Paul Verhoeven Filmmaking in the United States (1983-2000) What was the first film he did in the US? Flesh and Blood (1985), What genre of films did he make? big-budget, very violent, special-effects-heavy smashes What year did his first film debut? first American film, Flesh and Blood (1985), Who starred in his first film in the US? Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. What was another one of his films he made in the US? Basic Instinct Did Basic Instinct receive any awards? The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music. Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? Verhoeven became the first director to accept his "award" in person. What year was that when he accepted his own award? Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director;
He starred in Showgirls?
Did Paul Verhoeven star in Showgirls?
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first American film, Flesh and Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunities in filmmaking. Working in the U.S. he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, very violent, special-effects-heavy smashes RoboCop and Total Recall. RoboCop, for Sound Effects Editing, and Total Recall, for Visual Effects, each won an Academy Special Achievement Award. Verhoeven followed those successes with the equally intense and provocative Basic Instinct (1992), an erotic thriller. The ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The film's most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she uncrosses her legs, briefly revealing her vulva (she does not wear underwear underneath her skirt). The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music. Verhoeven's next film was the poorly received, NC-17 rated Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director; Verhoeven became the first director to accept his "award" in person. Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals  and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers. After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence, and special-effects tropes that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein and Hollow Man (2000). Each film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. CANNOTANSWER
Director;
Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch director and screenwriter active in the Netherlands, France and the United States. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films. 

After receiving attention for the TV series Floris in his native Netherlands, Verhoeven got his film breakthrough with romantic drama Turkish Delight (1973), starring frequent collaborator Rutger Hauer. The film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and later received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival. Verhoeven later directed successful Dutch films including the period drama Keetje Tippel (1975), the war film Soldier of Orange (1977), the teen drama Spetters (1980) and the psychological thriller The Fourth Man (1983). 

In 1985, Verhoeven made his first Hollywood film Flesh and Blood and later had a successful career in the United States, directing science fiction films such as RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997) and Hollow Man (2000), as well as the erotic thriller Basic Instinct (1992).

He later returned to Europe, making the Dutch war film Black Book (2006), French psychological thriller Elle (2016), and most recently, the religious drama Benedetta (2021), all receiving positive reviews. Black Book and Elle were both nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and Elle won Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and César Award for Best Film. Black Book was also voted by the Dutch public, in 2008, as the best Dutch film ever made. In contrast, he won the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Director for Showgirls (1995); he is one of the few people to have accepted their Golden Raspberry awards in person, and was the first person to go to the ceremony to receive it. The film was a notorious flop in its initial release but later gained a cult following. Verhoeven's films altogether received a total of nine Academy Award nominations, mainly for editing and effects.

Early life
Paul Verhoeven was born in Amsterdam on 18 July 1938, the son of a school teacher, Wim Verhoeven, and a hat maker, Nel van Schaardenburg. His family lived in the village of Slikkerveer.

In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II. The Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by Allied forces. Their neighbours' house was hit and Verhoeven's parents were almost killed when bombs fell on a street crossing. From this period, Verhoeven mentioned in interviews, he remembers images of violence, burning houses, dead bodies on the street, and continuous danger. As a small child he experienced the war as an exciting adventure and compares himself with the character Bill Rowan in Hope and Glory (1987).

Verhoeven's father became head teacher at the Van Heutszschool in The Hague, and Paul attended this school. Sometimes the pair watched informative films at home with the school's film projector. Verhoeven and his father also liked to see American films that were in the cinema after the liberation, such as The Crimson Pirate (1952).

Verhoeven and his father went ten times to see The War of the Worlds (1953). Verhoeven was a fan of the Dutch comic Dick Bos. The character Dick Bos is a private detective who fights crime using jujutsu. Verhoeven liked comic drawing; he created The Killer, a character in a detailed story of revenge. Other fiction he liked were Frankenstein and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series.

