To the first-time viewer, Club MTV is a riveting spectacle. Talvy approximates it to an updated version of American Bandstand, but says that the description fails to do it justice.

The show features 150-170 people cavorting under flashing tiles and through tunnels, captured by camera angels that magnify their kneecaps and reduce their heads to the size of small peas. In the parallel universe that is Club MTV, men in masks imitate frogs, and blond women are consumed by their hair.

"Club MTV is certainly not one of your more stellar programs on TV," Harper admits. But meeting the other dancers has given him a perspective on life that he doesn't get on the manicured grounds of the Law School, he says.

"I have a lot of respect for entertainers and these people, even more than some of the students I'm at school with," Harper says.

"They are people who seem to me to be pursuing their dreams," Harper explains. "They're models, they're actors, they're dancers. They're just trying to do whatever they can to make a little money and get some extra exposure."

But on Club MTV, dancing is more than a job; it is a way of life. After one taping, says Harper, "we all went to Uno's--and subsequently got banned from Uno's. They were playing music, and we started singing and dancing and disturbing people."

When Uno's played Madonna's "Vogue, says Harper, the Club MTV cast went wild. "People were dancing on chairs."

More Exposure

Talvy agrees that the cast has fun together, but she says the dancers' desire for publicity makes them compete for camera time onstage--something which makes her uncomfortable.

Many of the dancers jockey for center spots on the stage. During filming breaks, "there are people who don't change clothes, or don't get water, or eat a quicker lunch, to get that spot," says Talvy.

And for women on the show, bare flesh is the most effective lure for the cameras. "These cameramen are perverts," says Harper.

"Cameramen will come right over to your breasts and watch them jiggle. There's a lot of tits and ass. It can get really sexist like that," says Talvy.

"There are people who dress just in a decorated bra and underwear," she says. "The motto is, the more exposure, the more exposure."

At first, Talvy says, she wondered, "Is that kind of a rule that you have to dress in bustiers and act kind of slutty?"

For many dancers, that is the rule. In fact, slutty may be an inadequate description of the Club MTV spirit, which is reminiscent of a post-nuclear brothel. People wear very little, and they look very strange. The sleaze factor is considerable.