DALLAS, TX
Look out, Big D - Sheila Kelley's S Factor returns for another sizzling Summer workshop in Dallas, Texas the last weekend in July. There’s no better time to call all the women you know who have yet to experience this phenomenal movement and invite them to see what it’s all about! Sign up for a one–day Pure S workshop if your time is limited, or go the distance with a two-day Pure S, Pole Class or Pole with Strips class. For more information or to register, please email rhuntley_at_sfactor.com or call 323.965.9683.

July 27 - July 29
YogaSport
4140 Lemmon Ave. Ste 280
Dallas, TX 75219
323.965.9683


BEDFORD HILLS, NY
For all you Westchester ladies who didn’t get enough “S” in June, you’re in luck! Now you can sizzle even more this Summer with one of our ever-powerful, two-day workshops in July. We’ve got Stiletto and Pure S classes scheduled, so call your fun-loving, adventuresome girlfriends and sign up for a special weekend that will have all of you looking and feeling your most succulent. Don’t wait, because spots are filling up fast. For more information or to sign up, please contact nyinfo_at_sfactor.com or 212.989.8030.

July 13 – July 17
The Studio
54 Babbitt Road
Bedford Hills, NY 10507
212.989.8030

MARIN, CA
By popular demand, Sheila Kelley’s S Factor is heading back to the bay – the Marin Bay Club, that is! You lovely Marinites wanted more S, so we’re bringing it back to you with another round of sensational Summer workshops. There’s a one-day Pure S workshop available, as well as two-day Pure S, Lap Dance and Pole Emphasis classes. Give your body and soul what they’ve been craving and register for that perfect class now! For more information or to sign up, contact
shawna_at_sfactor.com
or call 415.945.3000.

July 13- July 15
Marin Bay Club
220 Corte Madera Town Center
Corte Madera, CA 94123
415.945.3000






The summer heat has started with some sizzling S Factor buzz, hot off the presses, as we celebrated a seventth – yes, “S”eventh appearance on Oprah with the June 13 show, “Releasing Your Inner Sexpot!” S Factor was a much-talked about topic on the rest of the entertainment and talk show circuit as well, including Access Hollywood, The Insiders, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. If you missed Sheila’s appearance on the July 4 broadcast of MTV’s Super Made, where she helped a strong young cancer survivor on a journey to get her “sexy” back, visit the MTV website to watch the video.


Self magazine’s June issue featured the S Factor fave “Bridge Grind” as a great bikini-season ab-toner, and Sheila shared some compliments about ultra-fit celebrity mom and S student Kate Hudson in the June 11 issue of In Touch. S Factor was also highly touted in French Elle, as well as the July issues of Allure, Fitness and Beep Magazine, on stands now, and was the subject of a fabulous feature piece in the OC Weekly! Read all about it by clicking here.


Hope all you Dallas S girls out there caught Sheila’s appearance a few weeks ago on local ABC affiliate WFFA’s Good Morning Texas. But if you slept through your alarm that day, have no fear – Sheila was a huge hit (of course!) and will be back for a second visit on Monday, July 23. Be sure to set your Tivo for 9 am so you won’t miss it! And to our lovely Houston gals, in June, the Houston Chronicle printed a wonderful piece on the empowerment of Sheila Kelley’s S Factor that you won’t want to miss either. You can read the article AND watch the video, featuring our lovely LA teacher Tina Kraishi, by clicking here.


Sheila also hit the radio airwaves in the last few weeks, enjoying a fabulous interview on hip-hop artist and S Factor student Yo-Yo’s 93.5 KDAY radio show, as well as an appearance on E! entertainment’s satellite radio show YO on E!.


San Francisco teacher extraordinaire Shannon Smith was also in the news with a profile in the “Best Of” June issue of 7 X 7 Magazine. Click here to see the article. Our East Coast S Factor studios also received some great recognition in the current issues of New York Absolute, Long Island Pulse and Westchester magazines. All you New York and Long Island S girls, check your news stands now to read all the high praise!


With our new Chicago studio opening on June 25, there came a whirlwind of wonderful Windy City press for the S! Sheila was a guest on Susanna Homan’s lively WCKG-FM radio show, and Chicago Tribune profiled S Factor in an article about sensual workouts. The Chicago Sun-Times included Sheila Kelley’s S Factor in a piece about women-only workouts, while StyleChicago.com, the premier on-line resource for all things hip and happening in town, highlighted S Factor on their main website and both their Spa and Beauty AND Bridal newsletters. Not to be left out, Daily Candy Chicago named Sheila Kelley’s S Factor as a top pick in their Weekend Guide, and the girly-girl’s favorite shopping website Sheckys.com heralded the opening of the new S Factor Chicago studio!