Verhoeven attended public secondary school Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague. Later, beginning in 1955, he studied at Leiden University. Verhoeven graduated with a doctorandus (MSc) with a double major, in Mathematics and Physics.

Career

Short films and TV series (1960–1969)
Verhoeven made his first film Één hagedis teveel ("One Lizard Too Many") for the anniversary of his students' corps in 1960. In his last years at university Verhoeven also attended classes at the Netherlands Film Academy. After this he made three more short films: Nothing Special (1961), The Hitchhikers (1962), and Let's Have a Party (1963).

Verhoeven has not professionally used his mathematics and physics degree, opting instead to invest his energies in a career in film. After his studies he entered the Royal Dutch Navy as a conscript. He made the documentary Het Korps Mariniers ("The Marine Corps", 1965), which won the French Golden Sun award for military films.

In 1967 Verhoeven married Martine Tours, with whom he had two daughters, Claudia (b. 1972), and Helen (b. 1974).

When he left the Navy, Verhoeven took his skills to Dutch television. First, he made a documentary about Anton Mussert named Mussert (1968). His first major success was the 1969 Floris television series, starring Rutger Hauer. The concept of Floris was inspired by foreign series like Ivanhoe and Thierry La Fronde.

First feature films (1969–1983)
Verhoeven's first feature film Business Is Business was released in 1971 and was not well received. His first national success came in 1973 with Turkish Delight, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. This film is based on a novel by bestselling Dutch author Jan Wolkers and tells the passionate love story of an artist and a young liberal girl from a conservative background. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In 1999 the film won a Golden Calf for Best Dutch Film of the Century. Verhoeven's 1975 film Katie Tippel again featured Hauer and van de Ven, but it would not match the success of Turkish Delight.

Verhoeven built on his reputation and achieved international success with his Golden Globe nominated film Soldier of Orange, starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film, based on a true story about the Dutch resistance in World War II, was written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Soldier of Orange received the 1979 LA Film Critics Award for best foreign language film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1980.

The Seattle Times praised Verhoeven by saying, "director Paul Verhoeven often appears to be a one-man Dutch movie industry," while The San Diego Union-Tribune called Verhoeven "a busy bee whose movies pollinate the festival circuit."

In 1980 Verhoeven made the film Spetters with Renée Soutendijk and Rutger Hauer. The story is sometimes compared to Saturday Night Fever, but the film has more explicit violence and sexuality (in this case also homosexuality), which are sometimes seen as the trademarks of Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven's film The Fourth Man (1983) is a horror film starring Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk. It was written by Gerard Soeteman from a novel by the Dutch writer Gerard Reve. This film would be Verhoeven's last Dutch film production until the 2006 film Black Book.

Filmmaking in the United States (1983–2000)
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first English-language film, Flesh and Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunities in filmmaking. Working in the U.S., he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, violent, special-effects-heavy hits RoboCop and Total Recall⁠—each of which won an Academy Special Achievement Award: RoboCop for Sound Effects Editing, and Total Recall for Visual Effects.

Verhoeven followed those successes with the equally intense and provocative Basic Instinct (1992), an erotic thriller. The ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The film's most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she uncrosses her legs, briefly revealing her vulva (she does not wear underwear underneath her skirt). The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music.

During this time, Verhoeven also worked on creating an historical epic based around the Crusades that would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film entered pre-production in 1993, but a year later the studio backing the film (Carolco) pulled funding for the project. Verhoeven would continue to discuss the film throughout the 1990s.

Verhoeven's next film was the poorly-received, NC-17 rated Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director; Verhoeven became the first director to accept his award in person. Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.

After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence and special-effects tropes that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, and Hollow Man (2000). Each film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Return to Europe (2006–present)
After about 20 years of working and living in the United States, Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film. Together with his screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, Verhoeven made Black Book (2006). The director was hailed by the host of the Netherlands Film Festival with the words "The return of a hero". Black Book won six Golden Calves at this festival, including Best Director. When the shooting of Black Book was delayed due to financial issues, there was speculation about a new production. The film Beast of Bataan had been announced, but once the shooting for Black Book resumed, the other film was not realized.

