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 running show in Las Vegas until it closed in 2016. The outfit covered in sparkly silver jewelry that Swift sports on the cover of her album The Life of a Showgirl appears to be inspired by the costumes that Jubilee! showgirls wore.
Nowadays, if people encounter a showgirl in Las Vegas, it’s usually a woman dressed in a vintage costume posing for photographs on the Strip. Chung says the term “showgirl” is used more broadly now to label “any beautiful dancer you see in feathers, fishnet stockings, rhinestone-bejeweled bikinis or bodysuits.”
Merrill adds that showgirl shows historically haven’t been headlined by a dancer with name recognition like Swift, arguing, “Swift’s core identity as a superstar, not a member of a chorus, sets her apart from most showgirls.”
Showgirls on the life of a showgirl
Nancy Hardy, who has been a showgirl since 1977 and currently works as a showgirl in Elvis-themed weddings, recalls a party atmosphere backstage. In between numbers, the showgirls would smoke and drink screwdrivers in Hardy’s dressing room. Lou Anne Chessik, who performed as a showgirl from 1979 to 1991, says she and her peers got into the business because they were “too all to be ballerinas.” Their height helped them to stay upright in heavy costumes made out of various metals, furs, exotic bird feathers, and Swarovski crystals. “Walking up and down three flights of stairs onstage with all those costumes on–no handrails–we never thought twice about it,” she says. “I guess that’s youth, right?” On top of that, many showgirls strutted in three-inch-tall high heels.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. The work was grueling. Andrea Avruskin, a physical therapist who also works as a showgirl at special events, remembers at one point performing in 12 shows a week and only getting paid $50 per show. Many of the showgirls she performed with were working second jobs as nurses, teachers, and X-ray technicians.
At one point, Diane Christiansen, author of The Last Real Showgirl: My Sequined ’70s Onstage, recalls working seven nights a week, two different shows a night and three on Saturday, with no nights off. She faced a lot of pressure to stay fit, recalling that “a producer sent me to a doctor in the Bahamas to take diet pills. I did that for a couple months and thought I was going to lose my mind.”
Showgirls baring all
Hardy remembers that dancing topless usually involved wearing a rhinestone underwire under the breast line and a rhinestone necklace that covered a lot of the chest area, “but your breasts were completely exposed.”
Avruskin says topless showgirls wouldn’t kick as high or do anything to make their breasts move around a lot onstage, while more covered-up counterparts in the dance line would do more rigorous choreography: “We’re taught to not be sexy. You can be alluring, but there’s no jiggling or grinding or anything that could be considered lewd or raunchy. There are some shows in Las Vegas where the dancers bump and grind on the stage or on poles or whatever, but show girls are very much the opposite. It was very elegant…that was very empowering.”
Just because showgirls were topless doesn’t mean they were hitting on audience members. “There was absolutely no pressure for us to flirt with the audience after the show,” says Avruskin. “We were encouraged to stay backstage and just be mysterious goddesses on stage that did not intermingle with the general public.” She recalls a former stage manager named Fluff LeCoque would tell showgirls that “men would fantasize about us and the women would want to be us if we were elegant and classy enough.”
Why Las Vegas showgirl productions fell out of style
In addition to the great expense, many of the shows revolved around songs from old movies and movie musicals.
“I think one reason why some of the shows are gone now is because they didn’t keep up with the music,” says Hardy. “Maybe they seemed a little more tired because people’s tastes changed and also the special effects began to seem kind of quaint and dated, even though they were fabulous when the show first opened.”
Christiansen argues that the shows didn’t keep up with changing social mores.
“Times were different back then. We were objectified by most of our producers. We didn’t always know it. We didn’t always realize it,” she says. “We didn’t define it in the same way we do now. And I believe that one of the reasons those shows don’t exist anymore is because of feminism, because women have changed, because women don’t feel they have to show their breasts. If you want to see that, that’s burlesque now.”
What showgirls think of The Life of a Showgirl
Professional showgirls tell TIME that Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl captures the dedication to the craft, the euphoria of being on stage, and the rigorous but glamorous schedule they keep.
In the song “The Life of a Showgirl,” the lyrics “married to the hustle” and “I’ll never know another” reminded Avruskin of an informal mantra that showgirls have: “lips and lashes for life.” The lyric “Pain hidden by the lipstick and lace” she says accurately captures the grind of performing.
But Swift also nods to the cut-throat environment in the entertainment industry, singing “I’d sell my soul to have a taste of a magnificent life” and “But that’s not what showgirls get. They leave us for dead.” Avruskin adds, “Showgirls have a glamorous life on stage, a magnificent illusion that feeds the audience’s fantasies. But like anything in showbiz, no one’s role is guaranteed, and everyone is replaceable.”
Hardy said a lyric from the song “Opalite” about “dancing through the lightning strikes” reflects the album’s general focus on the gritty sides of showgirl life. As she put it, “I thought the songs would feature high heels, tights, rhinestones, eyelashes, feathers, partying…but all that theatricality is mixed in with loyalty, heartache, hope and betrayal. Reality stuff.”
Christiansen, on the other hand, didn’t think the album delved deep enough into the showgirl lifestyle. “It’s as if the iconic costumes of the showgirl were worn at her ‘dress up’ party with beloved friends to salute that arrival as opposed to entering the world of real showgirls themselves,” she argues. “As much as I relate to her growth in an industry that is taxing to a young woman’s evolution as a whole and complete person, the literal journey of a showgirl is not represented.”
Hardy says she identified with the song “Elizabeth Taylor,” specifically the lyrics, “oftentimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me” and “hidden by the lipstick and lace,” explaining: “As showgirls, we’re aware that we are somewhat anonymous and unrecognizable onstage, ‘hidden’ from our real-life personas. I never felt beautiful except in the milieu of makeup, lights, and rhinestones, all illusion. Performing as a dancer in a Las Vegas spectacular felt like an escape from an everyday, very un-glamorous life…For a moment in time, you are basking in the power of beauty. Onstage you are unattainable, and therefore safe.”
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