Friday, 29 September 2006

A-go-go boys, coyote girls (part 3, final)


Crowd-pleasing coyote dancers can make good money. Bort, 21, dances on the counter at the Forte club in Rachada soi 4, close to RCA.

She has been a coyote dancer for three years, and uses the money to pay for her university studies and support her family. At first her mother did not approve. However, Bort took her along one night to show her what was involved. Finally Bort's mother gave her blessing.

The most money she ever made in tips in one night was B20,000. On average, she makes B3000 in tips a night. This does not include the cut she gets from drinks which customers buy for her. The girls at the club get 80 baht or more a drink, depending on how many they sell.

For her birthday, customers bought her 80 drinks. Adding her average tip income to the B10,000 base salary she gets a month, Bort makes B40,000 to B50,000 a month.

Coyote dancers often enter the industry by word of mouth. A young woman who is aready a coyote dancer and knows someone she thinks would look good on stage might persuade her friend to join. However, once in the industry, some find it hard to leave again.

At a friend's suggestion, Cherry, a Bangkok tertiary student, applied to work at a nightspot in Ramkamhaeng, where she was promised earnings of at least B12,000 a month. She started work the same day she applied.

'From the outset we reached a clear understanding that coyote dancers would only have to dance. I would not have to go down to talk to the customers, because at this place there were three levels.

'The first level was a pub and cocktail lounge, the third was a karaoke bar where ''partners'' are able to talk to customers. But after just three days, the mamasan, who looks after the ''partners'', called me over to meet a friend, a customer from level three.'

She tried to sit some distance from the man, but the guy edged closer, and tried to paw her leg.

'I had to find a way to get away. I stood up and sang him a song. Eventually I told him I had to return to the stage, even though I was still on my break. But he wouldn't stop. He asked for my phone number, and then asked for a hug. He also tried calling me back to sit with him again.'

Cherry decided to quit the job, and leave the night entertainment industry as well, even though she had always enjoyed dancing. Now in the second year of a bachelor degree, she said someone from a pub had tried to persuade her back, but she refused to go.

'He assured me there would be no repeat of that incident, but I decided I must sever my ties. I was worried I would get swallowed up by the system.'

The Manager piece ends on a more positive note than the current affairs show. It says while a-go-go boys and coyote girls may not yet have won public acceptance, Thais should refrain from judging people on face value. Instead, they should consider why young ones entered the night entertainment business in the first place; what they do there, and how it affects the way they interact with the rest of the world.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for this article. I wasn't aware that these club dancers had become so widespread lately.

    So they don't go home with patrons and they send all their money to their families? Maybe, maybe not... can't expect them to say anything else in an interview.

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  2. One young coyote dancer in the Manager piece admitted that some girls do go home with customers, and as I said in the article, clubs have adopted various policies in response to that. So so yes, of course it does go on. They might just play harder to get.

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Comments are welcome, in English or Thai (I can't read anything else). Anonymous posting is discouraged, unless you'd like to give yourself a name at the bottom of your post, so we can tell who you are.