Verhoeven was knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2007.

Since Black Book, Verhoeven has been connected to a large number of projects, but in the first decade after his return, none came to fruition. Some of those titles were produced with other directors at the helm, such as The Paperboy. In 2016, however, Verhoeven followed Black Book by directing a French film: Elle, an adaptation of a novel by Philippe Djian. A psycho-thriller where Isabelle Huppert plays a rape victim, Elle was selected for the Official Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews.

In December 2016, it was announced that Verhoeven would be the president of the jury for the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to take place in February 2017.

In April 2017, Benedetta, his next French film, was announced to begin filming in August of the same year. It is a biographical film about the life of Benedetta Carlini, portrayed by Elle co-star Virginie Efira, and is an adaptation of the non-fiction book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown. In May 2018, Charlotte Rampling was announced to play a key supporting role. The film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or.

Other activities
Verhoeven was a member of the Jesus Seminar, and he was the only member who does not have a degree in biblical studies. He graduated with a degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Leiden. Since he is not a professional biblical exegete, his membership in the Jesus Seminar has occasionally been cited by opponents of the Seminar as a sign that this group is less scholarly than it claims. For example, Luke Timothy Johnson criticizes the Jesus Seminar's methods on exegetical grounds, and also criticizes what he perceives to be a dependence on the theatrical and an attempt to manipulate the mainstream media. He singles out Verhoeven as a key player in the media activities of the Jesus Seminar. On the other hand, some Jesus Seminar members were unhappy with Verhoeven's portrayal of Jesus as an eschatological prophet.

In 2007, Verhoeven wrote the book Jesus of Nazareth () about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The book reviews the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth and the alleged corruption of these same ideas over the last 2,000 years. Co-written with Verhoeven's biographer Rob Van Scheers, the book is the culmination of the research Verhoeven conducted in preparation for Jesus: The Man, a motion picture about the life of Christ. The book tells about the Jewish uprising against Roman rule and characterizes Jesus as a radical political activist, downplaying any supernatural events and miracles as unproved or unprovable. Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait was released in September 2008 in Dutch and was published in English in May 2010 by Seven Stories Press.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

BAFTA Awards

César Awards

Saturn Awards

Golden Raspberry Awards

References

External links

 
 
 

1938 births
20th-century Dutch male writers
21st-century Dutch male writers
Action film directors
Best Director Lumières Award winners
Cultural critics
Dutch critics
Dutch documentary film directors
Dutch documentary film producers
Dutch documentary filmmakers
Dutch expatriates in the United States
Dutch film directors
Dutch film producers
Dutch male screenwriters
Dutch screenwriters
Dutch television critics
Dutch television directors
Dutch television producers
French-language film directors
German-language film directors
Golden Calf winners
Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
Leiden University alumni
Living people
Male television writers
Royal Netherlands Navy personnel
Science fiction film directors
Video game producers
Mass media people from The Hague
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Members of the Jesus Seminar
Rena Riffel (born March 5, 1969) is an American actress, singer, dancer, model, writer, producer, and director.  She is known for her supporting roles in films such as Showgirls, Striptease, and Mulholland Drive.

Showgirls
Riffel landed her breakthrough role in the 1995 film Showgirls starring Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon, and Kyle MacLachlan. Initially reading for the lead role of Cristal Connors, Riffel was cast in the supporting role of Penny/Hope after director Paul Verhoeven decided that she was too young to play an aging showgirl.

While on the set of Showgirls, Riffel approached the music supervisor with a song she recorded, "Deep Kiss". The music supervisor tested the song on the production office (without telling them it had been written by one of the actresses) to determine if it was suitable for the film. Director Paul Verhoeven listened to the song and decided to include it in the lap dance scene at the Cheetah strip club.

