empowering (exotic) dances

EXOTIC DANCE CLASSES AT CCs FULLY BOOKED
Shake your booty, sexy madam

By Zubaidah Nazeer
ST, June 05, 2005.

THEY gyrated their hips and swivelled in sensuous, tantalising moves, flicking their hair seductively now and then.
Auditions for Crazy Horse cabaret?

No, just ordinary Singaporeans getting a taste of Exotic Dancing, right in the neighbourhood community centre.
Mostly office workers in their early 20s to their late 40s, the 20 women paid $28 each for a 75 minute trial.
Though Exotic Dance has been around since last February when instructor Linna Tan, 30, began her first lessons, it was the first time that this saucy dance is hitting the heartlands.
And the women are lapping it up.
Classes in several community centres are fully booked and the People's Association is planning to offer more sessions.
Nee Soon East CC, Yuhua CC, Kreta Ayer CC, Hougang CC and Bishan North CC are starting full six-classes sessions from this month.
More trial sessions are also being slotted at CCs like Toa Payoh CC, Pasir Ris Elias and Bishan North CC and Thomson CC.
At Bishan North CC last Tuesday night, the women were eager to shed their inhibitions and try out the seductive moves (sorry, no males allowed).
To the pounding beats of Beyonce's Naughty Girl, Madam Melanie Chng, 43, and Ms Raine Goh, 25, thrusted their chests forward, sucked in their tummies and wriggled their booties.

SOME SELF-CONSCIOUS
Some of the women muttered 'Waah' as instructors Ms Tan and Ms Audrey Ho, 31, demonstrated the Hooker Walk - sashaying sexily with the hips swaying from side to side.
And there were giggles when they were shown the Figure Eight, a move in which they had to grind their hips in a figure eight motion while lowering themselves in a squat.
Next, they were coaxed to run their palms upwards from their pelvis while doing the Figure Eight.
Ms Yeo, a human resource executive, said: 'I just felt self-conscious because of the seductive and suggestive moves, and I could not coordinate well.'
But seeing Madam Chng, a mother of two, gamely moving spurred her on.
The last routine which required them to bend down and slowly raise their heads while touching their inner thighs, ending with a body wave, got them all excited.
A few covered their mouths and some blushed, saying 'Oh My God'.
But no-one walked out - a few even wore a sexy pout while dancing.
Ms Felicia Ong, 43, a book-keeper, and her friend Jennifer Tan, 44, an administrative manager, were among the few who stayed back to ask Ms Tan for more demonstrations.
Said Mrs Tan, a mother of two teenagers: 'It's a good way to occupy my time and work up a sweat.

'This kind of dancing makes me feel feminine and young.'
Others like Madam Chng, who knows belly-dancing, just wanted to try something different.
She said: 'I don't think it makes anyone feels slutty. The instructors helped us feel sexy about ourselves and look graceful.'
She said her husband had asked if she was attending a gym session.
'I didn't tell him much. I thought I'll just surprise him on his birthday!'
Grooving into self-confidence - that's hot

BBEING sexy is hard work.
At the class held at Bishan North CC, I self-consciously kept myself at the back.
Sure, I love dancing, but what would I need those sexy moves for, I thought.
I thought it was somewhat risque to stick my behind out, wiggle it from side to side, and perform other Salome-type moves.
But the instructors saw things more positively.
The dance will build more self-confidence, improve the posture and deportment but most of all, empower the woman.

Wow! Inspiring, I thought.
So I willingly plunged into the calisthenics.
The instructors told us to be open and energetic. Self-expression, they exhorted.
But I felt a bit squeamish.
Squirming inwardly and feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious, I moved my hands up awkwardly up from my pelvis, in one sequence, and closed my eyes as instructed, to 'feel the move'.
I cheated and peeked into the mirror in front to see how ridiculous I thought I looked.

SLINKY? I WADDLED
Hip Rolls and Figure Eight were easy for me as I had done those in belly-dance class before.
I floundered at the Hooker Walk and flicking my hair. I was waddling in an unstable manner like a penguin.
But seriously, doing sexy moves in this class may have seemed daunting and hard, but it wasn't impossible.
I had learnt moves which would make any woman love herself for having curves. I now can move a little more lithely and stand a little straighter and taller.
Most importantly, knowing that I could move slinkily without inhibitions has empowered me.
Now THAT is sexy.