Licence to dance
Research on the erotic dancing industry has given dancers more information on workplace safety and their rights, improved working conditions and influenced the licensing policies of local authorities. By Dr Teela Sanders, Dr Kate Hardy and Rosie Campbell
W
HY HAS LAP DANCING become an acceptable work and leisure option and what has led to the integration of sexual consumption
into the night-time economy? These were the core questions of the project ‘The Regulatory Dance’ (Sanders and Hardy, 2011) – the largest study into the erotic dance industry in the UK. The study focused on dancers’ experiences in the industry, specifically on working conditions. We surveyed 197 dancers who had worked in 45 towns and cities across the UK, asking about the last four clubs where dancers had worked to cover as many clubs and standards across the industry. The survey results were then qualified by interviews with 35 dancers and 20 other people involved in the industry (including bar staff, security, ‘house mums’, managers and owners) and 15 regulators (including licensing and enforcement officers, health and safety inspectors and the police).
24 SOCIETY NOW SPRING 2012
Our research found that the majority of dancers had made a decision to dance as a flexible, relatively high-earning (although unpredictable), cash-in-hand form of work. Dancers generally reported high levels of job satisfaction and described both advantages and disadvantages of their work. Most women did not report any violence and felt safe in their workplace due to security, but they did report persistent unwanted touching and harassment from customers (nearly half reported frequent verbal harassment and unwanted touching from customers). There was no evidence of organised prostitution or trafficking/forced involvement, although some migrant workers were paying more than the normal rate for accommodation and organisation of their work. The key issues for dancers did not include gender exploitation or experiencing their work as a form of sexual violence, which is the primary argument of some feminist lobby groups against
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