We also made lots of news elsewhere on the web. Click here to find some of Sheila’s top product picks at the hip, on-line shopping network ThisNext.com, and check out the fabulous review of our famous S Factor bachelorette parties at FitSugar.com. DailyFashionista.com also gave S Factor a great notice as a “sizzling workout.” Catch their review here.


As always, visit the "When to Watch" section of www.sfactor.com for up-to-the-minute news on when and where to find S Factor! Coming soon, look for us in the pages of Paper City and Ceasar’s Player, as well as CenterStageChicago.com and LifeScript.com!

"You mean.....the sluuuuuuut?" The word hissed slowly out of his mouth between bites.

About five weeks ago, I was sitting at dinner in a fancy Hollywood restaurant with three movers and shakers, all guys. Two of these men were screenwriters and one was an advertising executive.

The conversation veered toward, what else, but last season's American Idol, the various contestants and what we each thought of them.

At one point, we started to talk about the beautiful girl from New Jersey, only no one could remember her name and one of the screenwriters said, "You know... the sluuuuuuut." I didn’t think I heard him correctly, because who in their right mind would say that in front of well, someone like me, a vocal proponent for women? So I said, "What did you say?" And again he said, with relish, "The sluuuut from New Jersey." He drew the word "slut" out, savored it, as if the longer it took him to say it, the bigger and better he became. Here the conversation came to an absolute dead stop. No screeching, no grinding, no swerving. Just dead silence a beat and then quietly seething, I kindly asked "Why would you call her that? You don’t even know her."

He gave the response of someone quite thrilled with himself: "I know the type. She was the girl in high school that ‘did’ everyone."

Again, me trying not to sound incredulous because this was a really nice guy who I cared about: "Maybe she liked ‘doing’ and being ‘done’. Some women, a lot of women actually like ‘doing’ very much."

Him, with disgust: "She just gave the guys exactly what they wanted."

Me: "And that’s... a bad thing?"

Him, with an air of male superiority: "Just makes her a sluuuuuuut."

Again, he was savoring-every-last-drop-of-the-word. I had to ask, "If you gave me exactly what I wanted, would that make you a slut?" No answer. I continued: "What’s the matter with enjoying ‘doing it’ and, most importantly, what’s the matter with giving someone what they want? Isn’t that like, a form of love or caring?" I inquired. “And when a guy gives a girl ‘it’, does that make him a detestable slut?”

Ah... finally a hint of lucidity behind his eyes. He veered the conversation very quickly away from sex in general. I would like to believe he found a little education in our conversation. I would really like to. When he so cavalierly branded this beautiful young woman a slut, I can't even explain to you my visceral reaction. It was the eruption of a primitive maternal protectiveness. Where did the word "slut" come from, anyway? In the five weeks I've been stewing over this, I did a little research. The earliest use I could find of anything like it was from Chaucer in 1386. He used "sluttish" to mean sloppy and dirty (and he was talking about a man, by the way). Yet somehow, in less than a century, the word "slut" became the definition of a "loose and immoral” woman... and only a woman. Funny how that works. So here in 2007, when the word "slut" came slithering out of that screenwriter’s mouth, suddenly it was Salem, Massachusetts circa 1692, and someone had just pointed a finger at a girl from New Jersey and screamed "Witch!” Or maybe I didn't travel back quite so far in time; maybe it was just back to my junior year of high school.

There was a girl, we'll call her Mary, who got pregnant that year. She was immediately labeled a “slut” by nameless, faceless, high school kids. I remember she used to wear blue knee socks with a lavender skirt to school at least once a week. She was a little quirky that way. She didn't wear a lot of makeup. You would have called her fresh-faced; she had light brown hair down to her shoulders and she didn’t talk much. But she was pregnant, and that made her a "slut." All the other sluts that we'd seen wore lots of make-up and had big hair. So when Mary became a slut we, the good girls of Hempfield High, didn’t know where the next one was going to turn up. We were each privately terrified that it was going to be one of us. Once Mary was labeled a slut, that was it for her. I remember one day walking toward her in the hallway between classes. She carried her books close to her chest over her slightly protruding belly. Her eyes connected to mine... sweet, gentle eyes. A cheerleader in full cheering regalia walked towards her from the other direction and growled “slut” as she past. Mary dropped her eyes from mine and kept walking past me, shamed and decimated. The next week, she dropped out of school. I never saw her again. I heard she had a healthy baby boy. To this day, I wonder how she coped, enduring hateful stares, cruel remarks and mean-spirited shoves in the halls. I wonder where she is now? I’m still haunted by Mary.

