Russian dance school under investigation for teen ‘twerking’ classes

RUSSIAN officials are investigating a dance school after a video showing teenage girls in bee costumes twerking was viewed millions of times online.

The video, called "Winnie-the-Pooh and the bees”, shows a group of girls in striped orange leotards and short black wrap skirts performing on stage at a dance school in the central Russian city of Orenburg.

Since being uploaded onto YouTube at the weekend it has gained more than eight million views, drawing the attention of the powerful Investigative Committee.

The investigators said they were looking into an incident of "so-called twerking” by "underage girls in revealing outfits.”

The dance begins with a person in a bear costume on stage before descending into something more like Nicki Minaj clip with young teens gyrating around on stage.

The Kremlin children"s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov called the dance move "vulgar and insulting.” The regional prosecutor issued a statement saying they were looking into "all activities” offered by the youth centre that hosts the dance school and were also investigating its businesswoman owner.

Orenburg mayor Yevgeny Arapov, meanwhile, appealed to parents to sign their children up for more "respectable” dances.

"We have respectable ethnic dances ... they are the ones that need to be taught,” he wrote on his website. "We live on this land and we need to dance our national dances.”

Local authorities had launched a citywide inspection of dance studios for "similar incidents” and advised choreographers to observe "moral indicators” when working with children, a spokeswoman for the Orenburg administration told RIA-Novosti agency.

She said Kredo dance school introduced twerking classes in late 2014 at the request of the girls and their parents, but that after seeing the performance the parents were less enthusiastic.

Reached by telephone on Tuesday, the spokeswoman of the investigative committee in Orenburg, Angelika Linkova, said the facility was being investigated for possible "lascivious actions” -- a sex offence against minors which carries up to 15 years in prison.

"Investigators are questioning the managers and the owners of the dance school and identifying the girls and their parents,” she said.

The school, which also offers "booty dance” lessons according to its website, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The website had been disabled by the administrator.