Fluorescent purple and fuchsia lighting set a fantasy mood in the belly of the small theater of the 418 Project at the Foreplay Soirée on a summer August night. Ambient pole play, erotic tarot and lap dancing demonstrations offer sexy inspiration and tempt the guests.
A tattooed female form in a skin-colored bikini strikes sensual, athletic poses on a pole while a woman in g-string lingerie and patent-leather stilettos slinks toward a podium. A massive hunk of a man serpentines along the slick hardwood, making his way toward a woman sitting in a chair. It’s primal, magnetic.
On all fours he crawls sensually toward his objective, slowly lifting his gaze into the whites of her eyes. Arching his spine, his head tilts backwards as he traces his skin with one hand, showing her which part of his body he will accentuate—an erotic dance technique called energy or body tracing.
Circling her, he leans over her shoulder to whisper into her ear, “Do I have permission to touch you? Is there anywhere I shouldn’t?”
The event on Aug. 8 was a warm-up for the 20th anniversary of What Is Erotic?, coming to the 418 Project in February 2026 for the Valentine season. It’s also a preview of a lap dancing workshop this performer is offering in August.
Creating seduction through dance and learning how to navigate the dynamics of consent are key parts of Abracadabra, the Magic of Lap Dance, a workshop led by local dancer Shane Wynn. He’s the operations coordinator at the 418 Project, the Santa Cruz arts nonprofit that has been nurturing performers of diverse backgrounds since 1993.
Almost three years to this day, Wynn checked out of rehab at Janus and began his healing journey through dance.
Rocking a sculpted physique, 6 foot strong, 190 pounds, with rippling abs, bulging pecs and a welcoming smile, Wynn hopes to inspire others to gain confidence in their bodies and in themselves through dance movement. Taking lap dancing out of its traditional setting in a strip club allows for the dance to be reappropriated. “With lap dancing, I am giving people a tool that they can use to put forth the idea that they can be an object of desire.”
Since embracing sobriety, Wynn has immersed himself in crafting his skills as a dancer and teacher. He found refuge and strength in dance fitness, training at the studio daily, accompanied by a regiment of bodybuilding and working out.
“It was very unique to find something that I get a rush and desire from doing,” he says. This new path began after collaborating with dancer Bez Stone in her monthly conscious dance parties, known as The Sauce.
“It’s a sexy party but not a sex party, a place to flirt and learn. Something between ecstatic dance and a bar,” Stone explains. She encouraged Wynn to host his first dance workshop.
At the time, Wynn was also taking dance classes at pole dance studio Steel & Grace and began collaborating with them to host lap dancing and masculine movement classes. “People’s ideas about sexuality and sensuality are different and it isn’t always easy to talk about…it can be easier to dance about them. It feels more acceptable to move and make a display of your body than to talk about sex,” says Em, a dance teacher at Steel & Grace.
For Wynn, the sex industry can be healing for people who “have deep repressed feelings about whether they can be loved. Having venues for them to go out and feel that intimacy—having someone look you in the eye, whether you are paying for it or not—is healthy.”
Wynn specializes in masculine movement, and more recently has brought his approach of sensuality into the largely female-dominated arena of lap dancing to bend stereotypes surrounding this erotic dance and teach others to embrace their sensuality and desires through dance.
Born and raised in Santa Cruz, Shane, 45, was taught to embrace his sensuality and to hustle in life. His mother, a first-generation Vietnamese immigrant, worked in the sex industry as a dancer during the Vietnam War. After meeting his father in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), she immigrated to the US.
“My past has allowed me to feel free in what I’m doing. It’s not something shameful to feel comfortable in sensuality,” Shane says. “My mother always encouraged me to use my assets…and there were periods of my life where I was a sex worker.” This form of work was normalized and not taboo in Wynn’s family.
During the three-week workshop—which runs Aug. 14, 21 and 28—students develop lap dancing techniques beginning with musicality and movement. Breathing techniques help them connect to the music and allow it to come through their bodies.
The second week, students will explore how to be present and flow within different movements and positions; the third week will focus on choreography and working with someone else in a chair and achieving consent. A technique Wynn teaches to discreetly ask for consent is to circle behind the chair and whisper questions into the receiver’s ear. The dancer will then express their needs and grant the same permissions for themselves or set new directives.
The dance can be practiced as a moving meditation—finding one’s breath, calming the nervous system—and can also help work through childhood trauma by allowing oneself to express one’s own sensuality, Wynn says. “We are always restricting ourselves from what our deepest pleasures are, but when we discover consent, we are able to discover our true desires,” he explains.
The Abracadabra workshop runs Aug. 14, 21 and 28, 6:30–8pm, at the 418 Project small theater, 155 River St., Santa Cruz. Drop-in participants are welcome on any one of the days. No prior dance experience needed. It is co-ed, 16 and up, $35 per class (or sliding scale). Wear sensual attire; kneepads are recommended. To sign up, follow Shane Wynn on Instagram: @dancing_wynn.
The 418 Project will celebrate the 20th anniversary of What Is Erotic? with nightly shows at 7:30 and 10:30pm on Feb. 13-14 and 20-21. Anyone interested in performing or volunteering — i.e., to do stage makeup, work as a stagehand—is invited to an informational meeting on Sept. 21 at 2pm in the 418 Project lobby. Call 466-9770 or visit the418project.org.
