NATASHA THE LAPDANCER
When there’s no poles to dance around, Natasha uses her head
NATASHA THE LAPDANCER
Natasha is just one of thousands of beautiful women who have turned up on the Costa del Sol to seek fame and fortune. Many end up working in the brothels and ‘clubs’ that provide prostitutes, but Natasha says she would never sell her body for sex. Instead, she’s found a niche at a nightclub where the customers can look at girls, but definitely not touch them.
Natasha is a pole dancer. She’s happy to gyrate and wriggle in front of an audience of men, often golfers who swamp the Marbella area all year round because of the good weather and numerous courses. As one of her bosses explains, ‘Golfers tend to be cautious souls who travel in groups and fear that their friends might tell their wives if they visited a brothel, so many of them prefer clubs like this one where it’s just a bit of good, old-fashioned, harmless fun.’
Natasha is 24 and comes from Latvia, and she agrees with her boss’s explanation. ‘I am not a prostitute and would never have sex with a man or woman for money. I am a professional dancer and I am very proud of my skills. In many ways I am an artist.’
Club customer Jim, from Northamptonshire, doesn’t necessarily consider Natasha to be an artist as such, but at least he respects and appreciates girls like her. ‘I’m here with some mates for a few rounds of golf. Of course, it’s nice to pop into a club like this and look at the girls, but that’s all we do. I’m not interested in hookers and nor are any of my mates. But it’s certainly nice to unwind after a hard day’s golf by having a drink and watching the girls dance.’
The Esta Noche nightclub in Marbella where Natasha and at least a dozen other girls dance each and every night is considered ‘eccentric’ by many local Spaniards. As one explained, ‘In Spain, brothels are openly run. There is even one just a few hundred yards from Esta Noche, so it seems crazy to run a club where the men can only look at the women. What is the point?’
But staff at Esta Noche are convinced that the club has tapped into a previously unknown market. Says one manager, ‘Look, guys coming here on golfing holidays don’t all want to sleep with hookers. We’re offering an alternative. What’s wrong with that?’
Meanwhile, up on the club’s stage, Natasha is wrapping her thighs around a pole and simulating sexual intercourse – in the nicest possible way, of course. She makes a point of looking deep into the audience, hoping to catch the eye of a wealthy punter who might then splash out €100 on a tip, or even buy a bottle of Dom Perignon and offer her a glass or two. But she insists that’s definitely where she draws the line.
Natasha is then joined on stage by Fran from Derbyshire. She’s a buxom blonde who turned up on the Costa del Sol a few months earlier after plying her trade at one of London’s best-known pole-dancing clubs, just off Oxford Street in the West End. ‘It’s much nicer out here,’ she tells me. The people are cooler than they are back home. We don’t have any problems with pig-headed customers who think all the girls are just easy lays.’
Fran lives in the same apartment block in nearby Fuengirola as her friend Natasha. They are small studio flats, but both girls say their standard of living has greatly improved by being on the Costa del Sol. ‘Back in Latvia I lived at home with my mother,’ Natasha tells me, ‘unable to afford to move out because my job in a factory barely paid me enough to afford to even go out more than once a month.’ Now she has an English boyfriend whom she hopes to marry one day, and she believes her career as a pole dancer will provide far more opportunities in the long term. ‘Look, I work relatively short hours. I earn a thousand euros a week and I can send some of that back to my mother. I am very happy here.’
Since starting dancing at Esta Noche in 2002, Natasha has concluded that the kind of men who frequent such clubs are ‘basically good people. They respect us as women and that makes this job a lot easier.’ But does her English boyfriend mind her working at such an establishment? ‘He’s not that happy about it, but he knows I would never go with any of the customers. He wants me to get a nice office job, but accepts that will not happen for a few years yet.’
