3 naked ladies talk about their view from the stages and laps of the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s and today.
For as a long as there’s been music, women have danced for the entertainment and titillation of men. Scheherazade. Minsky’s Burlesque. Cage dancing go-go girls in the psychedelic 60′s. Times Square strippers, pole dancers and lap dancers. Women dance….Men watch.
This entry was originally written and posted on October 7, 2009 at 9:00 am on the now defunct dirtygirldiaries.com
Lauri Shaw: I was a 19-year-old barmaid in Yonkers, NY at this crappy dive topless place, City Lights…
Jodi Sh. Doff: Legal drinking age was 21 in NY by then, so you were flying under the radar…
LS: I fell in with one of the dancers, who dragged me along to her shift at Runway 69 in Times Square. I couldn’t believe it — nobody danced, they all just crouched in front of the men, showed cooch, and got paid. The girls got a kick out of me. I was trying to be streetwise, like I saw this shit every day.
JshD: My first cooch sighting freaked me out. I was a cocktail waitress in a joint called Winks. I’m not sure I even finished my first shift!
LS: I wasn’t fooling anyone either, but they decided to dress me up and turn me out. My friend thought it was a riot. Before I knew it, I was wearing someone else’s dress, and shoes two sizes too big. They pushed me right out on that stage. I was terrified, but I was determined to follow through, because I was being dared.
It was truly horrific. I didn’t know how to dance. Three customers walked away the minute they saw me. I didn’t dare let go of the pole, I knew I’d wipe out. I was up there for three songs and the only tip I got was from a guy who said, “I’m only giving you this dollar ’cause I feel sorry for you.” If there was ever a moment in my life I wanted to die of shame, that was it.
Rachel Aimee: I wasn’t even thinking about money when I auditioned. One guy held out a 5 pound note but I was too scared to get close enough to take it.
LS: When I came off stage, the manager was laughing his ass off in the corner. He told me I was hired. Later I found out they didn’t even have auditions at Runway. I’d been an elaborate practical joke for the whole staff. In the end, though, I had the last laugh–I stayed for the rest of the shift and made $300 in just a few hours.
RA: I started when I was 23 and living in London back in 2003. I was so naïve I took a stripping class before I auditioned–I thought I actually had to be able to dance! What a waste of money—we learned all these old burlesque moves…
LS: Oh, that stuff is so hot now, the revival of old school burlesque. Jo Boobs, The World Famous Bob, The Pontani Sisters…
RA: …but completely irrelevant once I saw how real strippers danced. I started at a little club called Boulevard in Soho. It was one of the few clubs that was stage dancing only. I thought tabledancing meant dancing on a table, which I was sure I couldn’t do in heels, and I was afraid of lapdancing because of the contact—as I said, I was very naïve back then.
LS: What made you even think of stripping, then?
RA: I was a total cliche–a gender studies major interested in the feminist debates about whether stripping was empowering or degrading and figured I’d see for myself! (Of course, I soon realized it was just a damn convenient way to pay the rent.) I had an elaborate audition outfit which included a skirt, button down shirt, stockings, and even a cardigan…
JshD: A cardigan? That’s classic!
RA: The dancers just laughed at me. I had no idea most girls went out there in a bikini or minidress. They tried to get me to at least lose the cardigan but I almost started crying, saying I had to wear the outfit I’d practiced in or I’d forget my routine! After that they left me alone, but they teased me about it for months after I got hired.
JshD: I was still living at home when I got fired from my job as a file clerk. The ad in the back of the Village Voice said, “barmaid, no experience necessary”. I had no experience, so I was eminently qualified.
RA: It’s funny how many strippers start as bartenders, or at least intended to…
JshD: Bartending really was a “gateway drug” for me. The Mardi Gras was the largest topless bar in the city, with three stages, a dozen cash registers and Jake La Motta as a bouncer. Total big time. Me & my no experience made more in one day than I had in a week at the office.
It didn’t take long before I auditioned as a dancer. I was already the girl who ripped her clothes off in public when she drank. I realized recently that I wasn’t a stripper who drank, I was a drunk who stripped. What I wasn’t, was a girl who ever felt pretty. The glamor of the bars and their willingness to pay for what I was already doing for free held a lot of allure. I borrowed a nasty g-string, just a scratchy swatch of fabric and a pair of borrowed heels as well, and suddenly I was the center of the world, lights flashed, everything switched from black & white to Technicolor and I was beautiful.
RA: It’s amazing how being on stage for the first time makes you feel like that, even if you’ve never had any kind of aspirations to be a performer.
JshD: It was great…until the manager yelled “Let’s see some floor work! Pretend you’re on top.” I was 17! I’d never been on top. So there I was, a chubby teenager doing naked push ups in front of strangers.
RA: Floor work killed me when I first started–my knees were so bruised and scratched up I couldn’t kneel or bend my knees for at least a month.
JshD: That manager never asked me to dance again, but I was sold. Those few minutes sealed the deal for me.
This entry was written by dirtygirl, posted on October 7, 2009 at 9:00 am, filed under three naked ladies and tagged strippers, Times Square.
