The line of mostly 20- and 30-somethings do as they're told, prancing toward a mirror at the front of the room where a rainbow of feather boas and black bowler hats hang from hooks.

'Roll the hips,' Alieesah Williams, the teacher, says as the women straddle folding chairs, smile and shake their stuff. Directly beneath them, occupying the chairs, the dancers' women friends burst into giggles and avert their eyes as hips undulate inches from their faces.

Soon, the teams switch. Sitters strut, and strutters sit - and that's how the art of the lap dance is taught at Exotic Dance Central, a studio in midtown Manhattan.

'You know, I almost wish I was doing it to a stranger,' says Jennifer Jazmin, a 34-year-old who signed up for the class with a group of co-workers. 'I'm going to see them tomorrow,' she says, laughing and faking a look of horror.

Scandalized or not, Jazmin and friends are on the forefront of a hot trend - the growing popularity of exotic dance for the 'everyday woman.' Fueled by mentions on 'Oprah' and 'The Tonight Show,' plus celebrity endorsements by the likes of Teri Hatcher and Paris Hilton, schools teaching non-professional striptease, pole- and lap-dancing have been popping up over the past several years in Canada, Britain, Australia, and, now, the United States. There's even a nationwide chain: If you're thinking of enrolling, read on - because a wide range of class options exist. Most are in the realm of $30 to $40 a session, and each offers its own mix of dance, fitness, self-empowerment and fun.

Foxy flirtation 'I was booking dancers for $5,000 to $10,000 a night and they couldn't dance,' recalled Donyale Nicola, 31, an entertainment promoter who, along with Williams, 29, founded Exotic Dance Central seven years ago as a school for professional 'gentleman's club' dancers. Then, as now, most exotic dancers got hired for looks first and learned skills on the job later.

Nicola and Williams, a former exotic dancer, took it upon themselves to kick up the quality of dance in clubs a notch or two. Once they got started, they found the bulk of their enrollment came in the fall - when college students return to school and look for a way to pick up extra money. About a year and a half ago, they decided to fill in their off-seasons with classes for non-professionals in striptease, pole-, lap- and belly-dance (www.exoticdancecentral.com).

While the school's professional lessons emphasize the business side of things - how to stay safe on the job, how to deal with tough managers - 'everyday woman' sessions tend to zero in on students having flirty fun. In addition to workout classes, the studio offers both bachelorette and divorce parties, sharing the dance-plus-amusement philosophy of other area schools.

Calorie burn If what interests you in the exotic-dance concept is breaking a serious sweat - the fitness kind - you may want to look instead into striptease-themed classes. 'The focus of the class is really in the core workout,' said Jung, 42, an aerobics and dance instructor who created her class two years ago after visiting nightclubs to study strippers' moves.

'For strip-dancing you have to be really strong in your core, not only straight in your core, but also have fluidity,' she said, noting that she insists that every movement in the workout have a muscle-toning effect.

- Carey King

Copyright © 2006 Newsday.com, All Rights Reserved.

http://www.topix.net/content/trb/28

By Carey King