Although an initial box office failure, Showgirls enjoyed success in the home video market, generating more than $100 million in video rentals and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time best sellers.

For the 2004 re-release as a DVD limited edition box set, Riffel, along with cast members Lin Tucci and Patrick Bristow, had their hand prints and names put in cement in front of the Hollywood Vista Theater at the red carpet event where they were also interviewed by Access Hollywood. Riffel and Bristow were also special guests at Peaches Christ's Midnight Mass midnight screening of Showgirls in 2008 in San Francisco, California. They were interviewed on stage after the live performance of the Goddess volcano dance performed by drag queens in gold lamé and featuring Peaches Christ as Goddess.

When asked if she expected Showgirls to produce such a cult legacy, Riffel replied, "No. I went into it thinking it would be a really erotic, serious, shocking exposé. People would be sitting on the edge of their seats from suspense. [... But] some people were trying to play straight comedy – I played my character with comedy;  I was hoping to get a laugh – but no one was acting with tongue in cheek. I know that everyone went into it thinking it would be like Basic Instinct. [...] Maybe it's Verhoeven. Even [Basic Instinct] seems kind of campy now [...] I think it's something with European filmmakers. I think – and this is my theory – [...] that there's something that European filmmakers have, a punched-up, extreme vibe. Everything's extreme."

She is also quoted as saying, "Showgirls just keeps getting more and more popular, it's a total phenomenon.  I don't think a film could even try to have this afterlife happen to it. This cult status and celebration is all created by the fans and the people who saw something special in the film. I seem to be one of the only actors that represents and gets involved with the cult status. I think Elizabeth (Berkley) is still upset about how the film was received initially. I think she is brilliant in her role and she should have won best actress at some film festivals, and I think Joe Eszterhas's writing is remarkably brilliant. I suspect because the way they marketed the film, that is what led to the backlash. The marketing campaign was misleading. But at the end of the day, it all worked out for the best."

Entertainment Weekly'''s July 23, 2010 issue announced a sequel to Showgirls. Rena Riffel wrote, directed, and starred in the film, released in 2011. Initially entitled Showgirl, it was later renamed Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven.

Striptease

Following her role in Showgirls, Riffel was cast in Striptease with Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds. Showgirls was generally disliked and the filmmakers feared people would pre-judge Striptease for that reason. To avoid any association between the two films, advèrtisements projected Striptease as more comedic than Showgirls, which had been marketed as a drama.  Aside from a common context, Striptease and Showgirls shared two notable connections:  Marguerite Derricks choreographed both films, and Rena Riffel played a prominent role in each.

Widely considered a box office failure, Striptease lacked the momentum that Showgirls gained in its cult status and has subsequently been referred to as one of the worst movies ever made.

Mulholland Drive

In 2001, Riffel appeared in the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive.  When interviewed about the film and if she “got it”, Riffel replied, “See…I can’t remember.  No, I guess it still doesn’t make sense to me.  It’s been a while – I’d like to watch it again….one website put a lot of clarity on it with their theories.”

Czechsploitation, erotica and horror

After Striptease, Riffel accepted minor roles on the television series Married... with Children in 1997, and Clueless as well as the HBO movie Breast Men before making a string of films with European director Lloyd Simandl.  These movies, referred to by some as “Czechsploitation” films, include Dark Confessions, Bound Cargo, Caligula’s Spawn, and No Escape.  These films, coupled with Riffel’s roles in Showgirls and Striptease opened the door for her to be cast in a handful of erotic/thriller films such as The Pornographer and Scandalous Behavior (with Shannon Tweed).

In 1999, Riffel appeared in Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence, a gay-themed comedy/drama/art film.
Riffel also appeared in several horror/thriller movies including Candyman 3: Day of the Dead, Unstable Minds, and Dark Reel starring Edward Furlong and Tony Todd.

