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Exotic dancing doesn’t qualify for art tax break

    ALBANY — While it may take some skill for a nude dancer to fl ip upside-down on a pole without falling on her head, a New York tax appeals board says that doesn’t raise her gyrations to the tax-free status of art.
    A Tax Appeals Tribunal has rejected a judge’s finding that the Nite Moves exotic dance club in Latham qualified for a sales tax exemption on the grounds that exotic dances on stage and in private booths were “dramatic or musical arts performances.”
    The tribunal on April 14 overturned the finding by Administrative Law Judge Catherine Bennett that a “dramatic arts” exception applied to Nite Moves’ liability for about $129,000 in state sales taxes between 2002 and 2005.
    Bennett had based her decision largely on testimony of a University of Maryland dance expert