However, working from 8pm until 4am does play havoc with Natasha’s social life. ‘Obviously I have little time to make new friends. I don’t tend to get up until about twelve midday and I have to leave here for work at seven each evening.’ Natasha uses much of her spare time painting pictures of … nude women! ‘I am fascinated by the human body and, by painting pictures of naked people, I find myself trying to perfect my skills as an artist.’ Friends have told Natasha she has genuine talent as an artist, and she hopes one day to persuade a local gallery to hold an exhibition of her work. But she is very realistic about her artistic future. ‘I know I will probably never make a living from my paintings, but I feel very lucky to be able to dance and paint. It’s a wonderful combination.’
Surprisingly, some of Esta Noche’s customers are female. ‘It might surprise many people, but we get women coming in here too. Some of them are in hen parties passing through, but there are a number of regular female customers who come here at least once a week.’ Natasha believes that some of them are genuinely interested in studying the girls’ dance techniques. But she does admit that ‘Some of the older women are definitely gay or bisexual, and they often try to chat the girls up between dances.’
Natasha even recalled how one rich businesswoman returned to the club five nights in a row after sharing a bottle of champagne with her. ‘She was a very elegant older woman, probably in her late forties. I accepted a drink with her and sat at her table the first night she came to the club. She obviously had a crush on me and kept touching my leg under the table, but I did not react and eventually she stopped trying to touch me and seemed to accept that I was not gay. But then she came back the following four nights and got very upset when I wouldn’t sit down with her at the table again. She even sent me a note asking me to meet her after the club closed, but I ignored it. Then on the fifth night, as I was leaving the club, she got out of a chauffeur-driven limousine and tried to persuade me to go to her hotel with her. I refused as politely as possible, but she got very angry and started shouting at me and calling me names. Luckily one of the club managers came out at that moment and calmed things down. I’d never realised until then that women can be just as aggressive as men if they want sex.’
Natasha is completely anti-drugs and insists that she drinks only in moderation. ‘I prefer to stay in control so that nothing bad can happen to me. It’s better that way.’ She even keeps a glass bottle, shaped like a stiletto shoe, filled with potent Latvian liqueur, untouched by her bed as a reminder of what alcohol can do. ‘That drink is the key to everyone’s unhappiness where I come from, and keeping that sealed bottle makes sure I never forget the harm it can cause.’ Both Natasha and Fran admit the probability that most nights many of the customers are on drugs. ‘It’s obvious from the way they behave. But in my opinion, they are stupid because drugs make you more vulnerable. I only enjoy this job because I am sober all the time.’
The dancer is full of praise for the British management of the club. ‘They have created a real family atmosphere. I feel I can talk to them about any problems I have without worrying that they will fire me. Also, most importantly, they never put us under any pressure to be extra nice to the customers. Sure, some of the men and women who come here flash a lot of cash at us, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them all, does it?’
Only recently, a famous English Premiership soccer star visited the club with some friends. ‘I didn’t even know who he was until one of the English girls recognised him,’ Natasha admits. But the star, renowned for his nightclubbing antics in London, soon focused all his attention on Natasha. ‘I was dancing my favourite routine to Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock’n’Roll’ when I got this spontaneous burst of applause. I looked down and it was this soccer player and his friends. I smiled at them – but that was it – and just carried on dancing.’ However, Natasha did admit that, ‘To be honest about it, I was flattered by his attention and I made sure my next dance routine was extra sexy, but that’s just having a bit of fun as far as I am concerned.’
However, the soccer star took Natasha’s sexy dance routine a little too literally. ‘As I finished, he gave me this huge round of applause. It was a bit embarrassing. A few minutes later in the changing rooms, one of the waitresses brought me an envelope. I opened it to find it contained a thousand euros and a note asking me to meet him at his hotel later. I sent the letter and money back to him. The waitress said he looked very disappointed when he got the envelope back, but insisted she take me back the money as a tip even though I was refusing to meet him. At least he was a gentleman. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from girls about other guys.
‘I guess I’ve been lucky compared with so many other girls who’ve come to the Costa del Sol. I’ve got a decent job. No one is trying to exploit me. I have a boyfriend who one day I hope to marry. They aren’t many girls like me out here who can say the same, are there?’