Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994 TAG: 9404250158
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The suggestive dancing of a bikini-clad woman at a Roanoke nightclub was described Friday as the work of both a professional artist and a barroom stripper.
Roanoke General District Judge Richard Pattisall decided it was the latter, ruling that Kathi B. Price's performance did not fall under an "expressive dance" exemption to a city ordinance regulating nude or exotic dancing.
Price, a dancer at Girls, Girls, Girls, was convicted of dancing too close to patrons during a Jan.7 performance at the Franklin Road nightclub.
Both Price and club manager Billy Hooker Harbour, who was convicted of aiding and abetting in the performance, were fined $250 and given 10-day suspended jail sentences.
They plan to appeal, setting the stage for a jury trial in the first test of a Roanoke ordinance that some say violates the First Amendment rights of dancers like Price.
"This was not just a random gyration," defense attorney Lance Hale said as he asked one witness to expain the constitutionally-protected message in Price's performance.
Price, 24, testified that her dancing was the product of years of training and hours of rehearsal. But to qualify as expressive dance under the city ordinance, it must also include an "expression of theme, story or idea."
Asked what theme or idea her dancing expressed, Price responded: "To bring joy; to bring happiness."
No one claimed during Friday's hearing that Price's attire, a french-cut bikini, was in itself a violation of the ordinance. The illegal part came when the bottom of her outfit slipped as she executed a kick step - leading to what Harbour's attorney, Melissa Kane, has called "the case of the wayward wedgie."
Price was dancing in front of a table at the time, violating a provision of the ordinance that restricts such dancing to an elevated stage equipped with a 4-foot barrier to maintain a distance of at least six feet between dancers and spectators.
L.S. Carver, an agent for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department who observed the dance, testified that Price's exposed buttocks were within six inches of a patron's face.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel said there would have been nothing illegal about Price's dance had she not left the stage.
"We're taking a small stand, a small step, to separate her from the customers to make this somewhat less graphic," Nagel said. "It's hard to imagine something more graphic than exposed buttocks just inches away from a customer's face."
"All we're doing in this case is seeking to prevent this type of dance in a customer's face."
Hale said there have been no "table dances" at Girls, Girls, Girls since the night of Price's arrest.
Price testified that she was requested to perform a dance at a table where one patron was celebrating a birthday. She testified that she selected the song, dance steps and lighting - suggesting that the performance carried an individual statement.
But no one who testified during the hearing could explain how the dance was different from any of the others performed by Price and other dancers at the club.
"She just gyrated her hips and moved in suggestive ways; her normal dancing," Carver testified.
In appealing her conviction, Price is expected to stick with her contention that her performance was covered by the expressive dance exemption to the city ordinance, which was passed four years ago.
Expressive dance is defined by the ordinance as having "an expression of theme, story or ideas, but excluding any dance such as, but not limited to, common barroom type topless dancing."
by CNB