canvas of lights and shadows. By bridging sensuality with innovation, Crazy Horse has ensured that burlesque remains not only alive but constantly evolving—an art form that speaks to empowerment, spectacle, and the enduring allure of the stage. In this way, the cabaret is more than a Parisian institution; it is a global muse, shaping how artists today imagine and embody the art of seduction.

Iona’s Experience at Crazy Horse Paris

I had the privilege of visiting Paris, France in January 2023 and seeing Crazy Horse Paris in person! The show was 1 hour 27 minutes long. The show was called TOTALLY CRAZY!

The “Crazy Girls” were listed as:

George Bangable (Crazy Entertainer for the Night)
Circe Alegria
Frida Whirlwind
Liza Stardust
Lolita Kiss-Curl
Mika Do
Mila Fahrenheit
Paz Picaflor
Pia Petitpas
Pixelle Canon
Starlette O’Ara
Venus Oceane
Zelda Showtime
Zora Moonshine

The acts appeared in the following order:

Crazy Horse Paris, France
Attitude with Pia Petitpas
Taste of Champagne with Paz Picaflor
Reine Des Cours by Chantal Thomass & Stephane Jarny with Mila Fahrenheit
Voodoo by Christian Louboutin with Zelda Showtime
Miss Astra with Frida Whirlwind
Rougir De Desir by Philippe Decoufle with Pixelle Canon; Silhouette act on a curved chair
Vestal’s Desire with Paz Picaflor
But I Am a Good Girl with Zora Moonshine; act performed with wall of hanging chains
Undress to Kill by Ali Mahdavi and Dita Von Teese with Starlette O’Ara
Scanner (5 performers danced to rock music)
Crisis? What Crisis! by Philippe Decoufle with Mika Do; act inspired by the stock market crash with a busineswoman and a striptease on a desk
Invited Artist with James Fenwick
Upside Down by Philippe Decoufle with Pixelle Canon (performed to a version of Toxic by Britney Spears; hypnotic act performed with various mirrors and reflections
Femme Fatale with Starlette O’Ara
Lay Laser Lay with Lolita Kiss-Curl
Miss Astra is Back with Frida Whirlwind
Baby Buns (group number)
Take My Love by Patricia Folly and Cyrille Vergnes with Venus Oceane
You Turn Me On (group number)

Other acts described in “Desirs” by Crazy Horse Paris:

Chuchotements
Take My Love
Red Shoes (inspired by the famous tale of Hans Christian Andersen) – red ballet pointe shoes were worn
Final Fantasy – rope BDSM-esque act
La Dompteuse – Cowgirl-inspired mistress
Spoutnik – outer space act
Purple Underground – Group chair dance routine
Legmania – Crazy Horse Classic act
Glamzones – Entire cast of Crazies perform a pole dance

Sources

Websites:

Publication:

“Desirs” by Crazy Horse Paris, 2015

Crazy Horse Paris: A Mid-Modern Burlesque

Origins of a Cabaret Icon