No Dance Skills “Whatsoever” Required Of Exotic Dancers Anymore, Study Claims

6:00 pm, April 11th | by Amy Tennery

The economic downturn has affected virtually ever career imaginable. That much is obvious. But a new study shows it’s also affecting how club owners hire female exotic dancers. Namely, they’re not interested in exotic dancers who can actually dance.

The study, the result of a nearly-200-lap-dancer survey in the U.K., is apparently “the largest research project of its kind into the strip club industry in the U.K.,” according to the Yorkshire Evening Post. A 200-person survey is really the best we can do? This is kind of sad. But wait, it gets worse.

The survey found that a critical lack of dance skills in the lap dance community, most notably because owners are “demanding more money from their performers” — lap dances being one of those non-essential, disposable-income types of things. (Of course, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not the only industry that hasn’t bounced back — and sure, “non-essential” means different things to different people.)

The researchers, based out of the University of Leeds, explained the no-dance lap-dance situation this way:

“[We found] it was unnecessary to have any dancing skills whatsoever, let alone the ability to do athletic tricks on the pole. The core skill necessary shifted from performance to hustling for private dances.”

And with that, pole dancing inches closer to life relegated as a 40-bucks-a-pop fitness-class fad, and the preferred workout method of topless television starlets everywhere.

TAGS: dancers study | exotic dancing skills