Down at the real Moulin Rouge

The girl sitting in the dressing room backstage at the Moulin Rouge ? the Moulin Rouge, in Pigalle, Paris ? has long red hair, an Australian accent and legs encased in sparkly fishnets zooming up to her armpits.

This is not Nicole Kidman, however (though she looks very like her), but Rachelle Connors-Sibbald, 27 this very day, and one of three principal dancers at the world?s most famous nightclub. For a miniscule fraction of Ms Kidman?s daily salary, Rachelle will dance twice tonight, once at nine and again at 11, sometimes wearing a top, sometimes not. She says she loves it, every last bit of it, but her real ambition is to perform in musicals, maybe in the West End.

These days the Moulin Rouge is hardly ?the high temple of degradation and human perversion?, as film director Baz Luhrmann has described it. The evening I visit, a dozen Japanese tourists congregate apprehensively in the dimly-lit, scarlet-upholstered foyer and then buy baseball hats from the merchandise stall. There is not a whiff of absinthe (it?s illegal in France anyhow); no men in dirty macs (you can find them further down the road at the hardcore strip shows), and not much sexual libertinism of any kind on view at all.

Backstage, the dancers are athletic and professional, smallbreasted, girlish without their inchthick make-up and false eyelashes. No flowers or messages from men are allowed to reach them, and most have boyfriends anyway.

Rachelle is married ? to an English dancer who also performs in the show. ?I wouldn?t say it?s erotic,? she says, dabbing at her face with pancake and dramatically transforming Kidmanesque pale skin into a deep pink blush.

But things are stirring at the Moulin Rouge, which faced near-bankruptcy in the politically correct Nineties ? and largely because of that film. Since its release in America, says Rachelle, the shows in Pigalle have started to sell out and the type of punter has subtly changed. In the past month, she?s seen Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins in the audience, then Mark Wahlberg; then Priscilla Presley. All of a sudden, the slightlyshabby, slightly old-hat Moulin Rouge has recaptured some of its legendary glamour, and ? whether through curiosity, or perhaps in a spirit of irony ? younger, more fashionable Parisians are taking their seats alongside the tourists, eating dinner from the Menu Toulouse Lautrec and watching Australian girls perform the cancan.

There are more Australian, British and Russian showgirls backstage than there are French, explains Janet Pharaoh, the English mistress of ballet, because little French girls are given too much homework after school, and have no free time for dance lessons. Rachelle was 18 and already dancing professionally when she auditioned for the show in Sydney before the most famous ballet mistress of them all, Miss Doris.

She was offered a contract there and then and flew to Paris almost immediately. Her mum didn?t want her to leave, but had no problem with the ?nude dancing? because she knew her daughter was bright and could look after herself.

Rachelle was a tomboy in Australia, more interested in playing soccer with her brothers than dressing up or shopping for make-up. Now she spends her spare time doing little else. ?It?s part of the job, to look good every day,? she says. ?I spend ages having my hair done, having facials, going to the solarium, the manicurist. You have to be really careful with your skin, and about what you eat. That?s a problem for me, if I don?t diet. We have to be glamorous, you see.?

They also have to be at least 5ft 8in and way above averagely goodlooking. ?They don?t like us to be too skinny here,? adds Rachelle. ?I guess we look fit and pretty natural.? And pretty sexy, by implication. There are plenty of opportunities to get on, if that?s what you want. You can exploit the free party invites and indulge in the glamorous after-work lifestyle, and raise your profile. ?Some girls come to Paris and are really happy just to be working here as full-time dancers,? says Rachelle. ?And there are others who arrive here and want to be stars, want the fame and fortune. They move on pretty quickly.?