From: Ursa_M Subject: ASSC: AFTSD: Dancer Politics--Personal and Related Experiences Date: Tue, 02 Dec 1997 23:53:14 -0500 Okay so here it is, AFTSD, and I have saved my notes on DP (as the eminent Z Bone has said "Be afraid. Be very afraid") and some related activities this year. For anyone who cares I have been about half time on the East Coast (MD) and half time on the West Coast (SoCal) for the past year. One recent evening I went to the Flamingo Theater in Orange County to see if it had gotten any better. It was Monday night and I knew that TJ's while good generally is pretty dead on Monday. Well I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the Flamingo is on a major improvement kick with many new faces and bodies including some refugees from the Tropical Lei. It seems that one of these refugees had gotten "romantically" involved with someone at the TL which with the inevitable breakup led to her being 86'd for all practical purposes. Desiring to continue in her chosen profession, and I am REALLY glad she did, she started dancing at various clubs including TJ's. Interestingly enough, the TJ's dancers tend to be highly territorial. In other words, new dancers are not exactly welcomed. After some apparently serious hazing, the final straw came when she found broken glass in her dancing shoes. These women were very serious! She decided that she wouldn't continue to risk injury despite the fact that she was knocking down some serious money at TJ's. After that she went to work at the Flamingo and had been there about 4 or 5 weeks before I met her. Apparently, the turnover rate for newbies at TJ's is rather high. Now I know why. BTW on the first night I met this dancer she prevented her friend, another TL refugee from coming over and dancing for me. She preferred to keep me to herself, although I did get some dances from others anyway. I came back the following week to the Flamingo to see her again and to see Christy Canyon who was featuring. The feature bit was okay, but the dances and conversation with Taylor (the dancer noted above) were a lot more fun. It was a weird cross between a date and a normal club relationship. For the second feature set, Taylor sat with me and I had my arm around her. I must say that it was quite pleasant. After that she seemed to decide that I knew the game and had no further problem with me getting dances from her friend or others. She knew that I would be coming back to her for more and she was right. I have since returned a couple of times and there is no question that Taylor knows the business well and is willing to work with her customers. Lots of fun and it was nice to see the DP trail off. One more DP episode that I would like to relate. This was earlier this year at the Wagon Wheel in Baltimore. I think I won't discuss names for this one. I had been getting some extraordinarily hot laps from this dancer that were building up in a very nice way when she suddenly gets up and heads for the stage with no warning. She is gone for a while and another dancer, who had danced for me on other occasions comes by and "finishes up". Okay, so here I am about as happy as possible when the first dancer comes by with daggers in her eyes and says that she wanted to do that. She claimed it wasn't the money at all, even when I passed her a Jackson for her earlier efforts as I made my way out. I thought the two might come to blows, but the second dancer tactfully made her way out of the immediate area to avoid the situation. I have only been back to the Wheel a couple of times since, and have not seen the first dancer again although I heard that she still danced there. I got pretty much wrapped up by a couple of other dancers and would probably not even ask the first dancer for a lap in favor of either of the other two. I am also not at all sure how she would react to a relatively short set of laps. No question that this is a different side to the club experience. In general I have found that since following this ng I have a much better understanding of the scene in the clubs. Rather than making me less interested, the opposite effect has taken place and I find that I enjoy the club experience even more. I enjoy "people watching" and a s-c can be a great place to do that. I also greatly enjoy good quality laps, so tend to frequent places that provide that as well. BTW, Tropical Lei refugees seem to make for a great lap experience! I haven't yet been to that club, but it may be worth the trip. I am certainly happy with the dancers who use to work there. Well, I hope this failed to suck. The many faces of DP seem to include the more overt confrontation or sabotage, along with the more covert activities to try and make other dancers and customers respond in a certain way. It is an aspect of the club experience that is more obvious to me having experienced it first hand. Ursa_M