The title is a very rough translation of an epitaph of an early dictator from the Roman Empire (Sulla). It seems to be an accurate description of the way dancers treat each other. I get to hear arguments from both sides. Dancers either seem to be the best of friends or mortal enemies. The sales environment dancers have to work in helps create the. I’ve never gotten use to the competitive nature of sales I work in. Where I work there is a limited resource for support sales. We only have so many parts and demonstration units to go around. For the most part everybody tries to cooperate, but if situation arises the sales folks have no problem stabbing each other in the back. The mantra is “its better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission”. Sorry man, I had to a chance to make a commission and had the demo.
The dancer’s environment is even worse than what I work in. While the sales folks have to compete over demo resources, their territories and pay structure is very tightly defined. Dancer’s however, have to compete with each other for pretty much everything. This ranges from seats in the dressing room to customers on the floor to the outfits they where. Who they follow on rotation, who goes on stage next to them also can affect the night’s income. Dancers have the ability to affect each other income on many levels. When it comes to money things get very emotional very quickly. There are so many ways for dancers to conflict with each other.
On the flip side, I don’t think anybody but another dancer can really appreciate what a dancer goes through. This is true of a lot of jobs. When I listen to people talk about their jobs, it doesn’t always sink in the level of which their job touches all aspects of life. I’m probably more informed than most folks about the job of a dancer, but I can’t say I truly understand. I think this is even more true when people think the job is morally wrong. Dancer won’t judge another girl purely because she’s dancer. I think this creates a higher level of camaraderie than most jobs.
Because of the higher level of camaraderie I think dancers feel I much more intense level of betrayal when something goes wrong. Hell hath no fury like a women’s scorn, and things go to 11 when it’s a pissed off dancer. In an odd sort of way, its similar to dating somebody you work with (in some cases with dancers they are dating). An intense personal conflict at work is a miserable thing. You have to go to work. You have to pay the bills. You can’t avoid the conflict.
When you add alcohol and pressure of sales conflict almost becomes inevitable. I’ve seen blow ups occur from simple miscommunication. Two dancers had just done a VIP for a big spender. He had tipped them very well. They were sitting at my table when they talking about the amount of the tip. Each girl was talking about a different number, yet neither girl realized it. They were both really happy about getting a tip above and beyond the normal VIP fee. It was an awkward moment for me, I decided that it would better for me to point this out and risk the getting caught in the middle of fight than play dumb. One (or both) of the girls had to be wrong, maybe if they talked about while it was still fresh in their minds nothing would happen. I told them what I heard, and then watched as they looked at each other; one said $200, the other said $300. Both nodded their heads in agreement and changed the subject. I’m not sure what each other heard. Later on when it came to split up the money things went bad. Really Bad. Neither one ever came back to me to ask what I heard. Perhaps they didn’t want to involve me or maybe they didn’t hear me either.
Sometimes I’ve seen dancer form into cliques that support each other work. An example of this is the Dolphin 5. They formed a consortium of sorts. They always worked together and to some degree managed to take control of the club. A few girls got run out of the Dolphin after getting crossed up with one of the girls. Usually the just protected their own interests, but occasionally we’re bullies that chased off girls they didn’t like. They managed to not turn on each other. That was back when money was really good though, I’m not sure how well they’d hold up now with money so tight.
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