The rooms would be pitch black if not for the low neon glow. The legality, however, is gray. The seduction begins.
Before there is even eye contact there is touch. The woman will gently graze the back of the man's head. Their eyes meet. She leans in, rubs his forearms, strokes alongside his neck, down his shoulders. Moves her hips into his. Grazes him with her breasts. Maybe sits on his lap.
It is part foreplay, part transaction.
If beer made Milwaukee famous, in some circles it is the lap dance that put Tampa on the map. Wikipedia even credits Mons Venus owner and Tampa City Council candidate Joe Redner with inventing it, though that claim is impossible to verify.
For Tampa Bay, the lap dance does seem the sensual commercial touch of choice. In one variant, with a dancer scantily clothed and making only minimal contact with a customer's leg, it is legal. Even in the sexier, fully nude grinding versions, the lap dance exists openly and largely without threat of arrest, as Tampa police and prosecutors have found it impossible to enforce the city's prohibition against it — the infamous "6-foot rule."
The fact is that there are as many different variations on the lap dance as there are women performing it.
"Every different club you go to is an education," said Christy, her stage name, a 25-year-old veteran of the Tampa adult club scene who now dances at the Redner-owned Mons Venus.
The most experienced and talented dancers know the science of this transaction — that it is about more than semi-anonymous simulated sex.
"You are there to be into the person," Christy explains. "You have to be soft. You take your time. They have to believe you are into it. You don't treat guys like they are walking ATMs."
One dancer in Ybor City describes touching (and being touched) behind the ears as the ultimate turn-on. Another swears by the act of lightly running her fingers down the inside of a man's legs.
If the man likes the dancer, and perhaps he made his mind up about her earlier as she shimmied on a pole, he says yes when she asks if he wants a private dance. Off in a corner, or in a separate smaller room, those skimpy outfits come off to one degree or another, depending on the club and the prevailing city ordinances. The contact begins almost immediately, with the ensuing levels of sexual intensity varying greatly. Some dancers graze the customer's groin, while others grind it with their asses; for some it is a ballet of sexual desire, for others a down-and-dirty dry hump.
There is a local lap-dancing hierarchy that goes as follows: fully nude establishments, where no alcohol is allowed (called either strip clubs or gentlemen's clubs); topless clubs, where dancers wear pasties and G-strings and the booze flows freely; and bikini bars, where the dancers are a bit more covered up, looking like they're headed out for a day at the beach.
The clubs are clustered, roughly, around the Mons Venus on Dale Mabry; in Drew Park south of the Tampa International Airport; east of Ybor City and along Adamo Drive; in mid-Pinellas on U.S. 19. Those locations have largely been determined by zoning laws that force adult establishments to be minimum distances from homes, schools and churches.
As for the dance itself, prices range from $10-$30, with $20 being the industry standard. For that money, depending on the dancer and depending on the club, you can get a display of light seduction or a gropefest of intense physical intimacy. In some of the less reputable clubs, enough money for the dancer and manager will buy you whatever sexual act you want.
There isn't a parallel at any of the area's many gay bars. Some do feature scantily clad models dancing erotically, but the gay lap dance has yet to surface.
Tampa Bay likewise offers no lap dance equivalent for straight women who want to touch — and be touched — by a scantily clad or nude man. Male erotic dancers work privately (mainly bachelorette parties or fundraisers) but no club in Tampa Bay has a standing "male revue night," said John Gallo, whose floridastrips.com books men in Tampa Bay and throughout Florida. He's perplexed as to why there isn't more male stripping going on, since women "go wild" at the private parties.
And that may be a shame, since, as one veteran of Tampa Bay's strip club scene put it, the physical connection of a lap dance is as crucial to some people as a good meal.
"It's necessary because society has to understand that sex is to be enjoyed. … like food," Christy said. "You have lots of different choices, to prepare at home or eat at a restaurant. Sex is the same way. Or it should be."
Urban Explorer's Handbook 2007
Sensory Overload Edition
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Touch
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2007.