Weird News- Tap into One's Sensuality

[philly]

Posted on Mon, Dec. 09, 2002

Ex-stripper helps students to loosen up
By MICHELLE GUIDO
San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News

BERKELEY - On a recent Sunday night, Susan Bremer and five of her students gathered at a studio to rehearse a dance routine. There was a bank executive, a stay-at-home mom and a medical records technician. They ranged in age from 41 to 68 years old.

Not a typical batch of exotic dancers.

But with Bremer's guidance, they are tapping into the sensuality they say gets lost in their day-to-day routines.

The women wore lingerie, complete with feather boas and gloves, while they followed Bremer's lead through dance moves with names like the ``hip thrust,'' ``sensual slide'' and ``breast shimmy'' to the Marvin Gaye classic ``Let's Get It On.''

Celeste Barbic, a stay-at-home mom from San Rafael who has a 6-year-old son, said she took Bremer's class because she wanted to feel better about herself and get in touch with her femininity. Barbic said the classes have helped her loosen up.

``I have a whole new appreciation for myself and my body, and that allows me to open up more and have more fun,'' said Barbic, 48. ``Feeling good about myself is hard and it's daring for me.''

Bremer was a laser technician at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories when she started moonlighting as a stripper eight years ago. She recently quit stripping to teach the ``art of sensual dance'' as a way for women to feel better about themselves by loving and appreciating their bodies.

Barbic and the others said they signed up for the class -- which costs $250 for six sessions -- because they wanted to boost their self-confidence. Even though they say it's working, many of the women are still wary of letting others know they're taking the class.

``There's a sensual person inside me, but I don't allow her to come out because I'm not comfortable with my body size,'' said Lorene, a married mother of two from Alameda who asked that her last name not be used. ``I've been with my husband for 20 years, and if I can overcome some of this stuff, it'll be another 20 years.''

Bremer acknowledges that the class is not for everyone, but tapping into one's sensuality can be helpful to women in a variety of ways, said Al Cooper, director of the San Jose Marital and Sexuality Centre.

``For quite a long time, a lot of women's value was around their sexuality, and there was a backlash against that -- and rightly so,'' Cooper said. ``Then the pendulum swung a little too far in the opposite way, where women weren't allowed to celebrate their sexuality at all. Now, maybe it's moving toward the center, and I think that's OK.''

[janecallanan]

Leave it to the modern woman to not be able to be sensual without a class or seminar.

[philly]

Why did it take them almost a lifetime to figure it out? Don't they realize how silly they sound? :re:

[Drywall]

This really sounds like something you and me should leave alone. :cl:

[reeb]

Dropwall;

YOU SAID IT BUD!!!!!

enough.............

[philly]

We could look at the flip side of this story and say their men didn't bring out the best in them. Tapping into their sensuality was a learned skill in a classroom environment...

Amazing!!

[janecallanan]

Some's got it, some's don't. if you need a class, I'd say it's nobody's fault but your own. If your man can't bring out the best in you, i'd say teaching skills would be more appropriate.

[Seascamp]

The Mercury News made it unclear whether this was a UC Berkeley sponsored course or not. I would presume so, but who knows. These days, setting up a non-credit course through a University doesn?t seem to be all that difficult and the principal criteria seems to be the revenue generated and that costs are covered. So I would suppose all manner of offbeat but interesting topics can be offered and presented to the community. So long as no harm is done to anyone, I don?t have any particular problem one way or another. The Bay Area and specifically the Berkeley area has been into the ?getting in touch? kinds of topics forever and this one looks to be just one more. If the students are happy with what they are being taught then they are the judges that count as far as I?m concerned.

As an ?Oh Aarrgg? deal, next semester I have to do some course work at UC Berkeley to take care of some required CEU?s. This particular work will be in mathematical statistics and probabilities-the ultimate manmade sleeping pill. But it will be fun to have a look around and see what?s happening these days but I don?t reckon I will be signing up for any erotic dancing classes, LOL.

Scamp

[philly]

Seascamp,

Berkeley is a location where people do try new methods of gaining personal understanding of their lives through medicinal drugs, yoga, herbal remedies, religion and other far out ways of tapping into the spirituality and emotions. As you said, they are the judges of their lives. I thought it to be rather funny and ridiculous for women in their mid life to finally have tapped into their sensuality. The kinder side of me says, "Who cares whatever makes them happy." So you are right, whatever makes them happy is what counts.

I'm not sure if you'd like Berkeley these days. If you get a chance during your stay, I suggest visiting San Francisco. San Francisco has a little of everything art museums, exploratorium, Golden Gate Park, Japanese Tea Garden, SF Zoo, Fisherman's Warf, China Town and more. There's too much to see in one weekend, but you'd enjoy the city.

[JeffL]

"I've been with my husband for 20 years, and if I can overcome some of this stuff, it'll be another 20 years."

What a sad commentary on her marriage.


Jeff