If you are a woman wishing to seduce men and with US$440 dollars to spare, you can now attend an institution unique in Russia, and probably in Europe: Saint Petersburg's first geisha school.
Students, who follow ten-session seminars devoted to "the art of touching," "erotic cuisine" or "belly dancing," come from all kinds of backgrounds and belong to various age groups.
Alina is a pretty 23-year-old brunette clad in flashy leather clothes, while Irina, a tall, blonde, 40-year-old, has been married for 20 years.
"Students can be young girls who want to make a successful marriage, or married women who are afraid they might lose their husbands, but most are successful career women who are not happy with their private lives," said school head Larisa Bogdanova, a 37-year-old redhead and mother of two sons who graduated in psychology and management.
But all have resolved to become "ideal women," fascinated by the example of Japanese geishas, professional hostesses specially in the arts of singing, dancing and conversation.
Geishas perform in tea houses and at private parties but are not -- contrary to a belief often held outside Japan -- fancy prostitutes.
The geisha image sold at the school, however, departs in many ways from the original Japanese concept and focuses to a large extent on eroticism and sex.
"The word geisha should not be interpreted too literally, what we have in mind is an ideal woman who knows how to seduce men and has good looks," said Bogdanova, who set up the school a year ago.
"What we teach is an art of seduction that allows women to attract men and to manipulate them," she added.
Seminars at this school located smack in the center of Saint Petersburg are taught in small groups and in luxurious settings, with some rooms designed to look like an Italian villa, others modelled after a Japanese or an Indian palace.
The key to becoming an ideal woman lies in understanding the psychology of the Russian man and what he really wants from a woman, Bogdanova said.
"For a Russian man, an ideal woman should not only be sexy, but also show concern and understanding, she should be a woman and a lover at the same time," she added.
While it was understandable that women showed an increased interest in their sexuality after years of Soviet puritanism, the way this was done at the geisha school was cause for concern, said Yelena Zdravomislova, a sociologist at Saint Petersburg Institute of Sociology.
"It is sad that women visiting such schools are content with becoming objects, instead of learning how to establish relationships with men on an equal footing," Zdravomislova said.
Student Irina, however, did not seem to share such concerns, saying instead that she was delighted with her geisha school training.
"After 20 years of being married, my husband had totally lost interest in my personality and I was about to get a divorce," she said.
"But now, we are going through a second honeymoon, and he has started to envy me," said Irina, the wife of a businessman.
Although she had already attended 10 lessons, she said she was keen to carry on with her vaginal muscles development workshop, which she described as "terrific."
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