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	Pictured: Fifi Funamble, Lada Nikolska, Rosa Chicago

Vegas has an Eiffel Tower, and Paris its share of high rollers. But what the two have most in common is the love of burlesque, the seductive, entertaining and often witty performances of luscious, young women in various stages of undress. Ooh la la!

Just look at the Folies Bergere, Lido and Moulin Rouge, and it’s easy to see the French are experts at staging elaborate shows with tasteful nude tableaux. Perhaps no French burlesque is more artful than Crazy Horse, the topless show created in 1951 by Alain Bernardin to exalt the female form to  l’art du nu, the art of the nude.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Crazy Horse in 2001, the show exported thirteen of its sensual dancers and opened as La Femme (pronounced “lah fahm”) at MGM Grand where its showroom was designed to match nearly every inch of the petite, original Avenue George V theatre.

The mini-extravaganza is commemorating its fifth year in Sin City with the addition of three new dancers, each adding her own element of drama, eroticism and spunk. We exported Josephine Baker to Paris way back when. The Parisians reciprocated with the ladies of La Femme. And now they’ve given us Lada, Rosa and Fifi.

If you’ve never seen Crazy Horse in Paris or La Femme in Las Vegas, you are in for a spectacle that delights both women and men. If you’ve experienced the sexually charged numbers with their dreamlike and stimulating light shows, then you don’t want to miss the new ladies’ artistry. Nice…and very naughty.

As you watch the dancers, you’re struck by the similarity of their lissome forms. All of the dancers in the troupe must adhere to strict guidelines so that their bodies complement one another in height, weight and shape. This is crucial considering some of the intricately staged pieces where the dancers’ bodies interlock like gears in a complex clock.

Lada Nikolska, 22, who joined the troupe in October, never thought she’d be accepted into the illustrious ranks. While studying dance at a university in Russia, Lada’s mother found an article about Crazy Horse in a fashion magazine. In the pictures Lada noticed that the dancers appeared “skinny.”

“I thought I was too muscular and tall,” she says. “How could I be the picture of perfection?”

With her aristocratic profile, Lada has the bearing of a Russian princess out of the pages of Dostoevsky. She is also undeniably raw and sexy, especially as she performs one of the show’s most memorable numbers. “Champagne Taste” is a knock ‘em dead, cabaret-style striptease where Lada mouths the words to the famous song by Eartha Kitt. In her leggy performance, as she coos about her desire for diamonds and caviar, Lada mimics well the chanteuse’s only slightly ironic tone.

Each dancer has an “ideal weight” outlined in her contract, from which she is allowed a variance of plus or minus four pounds. This is not a problem for Rosa Chicago, 24, the rosy-cheeked and black-haired beauty à la Audrey Hepburn who arrived from Paris in July. In her sexy French accent, Rosa remarks that as long as she sticks to her regimen of stretches, rehearsal and a diet of vegetables and sushi, she has no weight worries.

La Femme dancers are within two inches of each other in height and all must possess willowy shapes with champagne-glass size breasts. Even their lipstick must be applied in the same way. With their similar heights, they are able to fit snugly onto the stage, resembling a frame surrounding a beautiful painting. A nude, naturally.

Unlike the other dancers who started training as early as five, Fifi Funamble, 23, didn’t start until she was 15. But her early years were spent doing gymnastics, an optimal background. When she was 16, Fifi saw the show for the first time and was struck by the femininity of the dancers and art of seduction. Proud and amazed to be part of the prestigious cabaret, Fifi performs three solos “Teasing,” “Attitude” and “Lecon d’Erotisme.”

The troupe lives in an apartment compound near The Strip where they hang out by the pool, trade diet tips, shop, and dream of their futures with husbands and children. None have yet to receive flowers backstage. Just in case you feel so inclined, Lada is an Aries. (You’ll know why we’re telling you this when you see the show.) Lilies would be perfect for the “empathetic listener.” As for Rosa and Fifi, white roses would please both the “sensitive souls” born under the sign of Cancer. Otherwise, a healthy round of applause is all they ask.