Lilith
02-24-2007, 01:40 PM
(gg)
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING, Jan 29 (Reuters Life!) - Treadmills are
run-of-the-mill -- Luo Lan wants the Chinese masses to
pole dance instead.
As manager of Beijing's first pole dancing school, Luo
says she is trying to make exercise fun -- and not
morally corrupt anyone in a country where this kind of
dancing is associated with seedy bars and sex is still
a taboo topic.
But she admits she has had a tough time convincing
people that pole dancing, which has a celebrity
following said to include pop star Britney Spears and
heiress Paris Hilton, is great for your health.
"When I first started people would only come
furtively, and not tell their boyfriends or husbands,"
Luo told Reuters in the apartment she has converted
into a dance studio with poles bolted to the floor and
roof.
"But over the last year, people have started to hear
more about pole dancing, and they know it's purely for
keeping fit," she added, as one of her students in
black hotpants writhed around a shiny steel pole.
"Now people come and say, oh, my husband let me sign
up. This progress is very obvious," she added. "The
more and more people do it the wider the acceptance
will be. They'll see that it's normal and natural."
Luo started her pole dancing school, located in a
fashionable part of Beijing, last July after realizing
that nobody in the city was offering classes in what
had become a fashionable way to shape up and lose
weight in the United States and Europe.
"Lots of girls love pole dancing, but like me could
not find a place to learn. So I spent a lot of time
doing research, watching DVDs," Luo said.
"It's not hard like ballet. It's very easy to do."
Gym membership has become increasingly popular with
China's newly affluent middle class, who are keen to
shape up in a country where obesity levels have risen
with incomes over the last few decades on the tails of
an economic boom.
Luo now runs up to three classes a day, for a maximum
of seven students, who pay 110 yuan ($14.15) a
session.
"I love the feeling, just like flying," said Xiao Wei,
demonstrating a recently learned move. "My legs were
quite fat before, and the results have been very
obvious."
Another student, Yuan Xi, dismissed concerns that pole
dancing is just for bar girls or strippers, adding
that her love of the pole had nothing to do with sex.
"China is a very conservative country, and many people
cannot accept this," said the 22-year-old. "Some men
seem to think it's only about sex, but it's not. It's
about dancing."
(Additional reporting by Kitty Bu)
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING, Jan 29 (Reuters Life!) - Treadmills are
run-of-the-mill -- Luo Lan wants the Chinese masses to
pole dance instead.
As manager of Beijing's first pole dancing school, Luo
says she is trying to make exercise fun -- and not
morally corrupt anyone in a country where this kind of
dancing is associated with seedy bars and sex is still
a taboo topic.
But she admits she has had a tough time convincing
people that pole dancing, which has a celebrity
following said to include pop star Britney Spears and
heiress Paris Hilton, is great for your health.
"When I first started people would only come
furtively, and not tell their boyfriends or husbands,"
Luo told Reuters in the apartment she has converted
into a dance studio with poles bolted to the floor and
roof.
"But over the last year, people have started to hear
more about pole dancing, and they know it's purely for
keeping fit," she added, as one of her students in
black hotpants writhed around a shiny steel pole.
"Now people come and say, oh, my husband let me sign
up. This progress is very obvious," she added. "The
more and more people do it the wider the acceptance
will be. They'll see that it's normal and natural."
Luo started her pole dancing school, located in a
fashionable part of Beijing, last July after realizing
that nobody in the city was offering classes in what
had become a fashionable way to shape up and lose
weight in the United States and Europe.
"Lots of girls love pole dancing, but like me could
not find a place to learn. So I spent a lot of time
doing research, watching DVDs," Luo said.
"It's not hard like ballet. It's very easy to do."
Gym membership has become increasingly popular with
China's newly affluent middle class, who are keen to
shape up in a country where obesity levels have risen
with incomes over the last few decades on the tails of
an economic boom.
Luo now runs up to three classes a day, for a maximum
of seven students, who pay 110 yuan ($14.15) a
session.
"I love the feeling, just like flying," said Xiao Wei,
demonstrating a recently learned move. "My legs were
quite fat before, and the results have been very
obvious."
Another student, Yuan Xi, dismissed concerns that pole
dancing is just for bar girls or strippers, adding
that her love of the pole had nothing to do with sex.
"China is a very conservative country, and many people
cannot accept this," said the 22-year-old. "Some men
seem to think it's only about sex, but it's not. It's
about dancing."
(Additional reporting by Kitty Bu)