Frenchman creates Islam-compatible cabaret in Morocco

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AFP) — You will not see g-strings, revealing leotards, or nudity at Claude Thomas' newly-created cabaret revue in Marrakech. Instead, dancers' bodies are demurely hidden and kisses are only allowed on the cheek.

"Les Folies de Marrakech", launched earlier this month, is an unusual blend of Western decadence and Islam.

"This is the first time I have so many beautiful bodies to show and I have to hide them. Here I am doing a cabaret in the Muslim style because the goal is to have an end result that is 100 percent Moroccan, but also 100 percent Folies," said Thomas.

For the producer, the change was a radical one. Throughout the past 15 years, he put on music-hall performances -- first in the northern French city of Lille, then in Japan,...