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Just saying hello
Hi ladies, I just discoverd this board. I wish there would've been something like this around when I used to dance. I have been "retired" for 10 years. I danced from the time I was 16 until I was 26, mostly in the state of Illinios. I did work briefly in Orlando and very, very briefly at club in Nashville (all of two weeks.)
It's nice to meet you!
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Re: Just saying hello
hi welcome to sw... you posted this in the wrong section though..
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Re: Just saying hello
Oops, where should I have posted it? Sorry about that.
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Re: Just saying hello
There's a section titled "Coming Out" on the forums. But anyways, good to meet you! Dancing is still fun, but it's changed a lot since the late 80s/early 90s, with the introduction of lapdances, house fees, more girls performing extras, etc. You say you stopped dancing at 26...what was the reason for retiring? Did you start working a "regular" job? I'm 23 now and I'm looking to dance part-time alongside a full-time job, and possibly get out of dancing in a few years. Just curious as to your experiences and things. :)
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Re: Just saying hello
Hi PhillyDancer,
Well, like most dancers who stay in the business for years, I just slowly burned out on it and I began to crave a quiet and boring lifestyle. lol. I also had a young daughter at the time and I didn't want her to know what her mommy did to pay the bills and I figured it was time to find a nice man and settle down. About a year after I stopped dancing, I met and married the most wonderful man in the world and he also had a daughter. So, now we have two teenage daughters and our 5 yr old. I did work a regular job for the first couple of years and then I became a stay at home mom and my husband opened a home improvement business. Now days I just help with the office stuff. Nothing too exciting, but I'm very happy.
I'm sure a lot of things have changed in the last 10 years. There are a lot of new clubs on the East side and whenever I pass them, I'm just in awe at how nice looking they are. Everything is so elaborate now. We had lap dances and had to tip out everyday when I worked though Philly....we were also hit with fines if we missed a day or was late. But, we didn't have people who did our make-up or hair. Wow, that would've been nice. :)
You say you're 23. That's a good age to start thinking about what you need to do when your dancing days are over. The older I got, the harder it was to compete with those 18 and 19 year olds. I wish you the best of luck with your decisions.
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Re: Just saying hello
hello i am glad to meet you i also danced for 3 years have been retired for 3 years also i really like this site also
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Re: Just saying hello
Welcome to SW from another retired dancer!
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Re: Just saying hello
MovedOn -- That's why I asked about how/why you got outta dancing, because I'm looking to do that too pretty soon. I initially started dancing because I had a lot of money problems and the biggest one was not having enough money to finish college. So essentially I started dancing as a means to finishing college, and I just got my math degree last year. Since then, I've been looking for jobs and dancing at night to support myself. I've had a really difficult time securing a job(it's always been my biggest insecurity about myself), but I found something recently that has a lot of advancement potential in something related to an aspect of my field(finance/business). Plus, there's a strong possibility that I might be able to get a job at a fine dining restaurant to supplement the field-related job(which is part-time right now, with potential to become full-time later on). Just for fun, I might still dance a few shifts/week alongside those two jobs(lol I like to stay busy! :)), but I'd prefer that dancing be for extra side money, as opposed to my primary source of income.
All this time, I've had the career motivation but lacked the opportunities, hence my getting into dancing to support myself. But now my luck might actually be turning around(I hope so! I hope I don't jinx it for myself lol!), so I'm wondering how much longer I might want to dance, that's why I was curious about your experiences. Just curious, what field did you work in right after you stopped dancing? And by the way, what you said about being a stay-at-home mom and helping with the office work for your husband's business, is exactly what my mom did...she had 5 of us...and I think it is a really good idea because now that I look back on it, I'm glad my mom was always around 24-7 when we were younger. It sounds like you are really happy with your life and I applaud you. :) Good luck with everything. Hope to hear back from you soon.
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Re: Just saying hello
welcome! it's interesting to hear that you had many of the same crap to deal with as we do now...i thought a lot of that stuff (lapdances, fees, etc) were new.
i'm 25 and i sure as hell hope i've got a few more years in me because i don't know what else to do!!
welcome to the boards!
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Re: Just saying hello
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Re: Just saying hello