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Exeter School of Striptease

Teaching exotic dance moves has a reporter going with the flow.

News 1970 6 mins Not rated

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

TV reporter Andy Price is at the county’s first School of Striptease opening in Exeter. The idea is to offer dance lessons on how to seamlessly undress while performing in a slow seductive manner, an art in itself. Dance including exotic dancing may be performed as a fitness routine and this has gained in popularity. Striptease has developed over the twentieth century. In the 1920s and 1930s naked performers were forbidden so nude shows only allowed art-like poses.

Burlesque had moved on from its Victorian coquettishness and dancers began to perform naked behind giant feather fans. By the 1950s with rotating floors, nude dancers began to move and exotic dance venues slowly became more widely tolerated by society. More modern forms came in with 1970s go-go dancing and in Britain the 1990s was the decade for a return of neo-burlesque and the first lap and pole dancing clubs. However all erotic dance forms are subject to laws on public nudity and lap dancing clubs are now classed as sexual entertainment venues and have to hold a licence. Pole dancing, grinding and twerking have hit the mainstream and are expressed regularly and often in private and in public!