Inside Berlin’s Strip Club “We’re not here to be saved”
- Filip
- May 23
- 4 min read
Somewhere between the neon glow of Berlin nightlife and the grit of everyday hustle lies Slut Riot — a collective of strippers, performers, and sex workers refusing to be defined by anyone but themselves. Want to book your own sensual experience? Check out: Sensuali
In our new short documentary “Inside Berlin’s Strip Club Scene”, I walk into a velvet-lit club not just as a reporter, but as a student. My teachers? Edie Montana and Mei Magdalene — two dancers who don’t just move bodies onstage, they move conversations around labor, sensuality, and self-expression.
It’s not your typical strip club narrative. There’s no leering voyeurism here. Instead, this is about agency, art, and what happens when erotic performance becomes a feminist act.
“We’re not here to be saved.”
That’s one of the first things Mei tells me backstage, between polishing the pole and using it for a good stretch routine.
Both she and Edie speak with clarity and conviction about the work they do—not in spite of the fact it’s sexual, but because of it. “People love to moralize our jobs,” Edie says, “but they don’t really understand the skill, the negotiation, the boundaries we have to uphold every night. That’s labor.”
Their collective, Slut Riot, was born out of frustration: with mainstream media narratives, with the exploitation that can exist even within supposedly ‘liberated’ spaces, and with the lack of tools for sex workers to tell their own stories.
Now, they host everything from workshops and community fundraisers to stag parties or pole dance and lap dance classes and performers, where the lessons or simply the FUN goes far deeper than movement.
“You learn how to take up space,” Mei says. “You learn your own version of sexy.”Booking Your Own Sensual Experience
Here’s the thing: watching Edie and Mei work the pole from a few feet away is one hella thrilling experience. It's more than talant, it's taking over a room, being the room, filling up the whole attention of the room with a sultry presence that's non-refundable. Learning from them is something else entirely.
As part of this collab that were doing with the sensual experience provider platform: Sensuali, we documented part of it — where I (Amanda) even took a class myself....Yes, I got on the pole. Yes, I attempted a dance. (And yes, it’s much harder than it looks.)
Sensuali is a platform where you can book sensual experiences face-to-face or online — including pole dance lessons, lap dance workshops, tantra massages or BDSM experineces and many other kink-positive, consent-driven offerings.
It’s built by and for people in the erotic space. That means: no weird third parties, no judgment, and clear terms from the start. It’s sex-positive, inclusive, and designed for those of us who want to explore new fantasies without crossing boundaries.
If watching me fumble through a floor routine isn’t motivation enough, take it from Edie:
“Seduction is a practice. You don’t need to be born with it. You learn it.”
Behind the Glitter: What Sex Work Really Looks Like
Throughout the shoot, we talk about the myths that haunt sex work. That it’s “selling your body.” That strippers don’t do real work. That power only lies with the customer.
Slut Riot shatters that.
These performers don’t just know how to read a room — they know how to control it. They share tricks like how to spot a timewaster, how to command attention without even speaking, and what makes a client unforgettable.
And when we asked whether they’ve ever fallen for a client? “We fall for ourselves,” Mei smirks. “We’re the fantasy.”
Stripping As Reclamation — Not Performance
What happens when eroticism stops being something you do for someone else?
That’s the energy Slut Riot brings — and it’s what I felt even as a beginner trying to find my footing in 6-inch heels.
Being onstage, even briefly, was less about showing off and more about showing up: as a body in motion, as a woman learning to flirt with gravity, as a person stepping into a version of power that isn’t aggressive, but deeply embodied.
As Edie put it:
“There’s a fantasy that stripping is always about male desire. But when you’re dancing for yourself — or for someone who sees you as a full person — it becomes something else entirely.”
How to Try It Yourself
Whether you're kink-curious or craving connection, booking a session through Sensuali is how you step into your own story. It’s where play, pleasure, and personal growth meet.
Ready to learn from the pros?
Book pole dance classes, lap dance workshops, and more with Mei, Edie and others on Sensuali — your guide to sensual exploration, safely and on your terms.
And if you need a little inspiration first? Watch our new doc here:
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Written by: Amanda Sandström Beijer
