SM: So who taught you how to strip?
Sheila: Various exotic dancers, erotic dancers. There were no tools or tips or DVDs. I had to go to the clubs, but having been a dance major in college it was very natural for me. It was like “Watch. Learn. Break it down.” There were two specific strippers that I watched and they really encouraged me to go further and further. But the first time I went up there I was so pathetic. I was trying to be sexy. You either live in your body fully for yourself or you make a fool out of yourself. Eventually I opened up this entire part of my body that had been locked.

SM: Was it hard for you to separate the beauty of the movement from the seediness of the business?
Sheila: No. I’ve always been a very female-centric person and I’ve always felt that there was an injustice in the world about the way we saw and treated women. So the minute I walked in, I thought it was just beautiful. The problem was that it was owned by the male culture. I feel like I stole our fire back. It’s like I have a torch and I’m lighting each woman’s torch who comes here to learn. That’s the most poetic way I can think of saying it.