Words are so dangerous. They’re so ephemeral, not really there, yet so deceptively powerful. "Kike", "nigger", "chink", "spic", "wop", "mick"... just reading these words makes you cringe, doesn't it? They're unacceptable; they blatantly reek of racism and hatred. And yet the words "slut", "whore", "skank", and "cunt" are used daily without a blink of the eye. Let's face it, words like "slut" are assassinations of the same ilk. They are annihilators of character, verbal prisons from which there is no escape. They are social condemnation; they are obliterators of lives. I’ve seen it. Girls like Mary haunt all of us. Mary was not the first and she was not the last "slut" to be ostracized in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, or in any other town in America.

Through enormous social and political pressure, racist remarks have become almost a crime, whereas the slut-whore-skank-cunt words have not. I don’t understand how one set of hateful words becomes off-limits under social pressure, yet another set does not. Even more baffling, the use of words to annihilate women has become so deeply enmeshed in our culture that the main propagators are now women! Women attacking women. Isn’t that a recipe for extinction?

IT’S NOT OKAY ANYMORE! Can you say it with me a little more quietly? It’s not okay anymore. And here’s how we make it not okay: first off, a woman who enjoys "doing it" and having "it" done is a healthy, normal, even wholesome woman. Notice the word woman. I am not advocating for irresponsible sexual behavior or premature sexual activity but to stop with the abusive hate filled labeling. We all have sexual desires, and that's a beautiful thing. Some of us start exploring earlier than others. Some of us experiment in ways that some of us don’t, and that's okay. No need to negatively label anyone because of how she/we like "it." Maybe there’s a woman who likes to do "it" more often than you or maybe its someone who made a mistake at one point in their life... we all do, we're human. Instead of judging her harshly, why not admire her stamina? If we want to give her a title, why not take a cue from our male counterparts? Let’s elevate her instead of tearing her down. Let’s Mae West her. She’s a player. She’s a Cleopatra, a Mata Hari, a real gentleman’s woman.

And men: you want your woman to give "it" to you? If you’ve ever said any combination of the words slut-whore-skank-cunt within earshot of one woman on the planet, then you’ve shot yourself in the foot bigtime. You say it; we'll hear it. You wonder why your woman doesn’t like doing "it" to you? Are you serious? The double-standard shuts your girl down hard. You want a fully-realized, sexually alive woman in your life? Stop using sexually derogatory remarks. Stop even thinking them. Even if you're not talking about your woman, if you call any woman a slut-whore-skank-cunt, you better believe that the message you're sending is that you think women who do "it" in any way shape or form are disgusting and wrong. You might as well just cut off your own member, guys.

So, here we have a self-extinguishing culture of women and a self-castrating culture of men, all because once-upon-a-time-down-the-line, someone decided that sex was bad... especially if women were having it. Maybe, guys, if you referred to those of us who give "it" as fine, healthy women – elevated, loving and profound – then a lot more women might be willing to do "it," to enjoy "it," and to give both themselves and you exactly what you want.

With a big, fat, luscious hug!






Summer is in full effect and, though the days are long and beautiful, the weather can wreak havoc on our skin, especially that delicate area around your eyes. Why not try one of nature’s remedies to soothe our sun-damaged eyes? Fancy creams and eye masks are great for de-puffing the eye area, but you can get the same effect with the all-natural, good old-fashioned standbys below.

1) Cucumber cooler: Take two wafer-thin slices of cucumber and place one over each eye. Cover your eyes with a warm or cool washcloth, lie down somewhere uber-comfortable and relax for 10-20 minutes. Your eyes will look soothed and refreshed and you’ll feel like a new woman.

2) Homemade cucumber gel: take half a peeled cucumber and two ounces of Aloe Vera gel, and puree the mixture in a blender or Cuisinart. Keep it refrigerated and dab it on with a cotton ball as needed. You and your eyes will feel soooo fresh. Note that the life of this gel is only about a week.

3) Cool tea bags: This age-old remedy is great for eliminating puffiness. Tea polyphenols are high in antioxidants (especially those in green tea) and have an astringent quality, resulting in the tightening of the skin and smoothing of fine lines, and the caffeine in the tea promotes drainage of fluid from extracellular space. Steep two bags of green or black tea in warm water for 15 seconds, then wrap them in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for half an hour. Place the tea bags over closed eyes and relax for 20 minutes. Voila!