Musical work and other projects
According to the text trivia track on the 2010 Blu-ray release of Showgirls, one of the songs played during the film's lap-dance sequence was co-written by Riffel.

In 2004, Riffel’s song "Geisha Girl" was featured in Oliver Robbins film Wild Roomies. She also sang the theme song for 2007 E! Entertainment's series, Billionaire Heiresses, called "Livin' in the Fast Lane". In 2008, she starred in Coheed and Cambria's music video for "Feathers" playing the 1950s character, Judy Feathers. Judy Feathers is the perfect housewife with a secret of being a cannibal, killing then serving the milkman, postman, sailor, and a boyscout for dinner. It won Best Video in 2008 in the UK for the Kerrang! Awards and Rena appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 5, 2008 with the band.

In 2008, Riffel directed, produced, wrote, and starred in the movie Trasharella, a comedy/crime/fantasy musical. She edited the film herself and her production company, Rena Riffel Films, released the film on DVD through Amazon.com in 2009.

When asked to describe Trasharella, Riffel stated, "It is a satire on B-movie horror films... I went against the grain and instead of trying to make this slick Hollywood film, I just let things be as they were and made it into a really bad grindhouse style exploitation film. ...it's not a dumb film, it's just 'bad'... in a good way. Mae West said: 'When I'm good I'm good, but when I'm bad I'm better.' And we use her quote in Trasharella."

Riffel developed a musical based on Showgirls, titled Showgirls! The Musical and also wrote and directed a sequel to Showgirls. The film had its first screening in October 27, 2011, at the Laemmle Theatre's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood, California. It played to a packed house who enjoyed the epic, which had a duration of 2 hours and 24 minutes. The film, now titled Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven received favorable reviews, with references made to David Lynch's Inland Empire by CraveOnline.com and LA Weekly. Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven was screened in arthouse theatres across the country and announced further surprise screenings on the movie website, ShowGirls2Movie.com.

Riffel is featured on the Velvet Revolver album Contraband.

Filmography

Actress

Television
 1988 Paradise (a.k.a. Guns of Paradise) episode "Childhood's End" as Teenage Prostitute
 1992 Freshman Dorm episode "My Boyfriend’s Back" as Lisa
 1995 Land's End episode "Land's End: Part 1" as Taffi Bishop
 1995 Land's End episode "Land's End: Part 2" as Taffi Bishop 
 1996 Minor Adjustments episode "The Model Wife" as Leslie
 1997 Married... with Children episode "How to Marry a Moron" as Stripper #1
 1997 Clueless episode "Sharing Cher" as Second Masseuse
 2000 The Pretender episode "Cold Dick" as Mona Jeffries
 2000 The X Show episode dated 26 January 2000 as Herself
 2001 Spyder Games episode "Episode #1.56" as Lydia
 2001 Spyder Games episode "Episode #1.58" as Lydia
 2005 Dante's Cove episode "In the Beginning" as Tina
 2005 Dante's Cove episode "Then There Was Darkness" as Tina
 2008 Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew episode "Sex and Trauma" as Herself

Producer
 2000 Between Christmas and New Year’s (associate producer)
 2009 Trasharella (producer)
 2009 The Making of Gnome Killer 2 (associate producer)
 2009 The Gertrude Stein Mystery (associate producer)
 2011 Trasharella Ultra Vixen (Producer)
 2011 Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven (Producer)
 2016 Astrid's Auto Portrait (Producer)

Composer
 1992 Back in the USSR 1995 Showgirls 1999 Bloodthirsty 2004 Roomies 2009 TrasharellaSoundtrack
 1995 Showgirls (writer and performer: "Deep Kiss")
 2004 Roomies (performer: "Geisha Girl")
 2007 Forbes 20 Billionaire Heiresses: Young, Fabulous and Incredibly Rich (performer: "Livin' in the Fast Lane" – theme song)
 2009 TrasharellaDirector
 2009 Trasharella 2011 Trasharella Ultra Vixen 2011 Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven 2016 Astrid's Auto PortraitWriter
 2009 Trasharella (screenplay) (story)
 2011 Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven 2016 Astrid's Auto PortraitCostume and wardrobe

