I therefore had the pleasure of undertaking interviews with several Montreal dancers β Delilah, Dua, and Cleo β who discussed the realities of the industry and reflected on their experiences. This article is a melting pot of their sometimes diverging but often similar observations. One of the interviewees specified however that she had dreamed of becoming a dancer since she was a child.
They all agreed that, in terms of time and energy vs. Nevertheless, like all sex workers, they are impacted by the absence of regulations in the industry. For example, there are no sick days or protections in case of injury. There are so many ways to get hurt or to be put in danger. I have to be careful to conserve my energy and not book too many nights. Otherwise, we can be barred. Some managers pressure us to work a lot of shifts per week; others are more lax. Several of my interviewees also mentioned that dancers are sometimes fired for ridiculous reasons and that managers are often disrespectful toward them.
Dua recounted how one of her co-workers was let go because she talked back to a client who said something racist to her. They also all mentioned the relatively poor sanitary conditions in the clubs. But the interviewees especially underlined how managers and security are generally not there to help them if they need assistance.
When I asked them if their experiences varied from club to club, they told me that the clients are basically all the same, good and bad, but the real difference was between managements.
Managers abuse their power, dehumanizing and denigrating their employees. Some interviewees had been fired for having broken an arbitrary rule or for some other nebulous reason, without warning. For example, one club removed the curtains from the private booths during Covid, and then never put them back. All the interviewees agreed that managements were abusive, although to varying degrees at each place. Cleo commented that she was happy to have started dancing at 25, because she knows how to assert her limits and to not waste her time.
