# What does 'dancer' suggest as a vocation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 30, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455 "2016-11-30T14:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/21 "2016-11-30T16:08:42Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > In the area you describe, I’d be inclined to think she probably aspires to be a professional, artistic dancer but currently works at a kids dance studio giving beginning tap and ballet lessons. I Wouldn’t assume exotic dancer or stripper without any additional info. I’d think ‘stripper’ - if you give kids dance lessons, I’d expect to hear that your job is ‘dance teacher’ and not just ‘dancer’. Also, because ‘dancer’ is so often used as a euphemism for ‘stripper’, I’d expect people who aren’t strippers to attach an adjective to it to make sure people don’t interpret ‘dancer’ as ‘stripper’. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/22 "2016-11-30T16:19:28Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Is she from Lapland? A reindeer named Dancer would only be working seasonally. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/23 "2016-11-30T16:30:19Z")
I too would think “aspiring professional dancer” before I would think “stripper.” But then I am very active in community theater, in a town with a university that has a very strong theater and dance program. So I meet a lot more aspiring and/or hobbyist performers than I do strippers. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/24 "2016-11-30T16:49:55Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Is she from Lapland? Her father’s from the Gaza Strip, her mother’s a Pole. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/25 "2016-11-30T16:56:58Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Is she from Lapland? Does she work at fifteen clubs a day? ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/26 "2016-11-30T16:57:06Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > I’d think ‘stripper’ - if you give kids dance lessons, I’d expect to hear that your job is ‘dance teacher’ and not just ‘dancer’. Also, because ‘dancer’ is so often used as a euphemism for ‘stripper’, I’d expect people who aren’t strippers to attach an adjective to it to make sure people don’t interpret ‘dancer’ as ‘stripper’. But - if she is still aspiring to make dancing her full-time job, going to auditions, working small shows, etc - but until then teaching dance is paying most of the bills - she probably doesn’t think of herself primarily as a dance teacher, but as a dancer who happens to teach. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/27 "2016-11-30T17:12:58Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > I’d think ‘stripper’ - if you give kids dance lessons, I’d expect to hear that your job is ‘dance teacher’ and not just ‘dancer’. Also, because ‘dancer’ is so often used as a euphemism for ‘stripper’, I’d expect people who aren’t strippers to attach an adjective to it to make sure people don’t interpret ‘dancer’ as ‘stripper’. This is my thought. The job mix of dancing strippers vs dancing non-strippers in a small city is probably a little biased towards the former. The bias of non-strippers avoiding the standalone term “dancer” to avoid the “stripper” subtext is IMO far larger the other way. OTOH I only have one relevant anecdote and it goes exactly the opposite way … In addition to the dance teacher/instructor doing tap and ballet for little girls as mentioned above, the Midwest is real big on competitive cheerleading. Which is often called “dance”. My wife once worked with a good-looking 20-something woman. The woman always dressed cute and perky, but not overtly sex-pot sexy. Excellent posture, perfect but unobtrusive makeup, etc. IOW, she was sexy as hell in a lithe athletic way. She was fun to watch just walking across a room. Her side gig was working for a small storefront called 'Midwest Dance Explosion". Sadly long since shut down. Midwest Dance Explosion taught cheerleading AKA “group athletic dance” to adorable 5 year olds up through high school aged girls. Lots of bright fancy outfits, big striped hair bows and big hair on small and not so small kids. She called herself a “dancer.” She’d done it from a young age, cheerled in school, majored in dance in college. It was her calling, more like her very identity. Her office work with my wife was just so she to afford to both eat \*and \*pay the rent, not just either / or. She was immersed enough in dancer culture, and Midwest small town innocent enough, that “stripper” just wasn’t on her radar as a possible connotation. So there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/28 "2016-11-30T17:13:21Z")
Here in Austin, there are numerous art/music/drama/dance majors who work as baristas or waitresses or cashiers or sandwich makers or \_\_\_ (fill in the blank). To be sure, there are numerous “gentlemen’s clubs” here, but if I met a young lady who told me “I’m a dancer,” I’d be more inclined to think she was a Twyla Tharp/Martha Graham wannabe who majored in Fine Arts at UT, and who dances professionally when she can, but usually works at a “real” job to pay the bills. Of course, my impression might change depending on how she looked and carried herself. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/29 "2016-11-30T17:21:30Z")