There’s nothing like having a heroine or role model to measure your heart and integrity by. It doesn’t matter what your age is, who you are or where you’re going in life - every woman should have someone to look up to. This month, let’s take it to a new level by spending a day paying homage to our favorite female idol. Name the femme who represents female liberation most to you and exude her essence for an entire day. Whether you want to go so far as to dress like her, emulate her, or spend a day devoting yourself to her cause, just make sure you are doing something in honor of her spirit and verve. Be a freedom fighter for a day, whatever that means to you. If it’s the irrepressible Mae West, then you can listen to her music in the car or while you’re dancing around the house, or wear an outfit similar to the fave you’ve seen her in from one of her movies. If it’s Mother Teresa, then spend the day volunteering for your favorite charity. If it’s Michele Bachelet, the first female President of Chile, then have a day of Chilean festivities, from Chilean foods to partaking in the Chilean “Onces” tradition, which is akin to afternoon tea in England. If you want to play it more low-key, make it a quieter exploration by reading a book about the woman you think represents liberation the most - it could be Harriet Tubman, Hilary Clinton, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, or the President of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson. Could be that your heroine is someone you know or have known in your life. If that’s the case, pay homage to this monumental woman by devoting your day to her cause. If she’s a baker, then don an apron; if she’s a teacher, then take a student under your wing. Let her inspire your day to be alive. Enjoy!




Jaynne Tylor is an extremely supportive S Factor Instructor, known for her uplifting and encouraging, yet fiery style. Born in Santa Monica, California, Jaynne lived in California until she was 10, when she and her mother moved to El Salvador. She visited her father in California for three months every year, and moved back after high school to attend UCLA. Jaynne took ballet classes as a child and jazz in high school, and was very involved in theater in both high school and in college.

Prior to beginning her career at Sheila Kelley’s S Factor, Jaynne lived abroad in Montreal, Israel and Paris. After a business trip to Los Angeles, she realized that she missed California deeply and had to move back.

Jaynne went back to UCLA and completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History. After finishing school, she decided to pursue her great passion: acting. However, extenuating circumstances that led up to that point in her life left her feeling as though she had lost all of her sensuality and femininity; she actually felt androgynous. She saw Teri Hatcher’s appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and, within a few months, saw Sheila’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She was very intrigued since she was looking for a place to get back in touch with herself so she signed up for an S Factor class.

In the midst of Level 4, Jaynne experienced an amazing change. “I used to wake up in the morning and I would look in the mirror and I felt like there was no life behind my eyes,” she says. “Somewhere in Level 4, I finally saw someone looking back at me. I saw light in my eyes for the first time in years and realized that I had to get back my own life and take care of myself. I’d been unhappy for awhile but, that morning, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw a little bit of myself for the first time in so long.”

Jaynne fell so in love with the freedom of the S and the strength it gave her, that she knew she wanted to give back to other women and provide the same opportunity she felt that Sheila Kelley's S Factor gave her. “If I could just give just a piece of it back, if I could touch anyone the way I have been touched, I would be incredibly happy, “ Jaynne says. “Besides the fact that it’s a great workout, I love that you can come here and just be free of judgment. I think it rejuvenates a woman. You can come here and play and express a side of you that you normally wouldn’t. It is such a youthful movement – not necessarily for the young, but just to laugh and dance and be free and focus on you is so revitalizing.”

Jaynne is based in West Hollywood but is currently living in Chicago to teach at Sheila Kelley’s S Factor Chicago. She loves the Windy City and is grateful for the opportunity to explore it. Her passions in addition to S Factor include acting, reading, writing, and traveling.






Hi Sheila,
I’m Coco Ferrari's mother, a teacher at some of your California locations. I am sending you this photograph of my recent boat trip to The Galapagos in Ecuador. I am sending you this to let you know it’s all about the amazing S Factor long sleeved “S” shirt! First, I want you to know how well traveled it is! Coco tossed one at me as I was heading to the plane and I wore it every day. It was perfect for so many reasons...

Also, the shirt was recognized on the streets of Santa Cruz Island by a young woman strolling by with her group of friends, which prompted a knowing thumbs-up and a huge smile as we passed each other. I am guessing she may have been from the U.S. It was a nice moment.

Have a great Summer and I can’t wait to be back in one of your classes later this year!

