Patrick Swayze - the original dance host

CNN.com has an article today about Men Who Dance Ladies Around the World, otherwise known as “cruise hosts.”

It reminded me of Patrick Swayze’s character in Dirty Dancing– the original dance host. He was the guy who gave dance lessons by day to the lonely wives whose working husbands left them at a resort in the Poconos. By night, he got the festivities going with a hot mambo performance and then he and his partner would coax the reluctant vacationers onto the dancefloor.

Going back to the article, my favorite thing about the CNN webpage redesign is the “story highlights” which insult our intelligence by summarizing the story into a couple bullets, just in case you weren’t able to read a page of text on your own. Occasionally, with the more banal or bizarre topics, the bullets make for hilarious reading (and in this way you can avoid reading the badly written article):

Story Highlights

  • Cruise ships hire male hosts to dance or chat with single ladies
  • The men can take to dance floor up to 60 times in one night
  • No hanky panky allowed between host and guests
  • Host: One special dance changed a lady’s outlook on life

We all know that Johnny Castle pretty flagrantly broke the rules on bullet #3!

Cruise hosting seems to be a job dominated by retired men (the article doesn’t mention women, but I imagine they’re out there too) who are good ballroom dancers and conversationalists. It sounds like it would be a pretty sweet gig to have in retirement– a free cruise, all the dancing you can bear, and a little income on the side from lessons, tips and stipends.

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