Glossary
The words, defined plainly
The vocabulary this industry uses, without euphemism and without drama. Every term here is one that appears in Strip Smart Vol. 1.
- Agency
- A connector between strippers and clubs. An agency maintains relationships with venues across multiple cities and countries and places dancers in them. Most common in Europe — Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Spain — while in the US and Australia dancers typically find work independently. In most arrangements the club pays the agency, and the dancer pays nothing.
- Blacklist
- Informal reputation info about clubs, agencies, and dancers that circulates in every direction, mostly through word of mouth, not an official list.
- Credited Ticket
- An arrangement where a club or agency books your travel on your behalf and deducts the cost from your earnings after you arrive. Useful if you can't cover the flight upfront, with one condition worth understanding: until the balance is cleared, leaving the contract early has financial consequences.
- Floor Hosting
- A role within club staff that involves coordinating the floor — greeting guests, directing them to dancers, managing flow — rather than dancing.
- Gentlemen's Club
- A strip club whose primary audience is men and where performers are predominantly, though not exclusively, women.
- HIV
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Tested for as part of standard STI screening.
- Hostess (Club Hostess)
- A role in certain club environments, common in Italy, Turkey and elsewhere, where the work is conversation and drink sales. Hostesses wear evening dresses and regular heels, earn commission on drinks purchased by guests, and are not required to dance, perform on stage, or undress. The skill set overlaps significantly with strip club work: approaching guests, maintaining engagement, handling limits, managing client expectations.
- House Fee
- A flat fee paid to the club for the right to work a shift. Common in the American pay model, charged regardless of how much you earn that night.
- HPV
- Human Papillomavirus. A common sexually transmitted virus; certain strains are linked to genital warts and several cancers, and are preventable through vaccination.
- Passive Consumption (Clubs)
- A club model in which strippers spend time in the dressing room between stage sets rather than approaching guests on the floor. Guests watch the stage rotation and call for the dancer they want to spend time with, rather than being approached first.
- Private Room
- A separate, often curtained or enclosed area of the club where one-on-one dances or extended time with a guest happens, usually at a higher rate than the main floor.
- Stage Rotation
- The schedule determining when each dancer performs on the main stage during a shift.
- Tribadism
- Genital-to-genital contact without penetration, most often associated with sex between people with vulvas. Carries STI transmission risk and requires barrier protection such as a dental dam.
- VIP
- A private room or separate area of the club, apart from the main floor, where extended one-on-one time with a guest takes place at a higher rate. What it looks like and what it's called varies by club and by country.
These definitions are drawn from the glossary of Strip Smart Vol. 1, where each one is explained in context.