Dancer with a cause

Suzette Ackermann fuses belly dance with jazz and hip-hop, making it more appealing to teenagers. [Photo by Ali Ghorbani/China Daily]

Ackermann opened her own studio in 2010 to concentrate on her unique blend of dance and exercise. She calls it Desert Mermaids and teaches a wide variety of classes to adults and children.

Her belly dance classes are fused with jazz and hip-hop, making it more appealing to teenagers. Her classes for youths often culminate in a children's show; this year, it will be held at Y Theatre in June.

Ackermann's lifelong passion for animals has led her to adopt three rescue dogs: Snowball, a Pekingese; Sambuca, a Yorkshire terrier; and Martini, a long hair Chihuahua. Along with yoga, she also teaches private "doga" classes where owners bond with their dogs through practicing yoga with them.

This year, her love for the protection of animals compelled her to join activist Ric O'Barry and a small group in Taiji, Japan. O'Barry, a former dolphin trainer and founder of the Dolphin Project that seeks to educate the public about dolphins in captivity, was featured along with Taiji in the 2010 Academy Award winning documentary The Cove.

As depicted in the film, Ackermann saw first hand how dolphins are driven into an isolated cove in Japan to be hand selected for performing in theme parks. Many that don't make the cut are slaughtered and their meat sold for consumption despite the high levels of mercury known to be present in dolphin meat.

"My mother told me about the dolphin situation before I moved to Japan," remembers Ackermann. "When I lived in Tokyo, no one spoke about it. Now there are more Japanese activists."

She notes that with parks paying up to $150,000 for a trained dolphin, there is a large demand internationally.

"I wanted to see for myself after reading so much about it," Ackermann sighs.

"The whole thing is so consumer-oriented. Some 1,500 dolphins are killed every year. It's cruel. Dolphins don't live very long in captivity and are starved to perform tricks.

"Ric believes that the best way to stop this practice is not to buy tickets for dolphin shows. To me, theme parks are like Nazi concentration camps. I call it the holocaust."

Ackermann will be hosting a fundraiser toward further activism in Taiji on May 25 at Heat in Hong Kong, with a screening of The Cove and belly dance performances.