Thursday, September 19
1:00 to 2:15 pm (ET) Online

Hosted by : SCARSDALE ADULT SCHOOL

Class Fee: $ 30 Online via Zoom

Hollywood films of the 1940s & 1950s helped earn women the right to swim freely for fun and fitness. Tracing a century of aquatic performance from circus acts to the Olympics, Valosik reveals how colorful swimming spectacles forever changed women’s (and men’s) relationship with water. Once forbidden to swim alongside men and required to wear cumbersome swimwear to hide their legs, female swimming pioneers defied society’s expectations of what was permissible for their sex. Far more than bathing beauties or “mermaid queens,” they ushered in modern bathing suits, improved swim instruction, reduced global drowning rates, and turned synchronized swimming into an important Olympic sport. Valosik will recount fascinating stories about the athletic joy of “fancy swimming” and why it still matters for viewers and everyday swimmers today.