'For crown. For country': Beauty boot camps key to pageant dominance

MANILA - Rodgil Flores casts a stern taskmaster's glance as grimacing young women in bikinis stride across one of the mirror-walled studios that is central to making the Philippines a beauty pageant juggernaut.

In 17-centimeter stiletto heels, the students sway their hips between long slow strides, a drill that Flores requires them to repeat in order to make the act of sashaying second nature come pageant time.

"For crown. For country", is the slogan of the Kagandahang Flores (Flores Beauty) studio he set up in 1996, the first of a handful of Philippine beauty boot camps that have helped transform the nation's pageant fortunes.