Striptease, the tantalising dance pioneered by Salome in the Old Testament, is an art form that ranks with opera and ballet, according to a Norwegian court. As a result, strip clubs will be freed from paying the country’s hefty 25 per cent VAT.

The ruling has been a triumph for the young women of the Diamond GoGo Bar in Oslo who had complained that they were being disadvantaged compared to tax-free sword swallowers and stand-up comics.

The last straw came when they heard that tickets for the Chippendales, a male strip act, were exempt from Value Added Tax because of their artistic merit. The Norwegian Council for the Equality of the Sexes took up the strippers’ cause.

"I believe that stripping clearly is an art," said Julianna Skartland, a stripper who appeared as an expert witness during the hearings. "We strippers work hard and many have a solid background as dancers and have to succeed in auditions in order to be hired."

The case has been bouncing back and forth between the courts after a district court ruled in favour of the strip club in May 2005. The state of Norway appealed to the High Court - and this week lost again.

"Striptease, in the way it is practised in this case, is a form of dance combined with acting," said the judges who ruled on the matter, thereby comparing the act to other stage performances which are exempt from VAT.

The Norwegian state is considering whether to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

It was not clear whether the three judges had conducted field research before reaching their verdict. Certainly they made a clear distinction between "banal and vulgar" striptease - in which there is physical contact between dancers and the audience - and artistic dance.

"It can hardly be questioned that striptease is entertainment," said the High Court verdict. "Most people would characterise striptease as an artistic activity."

The question of the artistic value of striptease has been raging since the late 19th century. The first professional stripper was a Parisian, Yvette, who in 1894 stood on a music hall stage and pretended to undress for bed. The artistic content came in the act of undressing rather than in the nudity, which was often brief and incomplete.

The American Burlesque theatres borrowed striptease acts from the French. The most daring acts showed Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils - complete with a papier-mache version of John The Baptist’s head - as if to underline that striptease had respectable roots.

There has always been tension between strip clubs and the law, with strippers constantly searching for ways of outwitting eagle-eyed undercover policemen. In 1923 New York ruled it illegal to reveal a breast while in motion. This forced strip clubs to try out various avoidance strategies.

The Oslo ruling could create a renaissance for striptease in time for Norway’s long dark winter. "This will mean a lot economically for all those working in striptease," said Miss Skartland. "It will be cheaper to visit strip shows and the customers will pour in."

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