Books About Dancers
I recently got some new books. Since I like to read books about dancers by dancers I got "Anything But a Wasted Life" by Sita Kaylin. I read through it fast, it was interesting but had little in common with my life as a dancer. Sita worked at Mitchell Brothers (O'Farrell Theatre) in San Francisco for years, a club where I actually auditioned once but did not get hired at and it would had been a very short stint of work for me had I been hired there.....most likely one night or two at the most.
I have been to San Francisco three times, once to audition at Mitchell Brothers, the second time to go to a rave (my fave DJ was playing and I just had to go) and the third to celebrate New Years at the Cat Club.
Me and a German girl I met at one of the first clubs I worked at went to San Francisco after a girl we had worked with started working at Mitchell Brothers and came back to the club one night and told us she was making about $200k/year. She might have been exaggerating a bit but I DO think some girls made that kind of money and maybe even more at that club back in the day. Absolutely.
So me and Constanze (the German girl) flew to The Golden City to check out the club. $200k/year? Yes please! In order to get hired you had to enter their "amateur" contest if I recall it right, which we did. All I remember is a large bright stage and a pole and that I was nervous. I was kind of new to dancing, still shy and just wanted the song to be over with and the lights were so bright I could barely see anything besides a few feet in front of me. I did not place in the contest and neither did I get hired. Constanze on the other hand came in second or third and got offered a job. Afterwards we actually explored the club for a while and it was like nothing I had seen before, then and now. Back then I was new so everything was different but I knew after looking around that Mitchell Brothers wasn't a typical strip club.
The girls working that night had first and last names, their names were put up on a sort of announcement board by the entrance each day. The club consisted of different "rooms" and each room had it's own theme or show put up by the dancers. I remember a large round table that rotated and a room that looked like a movie theatre with porn playing on the big screen. Some rooms had doors which meant the rooms were private. I am not sure dancers would be the right word to use for the girls working there...perhaps entertainers is a better fit. I am sure that there was way more than dancing/traditional strip club style stripping going on there. I mean, when we were in the dressing room I saw a large bucket of condoms. And that is definitely NOT the norm. And after reading Sita's book I got it confirmed that the place had way more activities happening than just stripping. So yes, I am sure that the girls made a lot of money there. But it was not a place for me and not for Constanze either, so we flew home and just continued working at our normal little club. Not even later on after I was more experienced and would had probably gotten hired did I think to go back there and try my luck again. Not a place for me.
Sita's dancer experiences are completely different than mine. I am compared to her a nun in the world of dancing. The book ends abruptly, I think she should had worked more on the ending or wrote a few more chapters. But I will re read it for sure and keep it.
Then there is another book that I haven't read but I saw that the author was advertising it on a dancer site I go on sometimes, "A True Hustler" By Elena R.
Both books are available on Amazon in case you are curios and want to read about fascinating dancer stories. Because fascinating it is.....
I have the blog with plenty of those fascinating stories, so writing a book about dancing will probably not happen for me. Never say never but right now I barely have time for the blog.
I do wonder what happened to Constanze, we lost touch. I especially wonder about the girls I met during my first years of dancing, I remember almost all of them, they made the most impact on me.
I made my own jalapeno lemonade. Simple. And deliciously refreshing.
I have been to San Francisco three times, once to audition at Mitchell Brothers, the second time to go to a rave (my fave DJ was playing and I just had to go) and the third to celebrate New Years at the Cat Club.
Me and a German girl I met at one of the first clubs I worked at went to San Francisco after a girl we had worked with started working at Mitchell Brothers and came back to the club one night and told us she was making about $200k/year. She might have been exaggerating a bit but I DO think some girls made that kind of money and maybe even more at that club back in the day. Absolutely.
So me and Constanze (the German girl) flew to The Golden City to check out the club. $200k/year? Yes please! In order to get hired you had to enter their "amateur" contest if I recall it right, which we did. All I remember is a large bright stage and a pole and that I was nervous. I was kind of new to dancing, still shy and just wanted the song to be over with and the lights were so bright I could barely see anything besides a few feet in front of me. I did not place in the contest and neither did I get hired. Constanze on the other hand came in second or third and got offered a job. Afterwards we actually explored the club for a while and it was like nothing I had seen before, then and now. Back then I was new so everything was different but I knew after looking around that Mitchell Brothers wasn't a typical strip club.
The girls working that night had first and last names, their names were put up on a sort of announcement board by the entrance each day. The club consisted of different "rooms" and each room had it's own theme or show put up by the dancers. I remember a large round table that rotated and a room that looked like a movie theatre with porn playing on the big screen. Some rooms had doors which meant the rooms were private. I am not sure dancers would be the right word to use for the girls working there...perhaps entertainers is a better fit. I am sure that there was way more than dancing/traditional strip club style stripping going on there. I mean, when we were in the dressing room I saw a large bucket of condoms. And that is definitely NOT the norm. And after reading Sita's book I got it confirmed that the place had way more activities happening than just stripping. So yes, I am sure that the girls made a lot of money there. But it was not a place for me and not for Constanze either, so we flew home and just continued working at our normal little club. Not even later on after I was more experienced and would had probably gotten hired did I think to go back there and try my luck again. Not a place for me.
Sita's dancer experiences are completely different than mine. I am compared to her a nun in the world of dancing. The book ends abruptly, I think she should had worked more on the ending or wrote a few more chapters. But I will re read it for sure and keep it.
Then there is another book that I haven't read but I saw that the author was advertising it on a dancer site I go on sometimes, "A True Hustler" By Elena R.
Both books are available on Amazon in case you are curios and want to read about fascinating dancer stories. Because fascinating it is.....
I have the blog with plenty of those fascinating stories, so writing a book about dancing will probably not happen for me. Never say never but right now I barely have time for the blog.
I do wonder what happened to Constanze, we lost touch. I especially wonder about the girls I met during my first years of dancing, I remember almost all of them, they made the most impact on me.
I made my own jalapeno lemonade. Simple. And deliciously refreshing.
I went for a walk tonight as well and stopped by the Justice Center again to see what was happening there. I have so many pictures of what has been going on in Portland since May 29.....it will take me a while to put it all together and gather my thoughts and write them down. You know what's good? Walking, watching and reflecting. I am going to sleep now. Another busy day for me tomorrow. I have a class starting at 10 AM and then my day will stay busy until 10 PM.