Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl pays homage to the rip-roaring lifestyle of showgirls.
“Sequins are forever,” she croons in the titular song and the album’s last track, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Not to mention the billionaire pop star certainly embodies the lyric, “I’m making money being pretty and witty.”
TIME called up showgirls who have performed in Las Vegas, the longtime capital of showgirl shows in the U.S., to see how they think the album captured the life of a showgirl and what the life of a showgirl is really like.
Origins of showgirls
Showgirls have a long history that can be traced back to Paris in the 1870s. As Jane Merrill, author of The Showgirl Costume: An Illustrated History, explains, “After the Prussians invaded Paris, the spirits of the French were low. France recovered joie de vie and economy by focusing on entertainment. The French led the manufacturing of cosmetics and fragrances, artificial flowers, sequins, fake pearls, feathers, plumed headdresses, rhinestones, cinema, etc.”
The Lido de Paris was one of the most famous showgirl productions, and American producer Donn Arden took it to Las Vegas in 1958. In terms of how showgirls were different from other dancers back then, Su Kim Chung, an expert on the history of showgirls at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says, “showgirls were always topless.” Back then, they often did not have professional dance training, were known for their beautiful costumes and headdresses, and the way that they “glided gracefully across the stage.” Showgirls were typically above 5’8 so that they could manage costumes that were heavier than the kinds that a typical dancer would wear.
There are no more dedicated showgirls shows in Las Vegas, in large part because they’re very expensive to run, between hiring hundreds of dancers and the costumes made out of exotic materials like ostrich. Jubilee!, featuring costumes designed by Bob Mackie, was the longest…
