Sauna And a Show? ‘Wellness Theater’ Makes Its Sweaty Debut In Las Vegas

In the “event sauna” of the Awana Spa in Las Vegas, tourists in bathing suits were taking selfies on wood benches lined with neon lights. The sauna was heated to 175F (79C) and the show was about to begin.

A tattooed and bikini-clad “sauna meister” dropped ice infused with essential oils on to the hot stones at the center of the sauna. As pop music pounded through the sauna speakers, she began to wave a towel in elaborate patterns above her head, wafting hot, scented air directly at each cluster of audience members.

The sauna meister moved in a graceful circle around the room, dancing and wafting air infused with citrus at a man in Texas flag-patterned swim trunks, and a young mom escaping her kids for the day. The heat intensified and the music changed. Suddenly, the lights went off and a black light switched on, making the towel glow with an eerie whiteness as it arced through the air.

“That was awesome,” one woman said at the end of the 10-minute performance, sounding completely genuine.

This is “Aufguss”, a German term for “infusion” that has been translated for American audiences as “wellness theater”. The art form, long popular in Europe, is getting its North American debut in an unexpected place: Sin City.

Vegas is not exactly known as a wellness destination: as one longtime hospitality expert there put it, people don’t often say, “Let’s go to Vegas to be well.” Saunas, on the other hand, are typically a place for quiet, sweaty meditation or leisurely conversations with friends, not an opportunity to deploy flashing lights, club music and costumes.

As Spas From Minneapolis To Brooklyn

But “wellness” has saturated so deeply into US consumer culture that even Las Vegas, America’s capital of outrage and excess, has started to adjust. As spas from Minneapolis to Brooklyn have started to advertise Aufguss among their offerings, one of the strip’s newest hotels, Resorts World Las Vegas, has begun hosting the performances four times a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – with experienced Las Vegas dancers taking the roles of the “sauna meisters”.

Aufguss has thrived for decades at European saunas, sometimes as a pleasant minor ritual and sometimes as a form of competitive experimental theater. At the annual Aufguss World Championships in Europe, experts in “show Aufguss” vie for a world master title by guiding audiences through brief, sweaty narratives about women’s suffrage, cowboys, motorcycle gangs or a crisis in a nuclear bunker. There have been sauna adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and the musical Billy Elliot. Quoted from the site page mofongos royalspacolumbia.com