I imagine the dancers who aren’t strippers typically clarify what they mean when they say they are dancers based on the circumstances. It’s unfair to classify all strippers as skanks, off the job it wouldn’t be easy to tell if someone is a ballerina or a stripper simply based on appearance. There’s going to be some cross-over as well. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/30 "2016-11-30T17:30:07Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Here in Austin, there are numerous art/music/drama/dance majors who work as baristas or waitresses or cashiers or sandwich makers or \_\_\_ (fill in the blank). > > To be sure, there are numerous “gentlemen’s clubs” here, but if I met a young lady who told me “I’m a dancer,” I’d be more inclined to think she was a Twyla Tharp/Martha Graham wannabe who majored in Fine Arts at UT, and who dances professionally when she can, but usually works at a “real” job to pay the bills. > > Of course, my impression might change depending on how she looked and carried herself. This. I suspect there are a lot of people out there who identify themselves as being in the arts while making a living doing something else. People who call themselves actors are bank tellers most of the time. A singer may be in a church choir and perform with a band many weekends, but pay the bills as a hairdresser. The person checking out your groceries may identify as a writer. (I will say though that anyone who calls himself an author probably doesn’t do any real writing at all.) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/31 "2016-11-30T17:53:13Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Dance teachers call themselves just that. Not necessarily in my experience. Depends a lot on whether they consider themselves a teacher who instructs in dance or a dancer who happens to also instruct (as well as their troupe work). Most of my wife’s instructors would have just called themselves “dancers” with their instruction part mainly geared towards bringing new women into the community. Plus “dancer” just feels more artistic than “dance instructor”, like “author/writer” versus “creative writing teacher”. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/32 "2016-11-30T18:05:18Z")
“Dancer” meaning “stripper” would not occur to me, but [list=A][li]I have lived a sheltered life, and My wife and I took dance lessons and the teacher referred to herself as a “dancer” and was fully dressed at the time.[/list][/li]Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/33 "2016-11-30T18:21:31Z")
Her being a stripper wouldn’t even occur to me. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/34 "2016-11-30T18:55:01Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/35 "2016-11-30T18:56:58Z")
Stripper. Unless she had the toe out walk of a ballet dancer. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/36 "2016-11-30T19:03:33Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Exactly; if you meet her in person, it probably should be fairly easy to figure out what sort of “dancer” she is. If she’s broke, she’s a regular dancer. If she can pay her bills, she’s a stripper. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/37 "2016-11-30T19:10:53Z")
Shocked no-one’s thought to ask: Is she a private dancer? A dancer for money?.. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/38 "2016-11-30T19:15:08Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > But - if she is still aspiring to make dancing her full-time job, going to auditions, working small shows, etc - but until then teaching dance is paying most of the bills - she probably doesn’t think of herself primarily as a dance teacher, but as a dancer who happens to teach. If you work for a painting company as someone who strips old paint, you can think of your job as ‘stripper’ but would be advised to use a different term unless you want people to think you take your clothes off for money. “Dancer” as a profession with no qualification will read as ‘stripper, but doesn’t want to use the word’ to pretty much everyone I know who’s capable of talking about strip clubs without blushing, because that’s how pretty much everyone who has stripped refers to their time in the field. Also, I think it’s really weird to identify your job aspirationally - someone might just be working as a regular joe to pay the bills but aspire to be manager one day, but saying that your job is ‘manager’ because that’s what you really want to do comes off pretty badly. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/39 "2016-11-30T19:19:24Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Also, I think it’s really weird to identify your job aspirationally - someone might just be working as a regular joe to pay the bills but aspire to be manager one day, but saying that your job is ‘manager’ because that’s what you really want to do comes off pretty badly. You mean, like “actor”? ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455/40 "2016-11-30T19:20:02Z")
Anecdote time, for what it’s worth: I’ve met two strippers in causal conversation. (One in the grocery store, and the other was a classmate in college.) Both of them identified themselves as **exotic** dancers. So just because somebody calls herself a “dancer” without any qualifications doesn’t mean much without more context. The ONLY thing we can safely assume is that she does something that involves physical activity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dancer-suggest-as-a-vocation/773455.md?page=3)