Aerobics Made in Poland: Women’s Mass Leisure Activity in the Socialist State, 1983–1989

Abstract

The first aerobics club in Poland was opened in the autumn of 1983. Hanna Fidusiewicz, a former national team member in artistic gymnastics, was integral in that process. Her efforts brought about the aerobics revolution in its Polish version, and the glocalization of the leisure activity. Under her direction, socialist Poland adapted commercial aerobics as a global commodity in the 1980s. The pre-existing circumstances and available resources determined the female actors’ chances of successfully developing a Polish version of the aerobics workout. Women used their involvement in aerobics to negotiate their own status and to (re)define their self-understanding in an increasingly global community.