Pamela Ferrari



Now that was a fun one, wasn’t it? You gotta admit there are few things better than dreaming which one of the hot guys below you would like to be your dinner date or future husband! Since there's the Maxim Hot 100 and a plethora of other lists which rank all the beautiful women in the world, we decided to start up our own poll: the hottest men in the world! We started by taking a poll within our corporate staff here at the S, to find out who their faves are, and you voted on who you liked best out of there picks! And the winner is... Matthew McConaughey. See the rest of the results below:


A) Jonathan Rhys Meyers: 11.49%
B) Clive Owen: 16.38%
C) Jamie Bamber: 2.59%
D) Matthew McConaughey: 30.75%
E) LL Cool J: 4.02%
F) Taye Diggs: 3.16%
G) Christian Bale: 8.91%
H) Jonas Armstrong: 0.29%
I) Heath Ledger: 7.47%
J) Matt Damon: 3.45%
K) Tyrese: 3.16%
L) Josh Holloway: 5.17%
M) Justin Timberlake: 2.3%

Scoop XLong Tank!

We’re thrilled to introduce you to our adorable scoop-neck, extra-long, white tank featuring a series of your favorite S Factor pole trick silhouettes in contrasting black! This shirt is a super-soft, three-by-one rib knit (which means it is extra stretchy and comfortable), with a sweet lettuce-edged hem, made of 100% cotton. It retails for $24. Click here to see the other delicious designs and colors available, including S Factor’s signature color purple!


Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil


This tune is a whirlwind of haunting, melodic, pure, empowering feminine angst. If you’re unfamiliar with This Mortal Coil, there’s no time like the present to take a listen. A slight Eastern wind swirls the hair on the back of my neck when she sings in the chorus of Song to the Siren... “Did I dream you dreamed about me? Oh my heart shines from the sorrow. Here I am waiting to hold you...” Continue to herald the brilliance of the feminine spirit and support all things women made.

Dangerous Beauty


This sumptuous film is based on the factual story of a Venetian courtesan in the 16th Century, who is at first heralded, and then later put on trial by the Church for her ability to draw men to her. Catherine McCormack is stunning and brilliant as Veronica Franco, a woman who uses both her mind and body to get her way in a day and age that completely repressed the aspirations of females. When she cannot marry her true love, a Venetian Senator named Marco (played by Rufus Sewell), due to her lack of money and status, her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) shows her another way to be with him - by becoming a skilled courtesan. Though she rises as the city’s most desired and skilled, with almost hero-like staus, she becomes a target of the Inquisition, which tries to squash the city’s lavish and indulgent lifestyle. Believing that the Plague is a result of God's wrath by the public hedonism, the church campaigns to root out the wickedness, starting with the courtesans. Veronica is accused of being a witch and put on trial, forced to courageously defend the traditions which allowed her to make a living in a society with very few economic avenues for women.

The movie keeps very true to history, in terms of the stature of women in that day and age, and gives an amazing feel of the love, lust, and political repression that ran rampant in 16th Century Venice. But ultimately, Dangerous Beauty is a film about power - a woman's power and the fear it incites among an entire city of men.



Slut!
Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation




Full of poignant stories and daunting statistics, this book takes a revealing look at the damage caused by labeling females who may not fit traditional roles. Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation gives accounts of personal experiences from girls who were tormented by the label and how they have overcame it. "Two out of five girls nationwide have had sexual rumors spread about them," reports author Leora Tanenbaum. "One in five has had sexual messages written about her in public areas." The author interviews 50 women from the gamut of backgrounds, ethnicities and economic status – all of whom were labeled a “slut” during her teenage years (including the author) to explore the many reasons that girls may be inflicted with this title and its effects on both her and her peers. A point that remains constant throughout the book is that, despite any reason whatsoever, no woman ever deserves this title, regardless of her sexual history. The author argues against the double standard that victimizes women and winks at teenage boys and men, who are praised for their sexual escapades. It also points out that, most unfortunately, girls perpetuate the “slut bashing” in high school. Tanenbaum urges schools to take a more serious approach to combat sexual harassment and to develop sex education programs that do not condemn a woman for her sexual activity. Most importantly, this book will thoroughly convince its readers that the current tolerance of “slut bashing” is 100% unacceptable.


Cover it up!

The summer sun is upon us – literally!
We’re sure all you wise and wonderful women out there are already well aware of the dangers the seductive sun can present to our skin – and eyes – if we don’t take proper precautions. Liberal use of a high SPF sunscreen and wearing 99.5% or higher UV-blocking sunglasses are a must. But for additional protection, especially to those oft-forgotten ears, neck and scalp, why not add some colorful, stylish headwear to your summer wardrobe! Whether they be floppy-floral-fabric, structured-woven-raffia, or one of our sassy S Factor baseball or cadet styles, a hat offers great protection, versatility and a fun bit of flair to your outdoor excursions. Play it safe while you play – and keep that beautiful S Factor glow looking as fresh and healthy as it feels!