Strip fitness class teaches the power of exotic dance

by Erin Cole | March 5, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

“Shake your butt,” called out instructor Meagan Fladwood. Seven women and one man in a flannel shirt complied, trying to catch sight of their form in mirrors bought from the closing Macy’s department store.

This was the scene at Strip Fitness the Birds & Bees sexual health center’s first dance class Monday night. In a Hellgate Canyon studio, dancers swayed under dimmed lights to the beats of Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne. It’s the first of many different kinds of dance classes the center will offer, according to the company’s founder, clinical sexologist Lindsey Doe.

“Once we get eight people interested in a class, we’ll start it up,” she said.

Strip Fitness was the first class to garner enough interest. This doesn’t surprise Fladwood, who has danced and taught in Miami; New York; Portland, Ore.; Seattle Vancouver, B.C., and Missoula.

“Missoula has been the most open-minded town,” she said. “I’ve had more exotic dance curriculums here than in any other town. Now that the taboo has started to settle, people have been crying out for it.”

Fladwood trained in ballet as a child, but found her calling when she saw the television show “In Living Color.”

“I saw the Fly Girls dancing and knew it was what I wanted to do,” she said of the show’s dance troupe. “My parents thought that all my years of ballet were going down the toilet, but it paid off.”

This becomes apparent when watching Fladwood lead her class through various floor work motions. She moves with the flexibility of a classically trained dancer, yet displays the sensuality of a pole dancer. She tells her students, many of whom haven’t attended a dance class since they were young, to not worry about their skill levels.

“This is not ballet or modern dance where you have to be technical,” Fladwood said. “You want to have fun and groove to the music, and no one wants to look the same.”

Instead she encourages students to watch her to learn the basic dance pattern and then put their own creative stamps on it.

“It’s a great outlet for women to rediscover themselves as powerful beings,” she said. “Let the natural girl come out.”

Fladwood believes exotic dancing allows women to reconnect with their bodies.

“You learn all sorts of things about your body,” she said. “Women get uncomfortable when they look at themselves in an exotic or sexual way. I encourage women to get narcissistic. Make sexy eyes and check yourself out.”

Fladwood feels rewarded by her dancers’ progress.

“After the first class it all synchronizes so beautifully,” she said. “It’s very good to see the evolution in self-confidence.”

Fladwood says the class provides a great workout alternative to treadmills and weight rooms.

“We don’t really stop moving,” she said. “One movement always hooks to another and you get a workout without even realizing it.”

Well, perhaps a few classes need to pass before this happens, because the class emitted a chorus of groans during a series of deep plies.

“I can already feel it,” Doe said at the end of the class, rubbing her quads.

Lou Winkler, the lone man of the group, said the class altered his view of exotic dancing.

“I have a better appreciation of a woman’s anatomy and how they work to move like that,” he said.

Future University of Montana student Jesslynn Smith found the class “super, super sexy.”

“I’ll be back next week,” she said.

A complete list of classes and registration forms can be found online at http://www.aboutsexuality.org.

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