A year.

My exotic dance permit expires on April 26th, so I've only got about 2 more weeks before I have go to the Dekalb County courthouse and either get myself another one, or quit stripping all together.

When I first came to Atlanta, I went around to clubs asking if they were hiring waitresses or shooter girls. Every manager I spoke to asked me if I had danced before, or if I wanted to. "I used to, but I think I'm too old for it now," I said. I laughed them off.

Now? Well...

I don't think I'm ready to quit stripping yet. Maybe getting a real job will make me cut back on how often I work, but I really don't want to stop now. For me, stripping is a perfect job to have when you are young and have few other obligations and constraints on your time. It's a job you take when your body is still lean, flexible and strong enough to put on a real show on stage. When you still have the stamina to dance all night and be able to wake up at noon the next day feeling like you wouldn't mind doing it all over again.

To quit now would mean I am telling myself that I can't do it anymore. I refuse to capitulate to the idea of being too grown up to dance anymore. I think I still have a lot more stage sets to perform. I just finished a 6 week series of private lessons; my stamina and technique have benefited a lot. It would be a shame to stop now. I'm good now, but I could be better. The comments I get encourage me to go on - "wow, you are DYNAMITE!" - "finally, somebody with talent on stage!" - "you are a true performer"...

I'll admit that I originally started dancing in Atlanta as an excuse to have more pole practice time and get paid for it. The stage tips I earn pay for my pole classes and in turn, I use what I learn in pole class to improve my stage show. But dancing has come to mean more to me. I have never been able to find the same kind of camaraderie between dancers anywhere else. (Though, I admit I have very few female friends.) I like being able to reclaim my femininity and perform my femininity as an act of rebellion against the staid world of academia. My husband is away from home often - if I didn't work, I'd probably just be sitting on my ass watching Glee all night. If nothing else, it gives me something to do on my free nights.

I just plain don't won't to quit. I wonder if I'll still feel this way next year?

Plus I jut bought a couple of new outfits and two new pairs of shoes, so I've got to earn back the investment on THAT, at least.

Leveling up

I think I have reached a new level as a stripper.

I had my first $1000+ night.

Previous to this, the best I'd ever done was around $800. Last Friday I made (exactly) $1206. The vast majority of that was from an hour and a half VIP with a coked up old millionaire, his 25 year old fiancee, and another dancer. The 25 year old fiancee, K, was formerly a dancer at the O. They have known each other two weeks, and he proposed with a $15k diamond ring. (Am I jealous? Fuck, yes I am.*) The VIP was pretty boring as a whole because I don't indulge in cocaine, but K did show me that lapdance trick where you put your head between the customer's legs and then flip upside down. That was really neat, though I still can't nail it 100% of the time. I think I need to work on my core strength and confidence.

I worked Saturday as well - but since I was still riding that "I'M RICH, BITCH!" high from Friday, I'm afraid to admit that I wasn't working very hard and went home a tad shy of $400. Nevertheless, it's REALLY nice to have money. K has apparently decided to take me under her wing and teach me how to really hustle for the big $$$... according to her, a girl like me "should definitely be making at least $1000 a night. You are the hottest girl in here! You have nice lines, perfect proportions, nice skin, nice eyes, and a pretty face..." Sure, she was drunk, but I will still take that as a compliment. I've always had trouble selling VIP rooms, which is why I've always made the majority of my money doing table dances on the floor. I don't particularly ENJOY doing VIPs, but the prospect of making easy money off watching old guys do coke is pretty alluring...

I think I'll go in again sometime this week, but I'm not sure when. Maybe tomorrow.

In other news, I have put a couple new pole tricks into stage performances - I've got a decent (though not perfect) jade and my butterfly is looking good too. Shawn, the security guy, has commented that I have "gotten a LOT better" since I started. I'm glad at least somebody noticed. I think my new signature combo is the inversion-inside leg hang-clam/pike-jade-V hip hold. I am starting private one-on-one pole lessons with my instructor today as well. I'm hoping the next 6 weeks will lead to some exponential improvement. I'd really like to start doing more advanced tricks like the ayesha and learn new ways of getting on and off the pole gracefully.

Shoes. Shoes. Shoes. Shoes.

I worked Friday-Saturday back to back shifts, which, while profitable, totally kicked my ass physically. Part of it because of my dedication to pole dance, and part of it is because I just bought my first pair of 7" light up Ellies. By "dedication to pole dance" I mean, I worked Friday night 8PM to 4AM; got home and went to bed at 6, woke my ass up at 10AM for pole class where the instructor decided to give us an extended session to work on conditioning. And of course, I busted my ass on Saturday night as well, 8PM to 3AM. Gotta say my shoulder mounts are looking pretty good though. Practice does make perfect.





Anyway, when it comes to shoes, I'm normally a Pleaser girl (for comfort) or Tony (for style) but Pleaser only offers light up shoes in a 6" platform. I have a theory that says the more experienced the stripper, the higher the heel. Now almost into my first full year dancing in a "big time" market like Atlanta, I consider myself an old hand. Therefore, I've earned the right to upgrade to 7" platforms.

I am not crazy about Ellies, since they run narrow. This particular pair is so tight, the big toe on my right foot is a bit numb from nerve compression, no joke. (I really need to hit that shit with a hairdryer to loosen up the plastic.) But DAMN, do I love those light up shoes! I would say those are the ultimate stripper shoe - not only are they light up, 7" platforms, but they are CLEAR. I've never owned clear shoes before, but now I can see why they're so popular: they visually elongate the leg more than any other shoe. I caught myself in the mirror the other night while wearing them, and couldn't help but admire how long and lean my legs looked.

