Lap dance
A lap dance is a type of erotic dance performance offered in many strip clubs in which the dancer typically has body contact with a seated patron. Lap dancing is different from table dancing, in which the dancer is close to a seated patron, but without body contact. Variant terms include couch dance, which is a lap dance where the recipient is seated on a couch.
With full-contact lap dances, the dancer may engage in non-penetrative sexual contact with the patron, such as "grinding" or "twerking" their body against the patron. Depending on the local jurisdiction and community standards, the participants in lap dancing are sometimes allowed to touch or be touched by each other. In some clubs any touching by the patron is forbidden. In others there is no oversight by the club and various levels of contact are negotiable between the participants. Clubs vary widely with regard to their enforcement of rules, and some turn a blind eye to any violations.
Lap dancing usually occurs with both participants being either clothed to more or less the same degree, or naked, or the dancer being partially or fully naked, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction and the club's policies. Some jurisdictions require a prohibition on alcohol if various degrees of nudity are allowed. In other jurisdictions nudity is only allowed where skin contact does not occur between the dancer and the patron, requiring at least one of them to wear clothing. Where specific licensing exists for an establishment to allow prostitution, the dress requirements may also be dependent on that licensing. As the dancer is rarely dressed to a greater degree than the patron, lap dancing is sometimes seen as a submissive act by the dancer.
In some places, a "block session" of lap dances can be booked in a "champagne room" or "VIP room", which is a private room usually located in the back of a club. In many clubs, the duration of a lap dance is measured by the length of the song being played by the club's DJ. Charges for lap dances vary significantly.
Controversy
There is some debate as to whether lap dancing is entertainment or a type of sex work. Critics of lap dancing allege that some club owners, by installing dark private booths and charging dancers steep stage fees, are covertly condoning and encouraging the sale of sexual acts between customers and dancers. This can be a concern if, as for instance in the United Kingdom, the club has a public entertainment licence rather than a sex establishment licence, and in jurisdictions where brothels are illegal.History and legal issues
Lap dancing clubs, are a later development of earlier strip clubs, where strippers danced on stage and were paid a wage. In the 1970s, New York's Melody Theater introduced audience participation and called it "Mardi Gras". The Melody Theater became the Harmony Theater and operated in two locations in Manhattan for over 20 years until it was closed down in 1998.Also during the 1970s, adult film makers Jim and Artie Mitchell had been running an adult movie house, called the O'Farrell Theatre, in San Francisco to feature their films. But in the second half of the 1970s, with the invention of the videocassette recorder and a proliferation of video cassette rental stores, the demand for adult movie theaters began to plummet. Realizing that they needed a new business model for their building, the Mitchell brothers sent manager Vince Stanich around the country to explore customer-contact shows in sex clubs. After Stanich reported back, the Mitchell brothers responded in 1977 by opening three new rooms at their O'Farrell Theatre featuring customer-contact shows: The Ultra Room, The Kopenhagen, and New York Live. The Kopenhagen's shows were performed by a pair of naked women in a small room with about twenty men. However the club's most profitable new venue was New York Live, which was a cabaret-style strip club act with women dancing three song sets upon a stage, while usually being totally nude for the final song.
Most of the strippers who were not dancing were sitting naked on customers' laps for tips. The amount of tipping rapidly increased and was then marketed as a "lap dance", and its popularity caused lines of men to regularly appear outside the theater's doors. The Mitchells hired new dancers as fast as they could to keep up with demand, and had created another sex-show innovation which gained them international notoriety and generated more money than their film business.
Later in 2004, a San Francisco District Attorney's decision to drop prostitution charges against lap dancers in the city changed the sexual culture of San Francisco and "has the potential to influence the policies of other cities".
In some areas of the U.S. and Canada, local authorities began cracking down on lap dancing after reports that some clubs allowed customers to engage in sexual intercourse or other sexual activity with dancers during lap dance sessions. Various strip clubs have wide-ranging rules on how customers should interact with strippers.
Canada
In 1973, an upmarket Vancouver bar called "Gary Taylor's Show Lounge" employed showgirls and strippers as waitresses who gave a free dance with every drink. The club was raided by the police under the guise of obscenity legislation, but, in 1974, Judge Jack McGivern ruled that dancer nudity was not obscene, which started a trend of nude dancing in bars. No contact between dancers and patrons was allowed at the club, but Gary Taylor's had a boxing ring where the girls performed revealing acrobatics after stripping off and then earned tips. Americans from Washington state made the trip to the club from the United States, which at the time had stricter laws.In a landmark ruling regarding the 1994 case of Pat Mara and Allan East, Judge E. Gordon Hachborn legally defined lap dancing and ruled that it did not contravene Canadian public decency statutes. A number of conflicting judgements were issued in the years that followed, including decisions to close certain bars in which sex acts took place on the floor of the club and other rulings in which patrons were allowed to touch the dancers, as long as an actual sex act did not take place.
