LOS ANGELES — Thick Strip is known for its body inclusive strip shows in Los Angeles that celebrate plus sizes. The shows provide a space for performers with curves to embrace the art of erotic dance while audiences cheer them on.

What You Need To Know

  • Thick Strip shows feature plus-size dancers

  • LA Times reporter Sonia Sharp spoke to performers who said the crowds at Thick Strip were so loud they “couldn’t hear the music"

  • Sharp added that "most people who end up on the stage start out in a workshop"

  • Thick Strip has upcoming performances at the Ace Hotel in downtown LA, and is working toward opening a brick and mortar location

LA Times reporter Sonia Sharp went to a show to find out more about this inclusive space and joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to talk about it. 

Thick Strip Enterprises is behind the shows. Sharp talked about the classes and workshops they also provide. 

“Most people who end up on the stage start out in a workshop. These workshops start at about $90 for the first set and they go for several weeks. People come in to learn how to first just be in touch with their body and move. ... It’s a looser, more improvised movement. You have to really be in the moment, be in your body, be in the space,” she said.

Categorizing the show as one with “thick” dancers, Sharp explained, was a conscious choice.  

“We don’t even really have the language that we want to speak about bodies that are the numerical majority in the United States. Most people would fit into this category. And yet, nobody likes the word obese. That’s the medical term. Even overweight is a very fraught term for a lot of folks... The term that now is very popular for a lot of folks, that’s a positive term, is ‘thick,’ which is a term that comes from the Black community,” she elaborated.

Sharp spoke to performers who said the crowds at Thick Strip were so loud they “couldn’t hear the music.” She talked about the community the dancers have formed with each other and their audiences. 

“The music was quite loud, but the crowd, people were so excited. They were screaming. People cry because they’ve just not seen themselves reflected. It’s a lot of the same folks who were in the audience that look very much like the folks who are on stage. And it’s a really joyful fighting, exuberant experience, both for the performers and for the audience,” Sharp shared. 

Thick Strip has upcoming performances at the Ace Hotel in downtown LA, and is working toward opening a brick and mortar location.

Watch the full interview above.

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