City cites downtown club over lap dance

In Boston, an exotic dancer can dance near someone's lap, but they cannot make contact with the patron and the customer may not touch the dancer. But someone forgot to tell that to a dancer at Glass Slipper Gentleman's Club, police said. Detectives John DeVaney and Kevin McGill were conducting a “licensed premise inspection'' of the Glass Slipper on May 9 when they said they observed a female dancer getting a little too close to a patron in a third-floor lounge. The dancer, who was clad in a G-string, was performing a lap dance on a male patron and making physical contact with him, according to police. And that's a no-no under city licensing rules. The detectives filed a report, and the city issued a violation. “Touching is forbidden. It's absolutely forbidden,'' said Daniel F. Pokaski, chairman of the Boston Licensing Board. Club management went before the Licensing Board yesterday and offered a mea culpa, taking responsibility for the dancer's behavior and promising that it would not happen again. “We don't want to go back to the bad old days of the Combat Zone,'' Pokaski said. He said that Boston, like other major cities, is bound to have strip clubs, but he doesn't want to see a return to Boston's tawdry past. The Glass Slipper, located downtown, and its neighbor, Centerfolds, are the only strip clubs in Boston and among the last vestiges of the Combat Zone, a red light district that emerged in the 1960s. It largely disappeared in the 1990s with the construction or renovation of theaters, shops, and condos. Pokaski said the clubs have had no serious problems in the past year. The Glass Slipper will probably receive a warning, he said. June 9, 2010 [view link]