There is actually quite a lot of consideration that goes into shopping for exotic shoes. I always have to buy shoes with an ankle strap, since I do a lot of pole tricks, particularly spins. I'm also inordinately fond of doing inversions. Godforbid I do a chopper and end up with a shoe flying off my foot, hitting a customer in the head. It's happened before. (Though, not to me.)

Then there's the consideration of foot coverage. My current favorite pair of shoes are these red Tony's:





Not only are they cute as hell, but notice that the top of the foot is covered. This is an important consideration to make if you do a lot of climbing OR foot-clutch based tricks. The foot clutch is probably my least favorite pole trick, but I can't get into a gypsy any other way...

Finally, there's one last point I have to take into consideration before buying a pair of shoes: resale value. Stripper heels hold a sacred place for foot fetishists... particularly women with really tiny feet, like mine. (I wear a size 6, but always buy a size 5 because dancer shoes stretch out over time.) Light colored shoes, particularly with foot prints, sell well. I sold an old pair of Pleaser mules for $200 on ebay. Considering I originally paid $40 for them, I definitely profited off something I was going to throw away anyway. (I promptly reinvested that $200 into new shoes that I will also sell, when the time comes. It's the circle of shoe addiction!)

Seriously though, I'm pretty sure that part of the reason I love being a stripper so much is because I get to wear awesome shoes. Stripper shoes are WAY more comfortable than regular heels. Outside the club? Sweatpants and sneaker all day, every day. I'm honestly quite fashion challenged. But in the club? I'm a motherfucking peacock! Watch me strut.

I wish I could buy Weleda Arnica Massage Oil in bulk.

Last night was better - a lot of people, but not a lot of money spending going on. I had to hustle REALLY hard and still only had a rather mediocre night. I am EXHAUSTED from all the dances!

I'm getting really tired of talking to customers. I think I will start faking a Russian accent so I can pretend my English isn't good enough to have to waste time talking to customers, and then I can get straight to "Hello, honey! My name Elena. Would you like dance?" I will tell them I'm from Kazakhstan.

Last night I had a Hispanic customer come up to me THREE times and say, "eyyyy! JAPONAISE ah? EY LIKE!" First two times I shook my head and said, "no, not Japanese." Third time, I screamed at him in front of the whole club: "For fucks sake I'm not fucking Japanese!!"

This whole week has been an excellent reminder why I should stay in school.

Stay in school, kids.

Tonight I had my worst night ever working at the Oasis Goodtime Emporium. I made a whopping $114 after house fees. On top of that, I owe the club $50 for missing a weekend shift the previous week. (I had told them that I would be out of town, but the club policy is that we have to work a weekend shift in order to work during the following week.) Apparently weekdays after a holiday weekend are notoriously bad. I shouldn't have showed up at all - it wasn't profitable, and in fact, has rather dampened my mojo. I can only hope that taking tomorrow off will let my hustle mojo recover to profitable levels for Friday and Saturday night...

So. My net was $64. For 8 hours of work. That's pretty fucking insulting.

On the upside, it has definitely lit a fire under my ass to focus on school next semester. I love being a dancer, but damn, nights like these make me want to ensure that my sole source of income is never going to be something as inconsistent as dancing can be. I think I actually look forward to getting a "real job" now.

Oh. I did manage to get the DJ to play me "Lotion" by the Greenskeepers. Nobody got the joke. I didn't make shit on stage. Just one of those days...

Stripper Music - 12/22/2011

Yes: I'm Only Happy When it Rains by Garbage. Indeed, it does make me happy when it rains on me on stage... it'd make a good segue for the DJ, wouldn't it? Read in that stereotypical, oddly consistent carnival-barkeresque DJ patter that they all seem to do: "Nowwwww every body, this is ELENA on stage ONE! With I'm only happy when it RAAAAAAAINS! Let's make it RAAAAAAAAAAIN! Tip the LADIES!"



No, but I totally wish I could pull it off: Lotion, by Greenskeepers.



I am thinking of bribing the DJ to play "Goodbye Horses" by Q. Lazzarus, but I'm afraid nobody would get the joke. It's one of those gambles: either I will make NO money, or I will make a TON of money off it.

First post: so we begin here.

I started stripping a little over five years ago in a shitty Baltimore club. I needed the money. I quit a year and a half later to focus on graduating from college. I didn't miss it; I was burnt out. Three years later, I moved to Atlanta for graduate school, and somehow felt the inexorable draw of the stage and the pole again. In April of 2011, I found myself at the Dekalb County Police Department. $300 later and a permit in hand, I was officially reborn as Elena.

I recently picked up Lily Burana's memoir of her days as a dancing girl, "Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America". Then Diablo Cody's "Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper". I'm not writing this to give a different view - Burana and Cody both get it exactly right. I do think they were a bit hypercritical in their approach though - sometimes it is okay to enjoy a job in the sex industry. They seem to constantly feel the need to justify why they, as sheltered and middle class "good girls," had "gone bad." (Maybe not - I get the feeling that neither of them regret dancing... I suppose it's more for the audiences' benefit.) This is not that kind of blog. Or maybe it will be, I don't know. We'll see where this goes.