A New York strip club has lost its fight to secure tax-free status for its lap dancers by claiming they were artistic performances, the state's top court has ruled.

The New York Court of Appeals in Albany ruled by a 4-3 majority that Nite Moves, an adult juice bar in Latham, hadn't proved to tax authorities that its stage and couch dances merited the exemption granted to artistic performances.

Bloomberg reported that the club, which was required to show that its fees were admission charges for choreographed dance routines, failed to prove that performances qualified for the tax break, the Court of Appeals said.

'It does not matter if the dance was artistic or crude, boring or erotic,' said Smith. 'Under New York's tax law, a dance is a dance.'

The club had appealed an assessment of $124,000 (£78,000) in sales tax plus interest. It then took the case to court, arguing the dances should be tax-free as some of the dancers were trained in ballet, jazz and gymnastics.

'Like the majority and the tribunal, I find this particular form of dance unedifying - indeed, I am stuffy enough to find it distasteful,' Court of Appeals Judge Robert S Smith wrote in his dissent.

The state's Tax Appeal Tribunal discredited an expert witness for the club who thought the performances were choreographed, finding that her testimony was compromised because her view that private dances were the same as those on the main stage, because she hadn't seen them or had personal knowledge of them.

Nite Moves differed from the majority of strip clubs because it doesn't sell alcohol and qualified for different tax-exemption rules.

An administrative court judge had originally ruled in support of the strip club but a New York tax appeal tribunal opposed it stating there was insufficient proof the club should be exempt from taxes.