PARIS, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Only a year ago, tall and statuesque Rachel kicked up her legs in the Lido's coveted line of "Blue Bell Girls," and played understudy for the nightclub's top soloists. So perfectly did she fit the "face of the Lido," that the 33-year-old British performer even appeared in posters advertising the celebrated Paris establishment.
Today, Rachel has been tossed out of the Champs Elysees cabaret -- a casualty, she and others argue, of a fledgling effort to gain basic worker's rights for its hardworking dancers.
"The Lido will say they got rid of people for artistic reasons," said Rachel, who chose a pseudonym while her case awaits a labor board hearing. "But everybody knows why we were fired. The idea was that if we could be fired, then anybody could be fired."
Rachel is hardly the only dancer who has left the nightclub in recent months. Some 40 members of the Lido's artistic union are now down and out in Paris, as accusations grow that the city's glitziest nightclub exploited its dancers and violated French working laws.
Now, however, its dancers are fighting back. In January, some 11 former performers are expected to be granted a hearing at a Paris industrial tribunal. If they win, the Lido may have to pay nearly $900,000 in back wages they claim are owed -- not a massive sum, but a symbolic step toward greater rights for cabaret dancers, advocates say.
"Maybe employers will finally understand that dancers are essential elements of their shows," said Nicolas Gabard, legal adviser for the French Artists Syndicate, which is representing the dancers. "A cabaret is finally about the dancers. People don't come to the Lido for the food -- even if it's good."
The backstage fireworks contrast sharply with the sparkling upbeat facade of the 57-year-old nightclub, which rose out of the gloom of postwar Paris. The Clerico family who acquired the club in 1946, transformed the Lido into a luxurious establishment, and spun off a branch in Las Vegas.
In 1977, the Lido moved to a new spot on the Champs Elysees, where its cavernous interior accommodates 1,150 seats. Landing one is not cheap. An evening performance ranges from $72 to $170.
And while the severe acute respiratory syndrome and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks took their toll on club business, the Lido nonetheless scooped up $45 million in revenues this year.
In 1999, dancers at the Lido created a union to fight for per-performance salaries, equal pay for men and women, and long-term contracts, among other demands.
French law stipulates that businesses must offer their workers long-term contracts after 18 months, or after two short-term contracts expire, said Gabard, the legal adviser. But until recently, the Lido simply renewed 12-month contracts for many dancers yearly.
Many performers, like Rachel, were foreigners, Gabard said, who didn't know their rights.
"And the Lido is certainly not the worse cabaret, it's a pretty good business," he added. "It's the little cabarets in Paris that are the worst. There, if girls get pregnant, they get fired."
But Lido's Communications Director Jacques Babando argues the problems have been blown out of proportion. France has yet to draft labor rules meeting the unique working conditions of cabarets, he said.
"We let go of those dancers solely for artistic reasons," he added of the fired protesters. "We don't even know who is part of a union, and who is not. What we're interested in is answering people's needs to have an impeccable, sublime show at the Lido."
Such arguments carry little water for dancers such as blond-haired Jean, 41, who also cannot reveal his name because of the upcoming hearing.
A nine-year-veteran at the Lido, Jean rose to principle dancer. He collected more than $6,000 a month -- among the club's top salaries.
Like the rest of the Lido dancers, he argues he has earned his high pay. Performers work only five hours a night, but six days a week. All are required to perform two shows nightly.
In August, Jean says, the nightclub cut jobs of all principle dancers, for budgetary reasons. He was not offered alternative employment on the chorus line. The reason, he argues: Jean was among the leaders of the new dancers' union.
"We wanted our salaries raised, and job security," he said. "But when we made these demands, our contracts were not renewed."
Those who joined the new syndicate were harassed by Lido's management, some former dancers say. Many dropped out of the union. Today, not a single union member is still dancing at the nightclub, they say.
The Lido management has taken steps to improve dancer's conditions in recent months. Dancers in the new show, which started this month, were put on long-term contracts, said Babando, the Lido spokesman.
Male and female performers are now paid similar salaries, but the club has yet to address pay-per-show demands.
"Dancers at the Lido earn more than those at the Paris Opera, or at Las Vegas night clubs," Babando argued. "We put them in hotel rooms when they come, and help them find apartments. We have dancers who have been with us for 10 years, and every night they're happy to go on stage."
Those nights have ended for Rachel, who performed in South Africa, Madrid, Korea and Japan, before landing a job at the Lido.
"The idea of finishing my career at the Lido was absolutely amazing," she said.
Instead, she is unemployed, picking up freelance jobs here and there in Paris. Her spectacular height makes it difficult to find work at other cabarets, she said.
"I am definitely Lido stature," she added. "That's for sure."
