Dancing in Paradise, Burning in Hell: Women in Maine's Historic Working Class Dance Industry

An often overlooked segment of Maine (and American) history is the story of women in the working class dance industries. Generally looked upon with a gasp of shock, burlesque and vaudeville dancing, and later taxi dancing and marathon dancing, were often the only way for women to survive (In taxi dancing, men paid women by the dance; while marathon dancing was a contest and women tried to outlast each other on the dance floor.)
In turn-of-the-20th-century Maine, this new form of dancing was...