In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a typical lap dance did not constitute an "obscene" act within the meaning of the Criminal Code. The Crown did not argue that lap dances constituted "prostitution", and therefore the court did not address the possible issue that the typical lap dance may contravene one or more anti-prostitution laws. This led to the displacement of strip clubs and table dancing clubs in Canada by lap dancing clubs.
In 2005, two Supreme Court of Canada rulings decriminalized private sex clubs in Canada.
On 20 December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada found the laws prohibiting brothels, public communication for the purpose of prostitution, and living on the profits of prostitution to be unconstitutional. The ruling gave the Canadian parliament twelve months to rewrite Canada's prostitution laws; in the meantime, existing anti-prostitution laws continued to be enforced. Current laws on prostitution in Canada, introduced in 2014, make it illegal to purchase sexual services but legal to sell them.
Ireland
In the early 2000s, lap dancing expanded rapidly in the Republic of Ireland, building on an existing strip pub industry. A number of lap-dancing clubs were opened in Dublin, including one by the English nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow. Lap-dancing clubs were also opened across the country. Many of Ireland's lap-dancing clubs have subsequently closed as a result of the worsened economic climate and changes to Ireland's licensing laws in 2008. Reputational issues have also played a part in the decline of Ireland's lap-dancing clubs.Police raids took place on Irish lap-dancing clubs in 2003 in search of criminal activity as part of Operation Quest. Efforts to distance Irish lap dancing from the sex industry were hampered by the UK's decision in 2010 to classify its lap dancing clubs as sex establishments. Ireland's lap-dancing clubs became viewed as more expensive than their rivals overseas and more restricted in terms of the entertainment on offer. By 2012 there were five or six clubs operating in Dublin, one in Galway and one in Cork. Most lap-dancing clubs in Ireland operate a no-touching rule, and typically do not charge dancers a "house fee" to perform, instead taking a proportion of the dancer's earnings.
United Kingdom
The first lap dancing club in the UK was opened in 1995. During the 2000s the lap dancing industry grew quickly, with the Licensing Act 2003 as the only legislation in England and Wales regulating lap dancing clubs. The Lap Dancing Association, a trade association for the UK lap dancing industry, was formed in 2006 and officially launched in 2008. It operated a code of practice for its members. According to a BBC report, as of November 2008, the association represented roughly one-third of the industry's clubs. Members included For Your Eyes Only, Spearmint Rhino, Bandit Queen and Candy Bar. In 2008, clubs were being opened at a rate of about one per week.In April 2008 the LDA proposed that its code of conduct should become legally enforceable by local authorities as part of their licensing function. The association submitted a memorandum to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in November 2008 when the latter was reviewing the Licensing Act 2003. The association said that there was no sexual activity offered for sale in their clubs, and that to classify them as part of the sex industry would stigmatise performers. Simon Warr, who ran the clubs Platinum Lace and For Your Eyes Only and who was the president of the LDA In 2009, gave oral evidence to the committee, describing lap dancing as "not sexually stimulating". Three MPs undertook a fact-finding visit to a London lap dancing club at the invitation of the LDA. The association opposed the provisions of the subsequent Policing and Crime Act 2009 which reclassified lap-dancing clubs in England and Wales as "sexual entertainment venues" instead of "entertainment venues", introduced a licensing system for clubs and allowed local authorities to decide the number and location of lap-dancing clubs in their area. Chris Knight, vice-chairman of the LDA, said that the cost of the additional licence required to run a lap dancing club from 2010 could affect many businesses and questioned the right of local authorities to make licensing decisions on "emotive and moralistic grounds".
In 2009, the total number of clubs had reached its peak of 310, and the number of lap-dancers was estimated at 10,000. Lap-dancing clubs had opened in big cities, small towns, and out-of-town business parks. The figures plateaued during the subsequent weaker economic climate and had hardly changed by 2012. At that point, the amount of money a lap-dancer earned in an average shift was £230, and the industry was valued at around £300 million. However, some clubs, particularly in London, charged a house fee for the dancers to perform and had an increased number of dancers, which reduced an individual dancer's earnings.
Between 2010 and 2015, there were approximately forty-five refusals of licences for sexual entertainment venues in England and Wales, mainly on the grounds that the locality was unsuitable. The legislation provides for no right of appeal against such refusals, except on the grounds that committees have not followed correct procedure. The number of refusals, together with the costs of licence application, means that there have been few new businesses opened since 2010, with the overall number of clubs declining over time as a number of local authorities implemented a "nil limit" for new clubs.
In February 2014, Fiona Mactaggart asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, if he would "make it his policy not to offer job subsidies for employing teenagers as auxiliary workers in adult entertainment establishments". Her question related to employers in the adult entertainment industry being offered an incentive of over £2,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions for every unemployed young person that they hired. Esther McVey, the Minister of State for Employment, stated that: "The Welfare Reform Act 2012 ensured that vacancies which involve performing sexual activities were banned from being advertised on Government websites and a distinction was made in law to differentiate between performers and ancillary workers."