Taxi Dancers

By Laura Fraser

San Miguel de Allende is a lively place for people who love to dance. On almost any night, you can hear strains of salsa, bachata, and cumbia drifting from doorways of clubs in Centro. We have world-class Latin musicians here and many talented dance instructors. There’s only one problem, which this town is famous for: not enough men.

It’s common to go out dancing and see women sitting on the sidelines, dressed in heels and a flirty skirty, waiting for offers to dance that never come. Even experienced dancers who have lived here for a long time and know the regulars have problems dancing more than a few dances per night. There just aren’t enough leaders for all the followers—particularly for women who are old enough not to be asked on the basis of their looks, but ability.

When I first came to town, over a decade ago, I was already a dancer but not a salsera. I started taking private lessons with a friend in my African dance class and started to pick it up. I took more private lessons in town and became more adept. But despite hundreds of hours of dance lessons I still sat on the sidelines. Finally, I asked my first teacher and friend if I could pay him to take me dancing in a club because dancing to live music with people is part of what makes dancing so fun. I took dance lessons with him at clubs for a few years. I’m sure people in this gossipy town thought we were dating, but I didn’t care. We were just dancing which for me was all that mattered. I don’t pay him anymore because now I’m teaching him a few moves sometimes. 

The tradition of hiring a partner to dance is nothing new. It dates back to the late 1800s in the Barbary Coast district of San Francisco. There, in the midst of the gold boom, women were scarce and those who could dance were nearly unicorns. Clubs initiated the practice of selling men tokens, which entitled them to one dance, and miners and sailors flocked to the clubs. In 1913, San Francisco prohibited dancing in any café or saloon where alcohol was served. Club owners responded by opening “closed dance halls,” which didn’t serve alcohol, and didn’t allow women—except taxi dancers. Taxi dancers then spread to other cities in the United States, and the women typically made more money in a few hours than a female factory or store worker would make in a day. Men would pay female “taxi dancers” for a spin; the song “Ten Cents a Dance” dates back to this period.

For the most part, taxi dancers have always been women but recently, as fewer men have realized what a social advantage it is to dance, there’s been a new trend toward male taxi dancers. In particular, tango dancers in Argentina offer their services to foreign female tango dancers who come down for vacation and to improve their ocho cortados. Salseras from the U.S. and other countries also visit Cuba on dance trips where local men are typically paid for classes in partner dancing whether timba or rueda (dancing salsa in a circle while a leader calls the moves). 

I’ve been to Cuba, where dancing is in people’s blood, and have studied Cuban salsa which is more grounded, less flashy, and incorporates more African-based movements, like rumba, than “salsa en linea” which is more suited to a ballroom than a street corner. My particular favorite dance is son, which is languid and contra-tiempo, or against the beat. Puerto Rican salsa starts on the one, New York salsa starts on the two, and son starts on the eight or four, against the beat. As many excellent dancers as there are here in San Miguel de Allende very few dance son. So, I took more private lessons with local Cuban dance instructor Yunier Veranes who is from Santiago de Cuba.

Recently, Yunier asked me if I would help him create a Cuban salsa event in San Miguel. We planned on teaching classes in Cuban dance but also to host some events. “What we need in San Miguel de Allende,” I told him, “Are taxi dancers.” So we are bringing experienced Cuban salsa dancers to town from Querétaro, Celeya, and beyond and paying them to dance with all the women who show up. For once, we’re going to even the numbers in this town. And no one is going to sit on the sidelines.

Salsa Fest San Miguel is holding a Socialito with taxi dancers Saturday, June 10 at Hacienda San Miguel, Libramiento Jose Z. Zavala 6, 250 pesos, at 7pm, dance starts at 8; and on Sunday, June 11, is a Tarde Cubano in the Sindicato, Recreo 4, 150 pesos, at 7pm. All tickets include access to the taxi dancers.