I believe the term 'taxi dancer' originates from the early 20th century (1920/30 Depression era) dance hall culture in the US. I believe around the San Francisco area. There's the 1930's film 10 cents a dance with Barbara Stanwyck as a taxi dancer. Maybe ProAm is a more recent, refined, version?
The history in AT is slightly different. One could trace this to early days when tango was danced in academias, pirigundines, brothels, clandestine casinos and bars. The organizer charged every man a certain amount for every six minutes of dance and paid the women a certain amount for the whole evening. The tanda and cortina are also related to this where tin chips were bought and used in payment for a set of dances. In AT it dates from a time when there was a shortage of women in Argentina.
I've come across male taxi-dancers wending their way across Europe. However, in the contemporary form, ignoring any possibility of additional offerings than 'dance', I'm intrigued whether it was just a good/great dance, or whether there was some 'connection'.
