ABOVE: Tori, a University of Kansas honor student, earns a living dancing at All Stars, 913 N. Second St., a strip club in North Lawrence. When tests are looming, her worlds collide.
By Kevin Kampwirth, Jayplay writer
Editor's Note: Because of the negative stigma associated with working in a strip club, the sources in this story requested that their last names not be used. While this normally isn't Jayplay policy, we feel this story is important enough to still be told.
It's Monday night, generally the only night she dances anymore. She sits in All Stars at one of the small, round tables that dot the 150-person capacity club at which she works. She's a tall, trim, attractive girl with a wry, all-too-knowing smile and shoulder-length russet hair that falls casually across her face when she moves her head, obscuring her oft doe-eyed expressions.
Meet Tori, a typical senior at the University of Kansas. Well, maybe not. Like other 22-year-old college students, Tori goes to school, works and tries to maintain a healthy social life. But, there's something about Tori that sets her apart. Maybe it's the fact that she's a National Merit Scholar and pre-med major who carries a 3.85 GPA. Or perhaps it's because she does this while working three jobs - one as a bartender, one as an office assistant and one as a stripper.
"I'm a dancer, not a stripper," she contends. "For dancers it's their job, something they do for the money. Strippers are the one's who really get into the lifestyle and all the pitfalls that can go along with it, the sex and drugs. That's not me."
Originally from the Lawrence-Kansas City area, Tori came to University as a freshman four years ago. Having moved out of her parent's house when she was 18, she had to pay her own way once she got to college. She discovered dancing after realizing that she wasn't making enough money with her other jobs to support herself. Tori was 19 years old when she decided to dance for the first time at Bada Bing's dance club in Lawrence, which today, is All Stars, 913 N. Second St.
She sits near the back and watches as another dancer finishes her routine. It's about 8:30 at night and among the eight or nine people currently in the club, only one
is a customer. "It usually picks up around ten," she says, showing no visible signs of worry. A petite, topple blonde girl makes her way off stage as the muddled opening piano of Eric Burdon's "Spill the Wine" suddenly kicks in over the speakers. Tori gets up and makes her way toward the stage.
When she first started, it took her about a month to become fully comfortable taking her clothes off in front of strangers. Now, any trace of the insecurity she once had is no longer present. She wears 4-inch black platform shoes, black bikini-style boy shorts and a black tank top as she walks up onto the 8-by-12 wooden stage. Grabbing the bronze pole in the middle of the platform, she starts her dance. Stools, which ideally would be filled, surround all sides of the stage. A thin aisle at both ends with two stairs allows the dancers to walk on and off. She finishes her dance and leaves the stage, minus the tank top, and another dancer takes her place.
Three years ago when she began, Tori would dance two or three nights a week, during each of which she would average about $300 in tips. She says there have been nights, though, that she's brought in more than $1,000. "I don't want to sound like a greedy, money-hungry person, but the money's really the reason I do it."
Along with jobs and school, she tries to keep up with her social life as much as possible. "The toughest part is finding time to go out and have fun," she says. "I'm single right now, so that's not really an issue." And how does Tori handle relationships? "I don't get involved with people who don't support what I do." The boyfriend she's had since she's been dancing have been supportive for the most part, so it hasn't been a problem. Things aren't always perfect, though. "I met one guy who's flunked out of school twice and is a bartender now, and he's giving me crap for what I do? It's that whole stupid stigma again."
Tori maintains that the stigma of the stripper lifestyle is what continues to perpetuate the notion that dancing is a bad thing. Dispelling this stereotype is precisely what she and many other dancers would like to do. Howard Ruppel, the academic dean at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, was involved with a recent study that