Lap-dancing my way through uni

There are various ways in which students finance their university tuition fees, from selling their eggs to fertility clinics to waiting tables. Darina Sitnikoda, 22, has opted for lap-dancing at Spearmint Rhino, the gentlemen's club on Tottenham Court Road frequented by Robbie Williams, Pop Idol creator Simon Cowell and hordes of cash-rich City boys.

Darina, a 5ft 8in green-eyed beauty, grew up in Chibeliansk, Russia, a goldrich city on the Siberian border. Now studying for her Masters degree in public relations at University College London, she pays international fees of £3,000 a year, plus accommodation, books, living expenses and a loan charged at a higher rate for non-nationals. All in all, she says she needs £16,000 a year.

"To make that sort of money you have to work really hard," Darina tells me in her almost perfect English. "And, yes, I give private dances to men where I am completely naked, but if you create eye contact and smile, the men don't look anywhere else; and they'll definitely give you a big tip."

We are sitting in Spearmint Rhino, surrounded by crude photographs of gormless, grinning women with pneumatic breasts and oiled bodies in various Playboyesque poses. The decor is faux baroque: all gold paintwork and leopard-skin carpets. Darina, who hasn't changed into her G-string and heels yet, is dressed in a demure black jacket with fake fur collar and black trousers. She looks extremely out of place.

She certainly doesn't feel it. She has been lap-dancing for more than three years. She joined the stable at Spearmint Rhino in February, doing four hour shifts three or four nights a week. Her stage name is Racquel. Before that, when she was an undergraduate studying law at Bournemouth University, she worked at Stringfellows at the weekends. She was, she says, "looking for a convenient way to earn money".

The audition for Stringfellows was nerveracking and embarrassing, Darina admits. Girls are required to bring high heels, a G-string and an easily removable dress. They must have a good figure, be supple and are required to gyrate around a pole. They don't have to be great dancers, but they must give off the right "vibe": both friendly and sexy. And, yes, she does have to look after herself - Spearmint Rhino likes its girls to look immaculately groomed. But at least she doesn't have to work out - the dancing keeps her fit.

Focused and itelligent, she keeps to an impressively tight schedule. "I get to work at 9.30pm and start at 10pm. I finish at 2am and I am in bed by three. That means I can always get to college by 10am.

"If I haven't done my homework I get up at 7am and do a little bit then, and do a bit more during my lunch break, between 1pm and 2pm. I go home at 5pm, have a nap, then leave for work. It isn't really appropriate that I should sneak time to do my studies; I would much rather just sit down for three or four hours. I am doing what I have to do."

Darina was 17 when she arrived in Britain in 1998 with her mother, a former recruitment officer in the Soviet army, and her 11-year-old brother. Her father, a former policeman and army officer, was murdered when Darina was 11. "It was my birthday and he was on his way to pick me up. He was the main shareholder of a factory that turned gold dust into gold plate. There was a lot of corruption and he no longer wanted to be involved. So they murdered him."

Nothing in her upbringing prepared Darina for a job in the sex industry. "My background is very conservative. At first, I couldn't get my head around it. But fortunately for me I started out at Stringfellows, which is classy, like it is here.

She continues: "My mother didn't like the idea. She wanted to come and see it for herself, so I took her to dinner at Stringfellows. She realised it's not what you'd think. Now she doesn't mind. She makes knickers for the dancers as well as all my dresses."

Darina told two of her university tutors how she finances her studies and they didn't disapprove either, apparently. "I told two of the younger ones when we were out for a drink and they were like, 'Wow! Spearmint Rhino!' They weren't shocked and they have never looked at me any differently. They already knew me for what I was. Most of the other students know, and if they're British, they're all for it.

"It's different if they're from other countries - for instance, the Muslim women won't look at me. Some people would say what I do is disgraceful, that it denigrates women. It doesn't.

"The men who come here are professionals, they treat you like a human being. The girls here should not be judged. I believe it doesn't matter what you do, it's how you do it. I used to do modelling and I thought it was worse. It's all about sex. Here you have to carry yourself really nicely. We're not allowed to date customers and the customers are not allowed to proposition us.

"I would never call myself a stripper, and if someone else did I would get quite offended. I entertain. I dance for men."

Two hundred girls aged between 18 and 30 work at the club. One of Darina's best friends there is studying medicine, another comes down from Cambridge to work during the summer and at weekends. "I've got friends who are 28 or 29 and are still repaying their loans," she says.

Spearmint Rhino girls pay £83 to the club to dance but get to take home all their tips. Because the dancers are selfemployed, they don't get sick pay or holiday pay. The men pay £15 entry fee, £10 for a topless dance and £20 for a nude dance in a private room. "My friends think when I do a nude dance I spread my legs but I would never do that. There's no touching allowed, except putting a tip in the girl's hand.

"There's a security guard in the private room so you feel safe and they really look after us here."

On an average night, Darina can make £300. Her best night so far has been £2,500. "I didn't work for a month!" she laughs. At Stringfellows, a customer slipped her a cheque for £6,500. "And it went through! It didn't bounce!" she adds, excitedly.

Despite everything, Darina is behind on her loan repayments. She is due to pay another instalment to UCL in January but she doesn't have the money. Finding a deposit to rent a new flat in Fulham, buying her mother a car and paying for a sick uncle in Russia means she has fallen behind. "So from January I won't be studying any more. I don't want to get another loan."

But she is determined to complete her degree next year and to be solvent in the future. "I have my life planned for the next five years," she says.

"In a year's time I am hoping to be here, still dancing and studying. In five years' time I will hopefully have my own house."

Her boyfriend, a 35-year-old British property developer, is "really supportive", she says. "He is 100 per cent there for me." He doesn't disapprove of her moonlighting, but he has not been invited to watch her wrap her long legs around a pole or gyrate naked for all those City boys.

"I don't think it would be appropriate," she says. "I don't go to his work so why should he come to mine? It's not that I am doing something wrong. I just think he would be a distraction."