Former dancers… some are professional, some are far from it, and some help us write company policy by their actions.
Raine, one of the originals being one of the later. I mean PD Company Policy was written and amended due to her actions throughout our first 4 years. Sure some changes get made every so often but the bulk of the entire policy was written as she… happened.
For example the “Drinking Policy” was enacted due to one crazy incident that happened in 2001 involving the Caribou Motor Lodge and a cast of characters, the Caribou Police Dept. and of course the star of this story… Raine (Fire Woman).
In 2001 we had booked the Caribou Motor Lodge’s lounge for a 2 night weekend gig with promise of future gigs if things went well.
Your probably thinking… Wow that’s a long way to travel but let me assure you developing these show sites is far from easy. PD booked 2 nights back to back to support the 4 hour trip one way and it was agreed. These first two shows would include 4 dancers to test the waters and the attendance. Ok then… let’s go to Caribou.
Arriving that Friday 3 hours before show time allowing for logistics we took time to settled into the Caribou Motor Lodges comfy rooms. Actually real nice, very accommodating. in the lounge I set up the our show, the dancers being Raine, Cherry, Paris & Passion prepare for work. Please no loose ends ladies, it was to be only a topless show due to it being the first show, the first one. And we didn’t want to scare the customers in Caribou to death (Maine’s bible belt) with anything but a well run event. A nice thought huh ?
Ok… 9 o’clock comes and the show kicks off in pure PartyDancersUSA style, rocking out and dancer previews, tops off and the “696”… ok all good I must say. Everything is going according to plan so far and the crowd is multiplying by the hour and I see all smiles from the owners. Little did I know !
Come midnight I notice Raine is intoxicated. Not good ! I was well aware she had a bad drinking problem and being corrected about it made it worse.
To even mention “Cooling it” will bring the monster to life and she had agreed to follow the rules ?
I continued to watch for a few minutes to see where she’s getting the alcohol because the bar agreed not to serve the dancers… ok watching,… watching… right there ! She’s getting her drinks from the house DJ and he hasn’t a clue what he’s done.
I make it over to the DJ, explain he had better stop feeding her shots… he denied it but he didn’t feed her anymore. To late, the damage is done, Raine is smashed !
How she’s standing up nobody knows and we have 20 mins left. Damn, I decided to shadow her on the floor hoping to avert any trouble she may cause with anyone else who’s in her same condition.
Somehow I manage to coax everyone through the end of the show without major incidents. Phew, finally the dancers are off the floor and upstairs we go to the rooms. Safe !
We’re there for no more than 5 minutes when the party goers who Raine invited upstairs to party after the show arrive knocking on the doors with bottle after bottle of alcohol, mixer, ice and whatever else. Now, I’m not talking 10-15 drunk people expecting to party but realistically like 35-45 smashed up party monsters, half of them not seemingly to know where they are. Now what do I do ? I gave up and invited them in for what I hoped would be a short visit ?
I believe before the moment when the party monsters arrived I had 2 beers all night and once this crowd got to our rooms I opted for no more drinks.
Well, there I am all alone trying to keep an eye on 3 dancers (1 locked herself in the adjacent room) and entirely too many people otherwise.
An almost impossible job but I’m managing up till Raine decides to leave the room and head down the stairs leaving me with an option go after her or keep an eye on this barnyard up here.
Luckily right then an off duty cop who happens to stop by seeing what was happening agrees to stay at this room while I check on Raine. Off I go running down stairs only to make it outside and look… WTF ? Where’s Raine ?
I’m looking, getting worried, thinking the worse and all of a sudden she steps out from behind this guys car. She says “We were getting some more to drink from the trunk of his car”. REALLY, NO SHIT ! This random guy starts to say something and I waved em off while I insist she gets back inside that moment (I’ve got more upstairs to deal with and my patience is long gone). While I’m corralling her towards the door all the while waving off the dude Raine decides to punch me in the face full force ! Somehow I still manage to get her inside the door when she punches me again but THIS TIME we hear “Ma’am don’t hit him again” ! It seems the Caribou Police had been standing pretty close to this whole scene and had watched the action unfold.
The cops are making their way past us at the bottom of the stairwell while they quickly climb the stairs while looking over the railing directing warnings at Raine to keep her hands to home. DID SHE ? Hell no, in fact she said “FUCK YOU” and punched me even harder, this time in the mouth to which one of the cops promptly turns around, ran down the stairs and cuffed and stuffed Raine. BOOM SHE’S GONE !
I just stood back as the Caribou Police cleared out the room, hallway, stairwell and any other place any party monsters were hiding then smiled and turned the room back over to me. I immediately checked on the other dancers who had at my prompting before I left the room insisted they go the adjacent room and lock themselves in till I got back. This time they actually listened, thank you ladies !
I went to bed not thinking about anything but “what the hell just happened”? I woke to two dancers innocently sleeping with me because they were a little overwhelmed by it all. We talked and worked through the upset, decided we would finish the booking if the lounge was willing. I convinced the dancers to return to their room, I made some coffee and before I could enjoy it someone is “KNOCKING AT THE DOOR AGAIN” !
Looking through the peephole I see a uniform and two suits. Hell what now ? Alright I open the door shaking my head… “Hello Gentlemen” “What’s Happening Today”? They introduce themselves, I have the pleasure of meeting the Caribou Mayor, Caribou Police Chief and the Caribou Motor Lodge owner himself. “Can we talk”? they ask ? I simply replied “Yes of course, come in”. A stranger visit I’ve never had out on the road. They were extremely nice, professional, to the point, a little confused about how this all went down BUT and here’s the BUT they saw “Raine” in action which made them sympathetic. I’m not talking about her punching me (They did ask and I refused to offer a statement) BUT when they got her to the Caribou Police Dept. she showed them ‘JUST HOW CRAZY’ she could really be. 
The police chief with a long look on his face explained she had caused roughly $1500 in damage to the cruiser, the station, radios and etc. He then asked me “If I would bail her out, it’s only $60” ? NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Then he surprised me by basically begging me to please bail her out because they didn’t want her ! I didn’t blame them, but I had one more night to in Caribou (The lodge owner agreed) and couldn’t have her around. The police chief said he’d have to transport her to Houlton (County Jail), the Mayor didn’t have much to say, he seem to be just observing this whole bizarre scene. We shook hands and away they went.
We finished up the second night with a great crowd and no problems at all. My face healed up just fine, no damage to anyone else except The Caribou Police Dept.. We’ve been back to the Caribou area many, many times over the later years but for some reason we never performed again at the Caribou Motor Lodge 🙂
Oh, and by the way I called Raine’s sister and met them giving them the bail money to get Raine out of the county lock-up the day we left but NOT UNTIL I GOT BACK HOME, 4 HOURS AWAY !
Thank you Raine for your contribution to PartyDancersUSA. It should be noted she was our first trainer here and a damn good one. And thanks again for helping us form company policy by happenstance so these problems never arise again !
I’ll never forget the time… RAINE DID CARIBOU !