Editor
 2009 Trasharella 2011 Trasharella Ultra Vixen 2011 ShowGirls2: Penny's from Heaven 2016 Astrid's Auto Portrait''

References

External links
Rena Riffel's Blog

Interview with Rena Riffel on (re)Search my Trash (September 2013)

American film actresses
Living people
1969 births
21st-century American singers
20th-century American singers
American television actresses
American women composers
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American women film directors
American female dancers
American dancers
American women screenwriters
Female models from California
Film producers from California
Models from Los Angeles
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American composers
Film directors from Los Angeles
Screenwriters from California
American women film producers
21st-century American women singers
20th-century women composers A showgirl is a female dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show intended to showcase the performer's physical attributes, typically by way of revealing clothing, toplessness, or nudity.

History

Showgirls date back to the late 1800s in Parisian music halls and cabarets such as the Moulin Rouge, Le Lido, and the Folies Bergère. The trafficking of showgirls for the purposes of prostitution was the subject of a salacious novel by the nineteenth-century French author Ludovic Halévy.

The Las Vegas showgirl

The first casino on the Las Vegas Strip to employ dancing girls as a diversion between acts was the El Rancho Vegas in 1941. Showgirls were presented in Las Vegas in 1952 as the opening and closing act for Las Vegas headliners, sometimes dancing around the headliner.  They were introduced at the Sands Casino for a show with Danny Thomas. In 1957, Minsky's Follies took the stage at the Desert Inn giving birth to the topless showgirl in Vegas.  This was followed by a long-running The Lido de Paris at the Stardust Casino that ran for 31 years. Traditionally, Las Vegas showgirls are classically trained dancers with skills in Ballet and Jazz dance.

Revues with showgirls

 Calypso Cabaret (Bangkok, Thailand)
 Folies Bergère (Paris)
 Folies du Lac (Paris)
 Jubilee! Bally's (Las Vegas)
 La Nouvelle Eve (Paris)
 Le Lido (Paris)
 Moulin Rouge (Paris)
 Paradis Latin (Paris)
 Roderick Palazuelos 'Platinum Stars''' (México)
 Showgirl Bootcamp Experience (Las Vegas)
 Splash (Riviera, Las Vegas) (Frank Marino Show - La Cage)
 The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies (Palm Springs, California; unique in that the chorus line is of showgirls in their 50s, 60s and 70s)
 The Francis Show (Transvestite Show) (México)
 Tihany Spectacular Circus (Brazil-México)
 Tropicana Club (Havana, Cuba)
 Cabaret Red Light (Philadelphia, USA)
 VEGAS! THE SHOW (Las Vegas)
 VIVA Cabaret Showbar (Blackpool, UK)
 90 Degrees & Rising (Dunes Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas)

 Showgirls in popular culture 
 The Gold Diggers films, including The Gold Diggers (silent, 1923), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), and Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)
 Bolero, a 1934 film in which American burlesque dancer Sally Rand played a carnival showgirl and performed a fan dance
 The Golddiggers, a troupe that performed on The Dean Martin Show beginning in 1968
 Showgirls, a 1995 film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Elizabeth Berkley
 Guys and Dolls, a 1950 Broadway production, depicts a Miss Adelaide as the main character's fiancée, a singer and showgirl in various musical numbers.
 Kylie Minogue was inspired by different types of showgirls and named and styled her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour and Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour concerts after them. Showgirl themes can be seen at many corners through Minogue's entire career.
 Several showgirl cars are seen at the Dinoco booth during the animated film Cars''; former Motorama show car Flo displays vanity licence plate SHOGRL as a "Motorama 1957 showgirl".

References

Theatrical occupations
Variety shows
Dance occupations
 
Entertainment occupations
Gendered occupations