Career of a Dancer

I've seen some women not even make it out of the dressing room for their first ever audition... I've seen some women leave shortly after the start of their first ever shift and never come back... I've seen some women dance anywhere from a few days to a few months before deciding to move on... I've seen some women dance anywhere from a year or two, up to maybe five to ten years, with some dancing for a specific goal, and planning for the day when they'll move on from dancing to something else... I've seen women dance for quite a few years, some of them happy with dancing, some of them not so much, but in some cases they didn't necessarily have a plan for when they might no longer be dancing... I've seen women who started out dancing, then later moved into the management side of the business when they were ready to hang up the high heels... Now, if all of that data were put together and turned into an average, I'm not sure I could even make a decent guess as to what that average would turn out to be! It wouldn't surprise me if there are statistics out there already, just like for any other thing that people might do for work. It's an interesting question! So If I HAD to make a wild guess, my wild guess is going to be that the MEDIAN length of time for dancing might be around 12 to 18 months? How the AVERAGE might be impacted by those who dance for an extremely short or an extremely long period of time is tougher for my brain to guess at, which is why I chose to guess at the median...

The thousands of girls who "try it" for a month or less brings down the average a lot. You can take a typical night, ask girls, when I do, 4 months to 20 years.

The lifespan of a strippers career is why if you see something real good, just jump on it.

Anywhere from 1 night to 30+ years. I've seen more than a few in their 50s, and more often than not, the older ones provide a better experience than the young ones. It does seem, though, that they tend to drop out of the game by the late 30s, based merely on my own database of stripper encounters, having come across a smaller number of dancers post-40. As far as the 2-3 year estimate in OP's post, that's far too low, at least if you drop out the ones than stick with it only a few nights. You at least need to account for 4 years of college that needs to be funded with stripper $. I'd say the average skews toward 8-10 years. Some stay 4 years (25%), many get out by 30 (60%) and some continue past 30 (15%).

My ATF's 37th birthday was yesterday, she started at 21.

I say it depends, probably for fresh faced baby strippers probably 5% last beyond a few months , girls that have been around for a few years probably 6-7 years cumulatively, a pretty small percentage maybe 2-5% actually last longer than 10 years, the law of averages just isn’t in favor of longevity for girls in the industry.

While there are many exceptions, most dancers think of it as most people would think of a job in a fast food place. Just the least bad way to avoid sleeping in the park. That's why it's common for dancers to work 3 shifts or fewer per week.

Except that girls can make more money as dancers than at many mainstream jobs, even at 3 shifts per week.

I'm no expert and I don't pay that much attention, but I'd say there is a high infant mortality rate, meaning lots of girls don't make it past a few weeks or maybe months. But, once they cross that threshold I'd say it's longer. They tend to stick around 2-3 years ish.

and there are some that should have retired a long time ago. (or moved on...)

median might be more insightful than mean

Very doubtful that Bureau of Labor Statistics-type, or similarly reliable data is available that would provide a good estimate. For one thing, in most places, the dancers are still compensated as independent contractors rather than employees, which would make their tenure harder to track, especially since so many move from club to club, and even from locality to locality, on a regular basis. Given the nature of the business, somebody who wanted to do an economic or sociological survey would have difficulty getting reliable self-reported information from which to draw broader conclusions. Empirically, I question the assumption that most start at age 19-20. Some jurisdictions don't allow dancers under age 21 and, even in those that do, I rarely see many under age 21. I suspect that a very high percentage of those in that start under 21 flame out before reaching legal drinking age. In my favored dancer demographic, hot women in their 30s and even 40s, almost all I know well claim to have done this that or the other thing for a number of years before turning to dancing, meaning that dancers in their 30s may well have less than 10 years of experience under their thong strap. This seems to be particularly true of recent immigrants. I've never met one who admits to dancing in their old country, which isn't surprising, because there are many barriers to a woman trained in a particular trade or profession finding work in that field here, so they turn to dancing as a preferable alternative to house cleaning or other menial work. The "Golden Girls" I favor seem to be more prevalent in the afternoon when I'm mostly in the clubs, but I'd guess that they comprise 20-25% of the dancer population. With all that, my SWAG (scientific wild-ass guesses) would be that the median and average years of experience are not that different, and probably run between 5-6 years.

Interesting question. I wonder how the answer changes in the clubs I go to, where extras is the norm…

And let's not forget the ones who step away and then return at a later date. One dancer I met 20 yrs. ago greeted me recently. She's in her mid to late 40's, still has a strong body and obviously dyes her hair. She says she works days and is out by 11:00 to get her sleep! (her words)

I’d separate the analysis as a few others have done. It’s certainly not a job for everyone and there’s a high dropout rate of less than 2-3 months. For the girls who make it past that, there are many hazards which cut short the career. Lots of drinking, smoking, difficulty having real relationships, not building credit, not being able to tell family and friends what you do, age making it harder to keep up their looks. That said, if a girl makes it past the initial couple of months, I’d guess the career is often over by 30, with the average being 3-5 years.

There's no universal path to stripping every stripper has followed. It can be analogous to the porn industry. Most strippers are like to people who do one or two pornos and that's it. A few have careers that go into their 30's, like some porn stars. I've known at least three strippers who are like the Nina Hartley of stripping, in that they danced forever, just like Nina made porn forever. The oldest stripper I ever knew is like the porn star who only ever did GILF porn.