France’s latest American import: mermaid schools

By Alissa J. Rubin

The original Danish version of the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” is hardly the stuff of Hollywood: It ends bitterly with the mermaid unable to bear life as a human. But once the tale was massaged by Walt Disney, who gets a pass despite the periodic French skepticism of imports from America, the animated version became a runaway hit in France.

Now, a French synchronized swimmer is trying to translate another aspect of the American mermaid obsession: mermaiding schools. It turns out that preadolescent and adolescent girls on both sides of the Atlantic dream of being mermaids.

Julia Sardella, who spent four years in Las Vegas performing in a show that combines water ballet and aerial gymnastics, teaches the girls, and some of their mothers, how to swim gracefully after pulling on colorful leggings that end in a monofin. The classes appeal to the French love of fashion, with students donning elegant tops and tails, and are a good workout.

“It’s great for your abdominals,” said Sardella, who also practices Pilates. “One of the first things I teach is a mermaid’s movements, how it feels to swim with a tail.”

If the English word “mermaid” connotes a chaste creature, the French “sirène” brings to mind the deadly seductresses of “The Odyssey,” the Sirens, who sang so beautifully that they enticed sailors to steer their ships onto the rocks and perish.

Graduates of Sardella’s classes may aspire to become Miss Mermaid France. This year’s competition had seven entrants, who, wearing elegantly colored tails, cavorted in a large pool. The winner will compete in the International Mermaiding contest in the autumn at a resort on the Red Sea.

Sardella said that about 500 people took her introductory courses at a hotel in Marseille, with some returning for more advanced instruction. She plans to expand to Monaco and Paris.

“Some people come for curiosity,” she said, “some because they have a dream of being a mermaid.”