Dancers forced to ‘let men grope them’
|Published
21/02/2012. Girls had to wear short skirts Picture: Supplied 21/02/2012. Girls had to wear short skirts Picture: Supplied
A Joburg dancer says she too had to ward off sexual assault after she signed up with a company that set up shows in Turkey.
Her claims echo those of a Centurion teenager who had to be rescued by the SA Embassy after her “dream job” – working as a dancer overseas – turned into a nightmare.
Now working as assistant stylist for one of the world’s leading fashion magazines, the 22-year-old Joburg dancer, who asked not to be named, said both she and her best friend had to secretly arrange with her parents to escape their Turkish ordeal.
A young Cape Town woman, Nicole Warries, spoke out last week about a similar ordeal, saying she too had to battle sexual exploitation after a separate South African company hired her as a dancer in Turkey.
It appears several Turkish clubs collaborate with dance agents across the world to recruit women on dancing and hosting contracts.
Hosting – also known as “consummation”– involves getting club patrons to spend as much money as possible.
The two South African companies, although unrelated, have contracts to supply dancers to Turkish clubs, whose clients are mainly from Russia, Turkey and various eastern European countries.
The South African companies have denied the allegations but the police have confirmed that they have initiated an investigation into the claims.
Speaking about her ordeal, the 22-year-old Joburg woman said she had feared for her life.
She said she was hired in January last year by RT Concerts after responding to an advertisement.
Speaking on Skype, the woman said: “We were excited. We thought it was a good opportunity, but we were treated like meat.
“It was exploitation. We were paraded before rich men old enough to be our grandfathers.
“We were hired to dance and host, but this was not hosting. This was sexual exploitation.
“We told the club owners and the company that we would not do this, but were told that we had to.
“If we refused, the clients would tell us that they had bought us and that we were theirs and if we resisted they would force themselves on us, groping us and pushing their hands down our skirts.
“We had to wear very revealing clothes and dance in lingerie.
“The owners told us if their clients wanted sex, we would have to give the club a commission.
“It was like a brothel and we were pieces of meat waiting to be picked,” alleged the woman.
She alleged she was violently shaken and pushed against a bar when she refused to allow a client to take off her dress.
“I ran, but I was called back into the club.
“I tried to avoid the man but he continued and that’s when I ran away back to the hotel.
“When there was a police raid we had to hide in a ‘secret’ room whose entrance was hidden behind a mirror door.”
Her best friend claimed they were told to let the men paw them, something which both of them refused to allow.
“I would get up and leave the table, but it persisted.
“When we discovered the hidden room at the club with a bed, the first thing we thought was prostitution. The club managers intended to prostitute us.
“Some girls danced topless. It was clear they wanted to sexually exploit us.
“We were advertised as prostitutes and the men would touch us in inappropriate places,” she said.
She said when they told the company what was happening, they were promised the problems would be addressed – “but it never happened”.
“After a month of working there we realised what was happening and got out as quickly as possible. My worst fear was that we would be trafficked,” she said.
Asked why they didn’t contact South African or Turkish authorities, the woman said all they could think of was getting home as quickly as possible.
The stylist’s father said when he contacted the company’s lawyer, he was threatened with legal action.
Blaming himself, he said: “What happened has broken us. I hate to think about what my daughter went through.
“The contracts seemed legitimate on face value, but they were not. The company said we knew what my daughter was getting into, but why would I send my daughter into prostitution?
“I am speaking out now because what happened then is still continuing and I want it stopped.”
Warries said she and five other girls were approached by a choreographer, Caroline Boucher, through a Turkish agent after the agent had spotted her at a Joburg modelling show.
“Our six-month contracts said dancing and hosting and we were shown photos of wonderful hotels in Ankara where we would stay.
“When we arrived at the club it looked like a brothel.
“The men who we had to host got very physical, and although we complained to our choreographer and the club owner, nothing was done. We asked to stop hosting but were told we couldn’t because the club didn’t make money off our dance shows and that we were not there to dance, but to entertain the club’s clients.
“We would be forced to go onto the stage and dance in a provocative manner, many times in lingerie with some (of us) being forced to strip,” she said. Warries was eventually allowed to return home. She hoped other young women would not experience the ordeal she did.
Asked why she had not spoken out sooner or while in Turkey, she said she had been scared.
“I wanted to contact our embassy, but the other girls were against it. I then just wanted to come home as quickly as possible.
“I didn’t know what to do until I saw the recent article,” she said.
graeme.hosken@inl.co.za - Pretoria News