Search - Dancing for Dollars on DVD

This is a CANADIAN production!

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 08/17/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like many documentaries about erotic workers, this shows that they are sentient, articulate people who have goals and make cost-benefit analyses about their choices. Still, these are stereotypically beautiful women, total breathing Barbie dolls. For women and men who like women sexually and physically, you will see lots of body parts, if you don't care for the interviews.

Still, this is a Canadian production and it is soooo radically different from what I would expect to take place in the US. The interviewees stress that they are "dancers" and not "strippers" like their peers south of their border. One woman says "about" in the way we Americans know Canadians for doing. One woman had an accent, possibly Quebecois, that was a bit difficult to understand. These women seemed more interested in putting on a costume show than just shaking body parts.

The men in the audience seemed reserved and didn't seem like they would attack or stalk the dancers. The interviewees spoke of other women having drinking and drug problems, but not themselves. On the one hand, they don't mention club owners or procurers exploiting them. However, they mention having to pay for costumes and travel expenses and I wonder if a male "boss" would be able to haggle for that in contracts in the US. These women go to contests all over Canada and I would imagine that strippers are a dime a dozen in my own country and thus there wouldn't be such wide-ranging contests.

Canada now is more progressive in terms of gay rights and brown sugar usage. However, at least in the 1980s and early 1990s, Canada had very strict adult entertainment laws that smacked of severe censorship to us Americans. I wonder if "dancers" are restricted up there more too. One dancer mentioned that lap dances are restricted. What more can't they do?

Canada is less populated with less crime. Remember when Michael Moore opened Canadian doors to prove they weren't locked? This work seemed to present their erotic workers as being tame and non-edgy and some American viewers may be bored with that."