So Agent  Royale I asked you here to congratulate you on you progress.

You have perfomed well in everything you have been asked to do.  you have been recommended to become granted an agents licence.

This puts you to extent out side of the laws of metropolitan france of the departement.  with some conditions you can break the law where it helps to apprehend transgressors but in different circumstances we will not be able to defend you if you are caught breaking the law.  And now  you have volouteered to join out anti drugs team, yes?.

Yes sir.

Let me explain something, the only way we can eliminate the trade in drugs, if indeed we can eliminate the trade in drugs, is to penetrate the organisttions who peddle the drugs. It means going under cover. It means associating with these people. You know of the Cabaret Club  L’Indien.

Caberet club? I think it is a strip club.

Weeel yes. But a very high class strip clup. We use  L’Indien  in two different ways.  On an upper floor  l’Agence  Contre la Drogue has its operations room with entrances suitably secure, but also  we use several dancers as contact points where our informants pass on information.

It is very convenient. No drug dealer would find it at all suspicious if one of his operatives was pursuing one of the dancers at L’Indien.

However the average careeer of a dancer is less than ten years so we are always looking for replacements. We would be pleased if you would become contact point at the club.

Well of course , I am flattered  but I have no dance training.  I think I was told that most of the dancers at strip clubs come from ballet schools.

You have passed all the physical tests we have put in front of you with some training which we will provide iIam sure you will be able to dance. but there is… another problem we will have to face.

If you are contacted by an agent or informer from within a drug syndicate the drug syndicate will immediately run checks on your background. it would be convenient if your background cause them no concern.

He paused ‘Forgive me but this has some relevance. Have you ever read “Histoire d’O.”‘

‘Yes when I was at school, it was a bit of a craze at the time. It was supposed to parody the position of women in society and show that women could break through any barriers to assert themselves. I actually found it repulsive.

Not everybody did. at the time we were actively recruiting women agents and wanted themto go undercover. Our senior management thought to copy the idea of Rousilly, where O was taught to loose her inhibitions to get our agents to loose their inhibitions. the idea was that when they went under cover they nwould then use their physical charms to sleep with drug dealers and obtain information.

Really and did it work?

Absolutely not. Without passing any judgements; some of the women loved it and no longer wanted to work for us as they saw better opertunities elsewhere. Other women not only hated it but felt demeaned by being exposed to it. They also no longer wanted to work for us. The whole concept was abandonned.

I see, and what has this got to do with me.

I got a bit distracted but I was saying that it would be useful if your background caused the drug dealers no concern. We would like your background toshow that you werea porn star before going to dance at  L’Indien.

Oh

It is up to you but we can’t fake it. It is the background I wold like you to have but we can’t fake it, you will have to do it.

Oh.

Now we would like to make ita little easier for you, is there someone you have a relationship with who would be willing to share the starring role in a porn movie.

I need to think about it.

I never expected you to say yes without some thought.  I do not want to alienate you; in any way to repeat the O experience.

Well thank you for that. I will think about it.

Disscussion Emanuelle

Alain Bernardin Owner of the Crazy horse commited suicide on thursday 15 september 1994

His club, which took off in the insouciant 1950s, became a haunt for champagne- sipping foreign businessmen seeking a harmless end to their evenings.

Mr Bernardin employed about 250 women in a strict no-contact-with-clients regime under which their weight and waistlines were regularly checked.

Between a fifth and a quarter of the women’s salaries were paid into blocked savings accounts for their time at the Crazy Horse to ensure that they had a nest egg for less lucrative days. Currently, a Crazy Horse dancer can expect to earn 20,000 francs ( pounds 2,300) a month.

When she started at the age of 18, Baby was thrilled to be naked on stage. ‘To show it, you have to like it,’ she says. But for the more prim, the body make-up, confined stage, dark auditorium and lighting shrouds help them feel unexposed. ‘It’s all set up so we are as much at ease as the public.’

A Crazy Horse dancer is put through a back-breaking rehearsal. Photo: Venetia Dearden

An irritation is those who mentally undress them when they learn of their work. ‘Just because we dance naked it does not mean that we are easy women,’ Fasty says sharply. ‘Very far from it. It’s a fantasy for people. It stays that way.’

These days, Crazy girls are not so insouciant and have their contracts checked by a lawyer, but their sacrifices are considerable. ‘The Crazy life comes before a private life,’ Fasty says. ‘As soon as we wake up, we come straight back here,’ Baby echoes, ‘and we have to look after ourselves, so we can’t party until 6am when there are three shows to do the next day.’ The work takes its toll on their bodies too.

‘I suffer physically,’ Baby says. ‘My nape, cervicals and lower spine ache, and my knees are starting to hurt, though I’m only 23.’ Fasty concurs: ‘We force our bodies into completely unnatural positions on 12cm heels, and even with half an hour of stretches and warm-ups, there’ll be a moment when it’s no longer possible. We all think of another life for afterwards. You have to. I’d like to run a business.’

Svetlana Konstantinova, the Crazy Horse’s Russian show manager, is a disciplined custodian of its mystique. ‘I have danced with many troupes, but this house is more serious than any other because it is so precise,’ she says. ‘I came to le Crazy at least 50 times before I worked here and tried to hold my body similarly, but it was only when I started working here that I understood how it was done. A lot of the techniques which accentuate certain parts of the body are kept secret. It’s impossible to change the style, as we know how to do it best. That’s why the Crazy Horse is a cultural monument – because it is a big secret.’

Even wardrobe mistress Amélie Escotte, a former Chanel employee, is enigmatic: ‘The G-strings are very specific. Without divulging too much, we have methods you never see elsewhere, for holding things together with nothing.’ The trademark wigs, which are cut to fit each dancer, involve ‘a whole stack of parameters’. What are they worth, I wonder. ‘I can’t say,’ Escotte replies firmly.