COCOA, Fla. -- A Cocoa strip-club owner is suing for the right to have his dancers perform without any clothes.

For the second time in four years, Tavas Siram's exotic dance club is in the midst of a legal battle with the city, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

Siram claims the city's adult entertainment code is unconstitutional and that the club, called Playmates, is losing money because all-nude dancing is banned.

Attorneys for the city and the club are working to resolve a federal lawsuit the company that owns the club filed -- a suit that contends the city is violating the club's constitutional rights to offer its customers an artistic dance performance.

The suit also maintains that nude dance performances represent a "political and social component of the communication."

Siram wants dancers to be allowed to perform naked on stage, which is prohibited in adult establishments in Cocoa. Instead, dancers must wear pasties and "French cut" bikini underwear, according to city ordinance.

Cocoa city officials contend they are enforcing a city ordinance. They reject the claim that Siram's rights are being trampled.

In the suit -- filed in the U.S. District Court in Orlando by Playtime of Brevard Inc., which does business as Playmates -- naked dancing on stage is described as "non-obscene . . . Plaintiff maintains that the nude human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism . . . Nudity is incorporated as a necessary and integral component of these dance performances. The nudity is not presented merely for its own sake."

Tiram is seeking a change in the ordinance that would allow the club to operate as it did when it was under Brevard County jurisdiction before getting annexed into Cocoa, said Tiram's attorney, Gary Edinger.

Playmates is located in an industrial area on Industry Road, and was one of several properties Cocoa annexed from the county in 2003.

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