The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1922-02-09
DANCE PARTNER
unique CALLING
Squire of Danes Latest New
York innovation.
OCCUPATION is PROFITABLE

Women Visitors to New York Employ
Dancing Partner and Entertainment
Escort-Type, It Is Said, Is Born,
Not Made-Must Be Conservative
in Dress and Demeanor-Has No
Decisions as to Boundaries He May
Not Cross.
New York has many night workers
who earn their livelihood by providing
necessities or Injuries for the dWellers
within its gates, and among those who
follow the White Light path of effort
to provide the luxurles there is one
who Is almost unique. His business is
that Of acting as dancing partner and
entertainment escort for unattached
women, especially those from out Of
town. He is not a lounge lizard-one
Of those plastered-hair youths who
haunt the CabaretS at night, ostensibly
as dancing instructors, and bootleg
or deal in coke" by day. Nor is he a
hanger-on, in cOrseted dinner jacket
and razor-edged trousers, in the So
called dancing academies of Broadway.
There are only half-dozen Of these
squires of danes, of many danes and
also damosels, in the metropolis, for
the type is born, not made, and must
have a peculiar mental equipment and
rather unusual traits. Conservative
ness in dress and demeanor are two Of
the most prominent characteristics are,
in fact, second to their foOtwork in the
rating of their assets. Their services
are not sought by the fapper or the
women who habitually feed on the jazz
| of the cabaret rather than its menu.
! They are in demand, and the demand
| exceeds the supply, from the many lone
women, young and middle-aged, who
/ come from all parts of the country for
a taste of metropolitan life and have
never learned to dance, or at least to
dance what are popularity supposed to
be the newest steps.
These women stay at the best Of
New York's hotels, are well supplied
with money and not infrequently are
of high social standing at home, They
may, it is true, obtain instruction in
dancing from the hotel hostess, who
usually combines exhibition dancing
with instruction, but her rates are $40
an hour, and she doesn't lead the way
| a man does. What woman wants to
learn how to dance with a woman If
she can help it? Moreover, the visit
ors are seeking more than the ability
| to dance; more than to be able to re-
turn home and display to admiring
| friends a fox-trot variation directly
| imported from the Great White Way.
| They want to dance with a man on
that Great White Way, be part Of it
for the time being.
Finding the Right Man.
But the finding of the right man to
one unacquainted in New York is not
easy. He must be one who viii not
take advantage of a woman unused to
| it's ways; who will be deferential with
| out appearing to be a paid attendant;
| assured in bearing but not pOssessive;
| with whom the woman can appear at
/ the best restaurants without exciting
unfavorable comment, and whom,
! should she meet an acquaintance from
| her home city, she can introduce as
! New York friend without the certainty
of unpleasant gossip. Our squire Of
! danes, our host-abOut-town, doesn't ad-
| vertise, his name is not on file at the
| hotel information desk and he has no
office.
He makes his headquarters in a Ger.
tain public dance hall, conducted on
large scale, where those who can dance
| do so to their hearts content at small
cost and where those of either sex who
seek education in dancing can get it
for a nominal sum without binding
| themselves to pay for an entire course.
/ Here the squire Of danes is an instruc-
tor, a purely nominal position, which
/ opens the door to those activities
which give him life Of leisure, enter
| tainment and good income. The Wis
! itor knows he is an instructor because
| his badge tells her so. He is mOdestly
| but carefully dressed in business garb.
| Posted notices inform her that his in
| struction charge will be whatever she
chooses to give him in addition to the
regular fee charged for dancing. He
collects a small commission from the
management for each dance.
In a manner that is purely business
! like and impersonal he asks her if she
cares to dance or wishes instruction.
She does. She finds him a patient and
sklllful instructor, with a manner
which impresses her as placing him a
shade above the position he occupies
| She does not know that, with the care
fulness born Of experience, he has
picked her as liberal payer and th2t
If she fails to meet his expectations he
will be too busy to give instruction to
! her on the morrow. He gives his at
tentions only to those who reward him
with fee not less than 81. The in
struction continues the time comes
| when the woman feels that she can
dance at a hotel supper or cabaret or
a society ball without exciting pity for
! her clumsiness. Her feet itch to foot
! If on some such floor.
Engages an Escort.
But where the escort, where the
dancing partner? The only one she
! knows is her instructor, and who could