Learn How to Achieve the Highest Paying Exotic Dancer Career
Do your research. Who had a terrific career in adult entertainment? Will they offer you advice and direction? Avoid people who want to make you over and gravitate toward people who want to accentuate your natural gifts and talents. Go to the best dance studios, choreographers, musicians, hair and makeup people. Pick their brains and seek training when they have the knowledge you want.
Pay attention to the same things that superstar performers pay attention to; sound stage, and lights.
Sound
Sound should be clearly processed with proper volume. You need it loud enough to drown out ambient conversations, but not ear piercing. You want to preview and listen to sound in the room from various locations in it. Remember the acoustics in an empty room are much different than in a populated one. You are best advised to inspect it while the same system is engaged with some other event on stage. The services of professional sound engineers are invaluable for this process.
Stage
Professional entertainers want to perform on smooth professional stages that are flat with no raised flooring, floor plates, electrical boxes, or cables and wiring floating around them. Be sure the stage is raised to the appropriate height that extends the best line of sight to you. Nothing worse than the stage is too low or too high so people can’t see you.
Lights
Amateur performers walk into a showroom and see a traveling spotlight and get all happy. Professionals expect them, but more importantly they’re looking at side-wash and overhead canisters and their color and intensity capabilities. While you do want overhead and face on lighting that keeps you from appearing flat or overly craggy
Dress and look professional
Have custom made, well-conceived and designed costumes. Just like a blouse or dress bought off the rack, discerning eyes can see the difference between that and tailored clothing. Costuming should be hot and in bounds with the image you wish to project. Be sure that it is functional and operates smoothly for the various stages of disrobement. Alternatively, it must hold you securely until then. Fasteners like Velcro, hooks, buttons, or zippers have to work right the first time, every time.
A special note: pay attention to footwear. Pick costume-matching ones and pay close attention to how well they allow you to walk and project the sensuality you want. If rigid platform shoes with inflexible soles, for example, kill your hip action, ditch them. If you like the way they influence your motion, keep them.
Hair, skin, nails (hands and feet), and makeup have to be flawless. Make the best beauticians your favorite friends. Experiment and fine tune to get the looks you want.
Hair extensions, eye lashes, and weaves are all fair considerations, and again, use only the best.
Music
This is the soundtrack of your life while on stage. Give it lots of attention. Now, some clubs want to pick the music for you. It’s part of their imaging. When that is the case, congenitally work together. Professional clubs want you to look and move your best too.
Choreography
There are a lot of pretty girls in the game. Looks will get you so far, and then what. Professional, original, well-rehearsed choreography that plays into your strengths, body type, and features are invaluable. Las Vegas is rife with professional dance trainers and studios. Some are retired masters of stripping. Others are prima ballerinas and former Cirque du Soleil performers.
Don’t accept work at bad clubs
We all have to start somewhere. That is a given. It’s a fortunate few that start stripping at the very best clubs at the very best times of the day in premier shifts. Accept your first job to get started and trade up as rapidly as possible. And, look, when you have the goods, there’s nothing wrong with starting at the top and walking into the very best clubs first. Nevertheless, expect and be able to handle rejection. Think of it like being a starlet in Hollywood. Anything worth having requires work and persistence.
Another note: just like the Hollywood horror stories, you do NOT have to sleep your way to the top. You are also well advised to avoid unproven handlers. While there are some professional talent agencies and agents, be wary and pay attention if you choose to go that route.
Have a professional still photo and video portfolio done.
Your past performances are calling cards for future work. Be sure you have professional photographs and videos to show prospective clubs. In addition to showcasing you, thoughtfully produced videos also show patron reactions. Be sure anyone appearing as such in your video has signed a release allowing you to show them and their likeness. When producing a video, never pay these extras to depict audiences. If nothing else, shoot a sequence in a closed setting at the club with family and close friends as “audience actors.”
Have shtick or a way to stand out from the rest.
If ever possible, find something that makes you DIFFERENT and special from other performers. Performers in every endeavor tend to have lanes. The ones who play all kinds of different roles in Hollywood tend to become character actors. They will find lots of work but never become stars. You on the other hand crave stardom, so you will need a hook, an advantage. Find it and use it. If you cannot find it, work to develop it.
Practice, practice, practice!
Lastly and most importantly, like any professional athlete or performer, practice makes perfect.