About E R O T I C A
The formation of Erotica was borne out of the desire to undo traditional pole fitness practices and teachings, challenge individual students’ concepts of what constitutes and defines “erotic dance” and push them outside their comfort zones to assist in embracing their own sexuality and build confidence in their self-expression as it translates to their movement and dance.
I started pole classes before I began working as a stripper, about a year before. Coming from a contemporary dance background, I took to pole very well, having already achieved a reasonable level of flexibility and an underestimated amount of core and upper body strength due to my years as a nurse. Therefore, when I entered the world of stripping I assumed the transition would be just as easy. After all, being able to perform all these impressive tricks would surely earn me easy money? I’d also done some sugaring off and on for a few years at this point so I assumed combined with my abilities to play therapist to men, I’d be unstoppable. So you can imagine my surprise when I was unable to sell a single dance my first night on the floor. Not to mention that the first club I worked at didn’t even have poles to perform tricks on. I’m embarrassed to say it took me longer than it should have to figure out what makes strippers so irresistible.
Little by little I began to unlearn the stereotypical pole fitness definitions of “sexy” and started to find my own style. However, the real breakthrough came during COVID. The world was shut down so options for sex workers and strippers alike were extremely limited and restricted. Most of us took to the internet (i.e. OnlyFans, ManyVids, etc.), but this was when I began getting the most requests for private parties, and what I was surprised to find is that most men didn’t even want to see me dance. For them, the excitement was just being close to a stripper and talking about things they might otherwise be embarrassed or “not allowed” to discuss with coworkers or even significant others. I spent time reflecting on the girls I’d met at the club who seemed to always make the most money while often doing the least, and I realized it was because of how they drew you in. It was the tease, the eye contact, the slow, subtle, suggestive movements that built a fantasy, a picture in the audience members’ minds.
Now don’t get me wrong. Tricks can be very impressive. We’ve all seen videos from clubs where a girl does an incredible two-story tumble down the pole and lands in a split as money rains down in all directions. That does happen. BUT, never have I ever (nor has any stripper) had a customer come up to me and say “OMG PLEASE take me to VIP so I can see more of those amazing pole tricks!”. Never.
I began playing around with my movement, slowing it down and attempting to make it more intentional. “Doing the least” sounds and seems simple, but let me tell you, it is HARD on more than just a physical level. Set aside the strength and control it takes to limit and slow your movements, it causes you to increase your awareness and connect more with your audience. The thing I’ve always struggled with most (and many people do) is that vulnerability that sucks the audience in, making it almost impossible to tear your eyes away.
Erotica (originally named Exotica) began on a whim. I had been teaching at a studio in Northern Virginia for about a year when the class was given to me. Initially, it was actually supposed to be taught by a different instructor, but a week before classes began she still hadn’t given the owner a rough outline or even a description for the class. The owner gave me the name of the class and asked me to take it over, and as there was no description or guide, she told me to make it what I wanted. I never could have dreamed what it would become.
I started with teaching my Five Foundational Movements and then combined that with choreo derived from different erotic styles (OG stripper, Slink and Hard Style). That first session was the first of only two in which I would teach choreo. From then on, I resolved to focus primarily on prompts and freestyle, using choreo sparingly and only in the first session. As I began to build my Erotica curriculum I decided to include choreo only in the final group project at the culmination of Erotica 1.0 just as I did with my very first group of Erotica babies years ago.
I ended up teaching Erotica for a whole year straight as 4-week sessions and then taught it as a drop-in or intro at a few other studios before I began to solidify the curriculum and determine how I wanted to grow it. What Erotica showed me more than anything is that humans are innately sexual beings, and we want to explore that. We want to embrace it and own it in our own power, but society so often teaches us (especially women) that it’s shameful, it should be discussed only in hushed tones or behind closed doors and our bodies should be hidden and regarded as a “stumbling block” to our male counterparts. Stripping was what had so drastically changed that perspective for me. Over the years, I’ve found that so many people possess a secret desire to work as a stripper. I truly believe it is largely due in part to our own individual longings to cast off societal demands and opinions and harness that sexual energy and sensuality for our own benefit (and profit). Strippers defy societal norms. We take the very thing we’re told we should be hiding, and we put it on display–and we charge admission! We turn our oppressors into our customers.
Not everyone can be a stripper though. Despite the glamorization of strip clubs by the media and “strippatok”, the clubs are still dangerous places for many. Though pole hobbyists can practice and play within the safe walls of studios around the world, sex workers are still forced to remain in the shadows, stigmatized for our work and despised for our “immoral” behaviors. We live in this underground world where we have few rights, fewer protections and in many states maintaining our livelihood depends on us flying below the radar.
Despite the negatives, sex work has provided me with so much good as it also has for my fellow dancers and workers. I wanted to find a way to share that good with others and provide a safe space in which to explore sexuality and sensuality. Erotica is the guide within that space.