Turns out, in Jersey City a bump 'n' grind can get you fined.

City attorneys effectively shut down a burlesque show planned for Wednesday night after telling the owners of Newark Avenue bar FM that they might get hit with a penalty for violating local obscenity laws.

Lillian Bustle, who would have starred in the performance, said she's mystified. The burlesque queen has produced and starred in 19 burlesque shows at various Downtown Jersey City venues since 2012.

Bustle said she and her fellow performers generally strip down to pasties and G-strings. If there is the occasional flash of a bit more, she said, what's the difference?

"It's silly," she said. "If you're showing this much skin, an inch more of butt or underboob is not going to make a difference."

The specific code that would have been violated, according to a letter Corporation Counsel Jeremy Farrell sent FM's owners, bans "any display of a specific anatomical area contained in a life performance which by means of posing emits sensuality with sufficient impact to concentrate prurient interest on the area or activity."

Farrell said in the letter that "contemporary community standards" would interpret burlesque as obscene.

FM's owners would face a $2,500 fine and losing their entertainment license if the show was deemed obscene.

Farrell sent the letter to FM's owners on Tuesday. Bustle said it was hand delivered.

Bustle said she gave FM the OK to cancel the show because she did not want to get them in trouble with City Hall. She hosted a different show at the Grassroots community space on Coles Street instead.

"All buttocks were covered," she said.

"Dancing" Tony Susco, who books events for FM, said he has not spoken with Farrell yet so he did not want to speculate about what led to the obscenity claim.

"Other places have hosted it, so it was a surprise to us," Susco said.

The Jersey Journal reached out to Leona Beldini, the former Jersey City deputy mayor who once performed on the burlesque circuit as Hope Diamond, to find out what she thought of the city's action.

"I think it's ludicrous," said Beldini, reached by phone. "With what is on television, what kids can get on games, what is in the movies, oh, that's ludicrous. City Hall. They should shut themselves down. And stop raising taxes."

Mayor Steve Fulop responded on Twitter after this story posted online.

"Legal Dept is very prude," he wrote. "For what it's worth I would have attended."

The episode harkens back to one from 1956 when then-Mayor Bernard J. Berry banned a rock show from coming to Roosevelt Stadium, citing fears the teen crowd would start a rock-feuled riot.

"There's a feeling here in Jersey City that this rock and roll rhythm is filled with dynamite," Berry said. "We don't want dynamite going off in the Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City."

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.