Monday 9 August 2010

Coco's history -- part 7 -- Dita Von Tesse and my big change



Several things happened in 2002 and 2003, when I was 22.
The first thing was that I finally reconciled myself as a stripper, not a student stripping part-time, not a girl going through a naughty phase, but a full-on, full-time member of the sex trade.

The second thing is that I saw a photo of Dita Von Tesse in Playboy. She was on the cover and she was so gorgeous, so classy and old-fashioned. At this point, she wasn't very famous yet -- maybe in the burlesque world -- but not as a popular figure like she is now.
Also -- and I'm dating myself -- this is before everything on earth was online. This is before Youtube.
I looked everywhere for her videos. And I finally found copies of "Bound in Stockings" and "Naked and Helpless."
I decided I had to see her live. I just had to.

So I used some of my hard-earned money and flew to New York City.
I had never been to New York. I wasn't exactly a small-town girl anymore, but I was still wowed.
And I was so wowed by her. Wowed by the whole place. I really wanted to stay.

Back in Canada, I had long moved from my original strip joint -- the place with the lunch bar my friends and I once went to as a joke as students.
I was working at better places, more like gentlemen's clubs. But I was still a stripper, someone who just took off her clothes for money. And what Dita Von Tesse was doing was an art.

My friend in New York had a little art photo / erotic magazine and hired me as a photographer and writer, and sponsored me to work. Back then, it wasn't hard for a Canadian to get a work visa, even though it was after 9/11.

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