they've invented a new late-night sport down in houston. it's called couch dancing
You walk past a line of white, long-wheel-base limousines, with chauffeurs waiting, talking, smoking cigarettes. This is Houston, where people have money to burn--or, to use the old term, discretionary income, and, for that matter, indiscretionary income. It is the home of a new form of erotic entertainment in the fine tradition of topless go-go dancers and mud wrestling. Something called couch dancing.
A sign at Sugar's entrance explains:
You may not touch, Handle or Fondle your Couch-Dancing Lady. If so, She will be Fired Immediately and you will be Barred from the Club. Have Fun and Enjoy Our Exclusive Adult Entertainment. Couch Dancers Dance for Gratuity Only.
Thank You, The Management
You enter the door and are almost thrown back by the rock 'n' roll. Who needs a bouncer when you can just turn up the bass? The d.j. is hot and hustling: "Let's hear it, you animals out there. Coming out with a little bebop deluxe. La! Di! Da! She glows in the dark, fellas. Time to party, get a little couch dance. The ladies will give you the details. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"
The photos on these pages, taken by our eyewitness news team of Robert Scott Hooper and Theresa Holmes, show the ladies "giving the details" to clients at Caligula XXI, one of the largest and most luxurious of the couch-dancing clubs in Houston. There are at least three others--Sugar's Déjà Vu, Sugar's Club Cheetah and Sugar's by the airport. The rules are fairly simple: Customers cannot touch a girl above the knee. Usually, a guy holds on to her ankles. Girls are not allowed to touch the guys or they face a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior. A girl simply asks a customer if he would like to dance, and if he asks how much, she must say, "My good customers usually give me a ten-dollar tip." What happens after that is art. The girls average between $200 and $500 a night. Somewhere in those figures lurks a lesson in supply-side economics, trickle-down theory, Reaganomics. There has not been a more interesting, or therapeutic, use of couches since Freud practiced his craft in Vienna all those years ago. It makes us wonder--if Dallas is the number-one show on television, can a cable show called Houston be far behind? We'll leave you alone with these pictures for a while. Now, about that business trip you were planning for next month. . . .
