ZUMMBAA

Storyboard

This is my Storyboard for my digital short on Zumba. This is only the rough draft so it will probably look different in a few days when I finalize everything I'm doing. It consists of pictures and video while I narrate in the background.

Digital Short: ZUMBAAAA

Are you ready to party yourself into shape? That’s exactly what Zumba is all about! It’s an exhilarating, easy to follow fitness dance party that’s moving millions of people toward joy and health. Since its inception in 2001, Zumba has become the world’s largest and most successful dance fitness program with more than 10 million people of all shapes, sizes and ages taking classes in over 110 countries.

Zumba began when Alberto “Beto” Perez, an aerobics instructor, left his house one day without his traditional aerobic music. He improvised by using his own mix of tunes in his backpack (salsa and meringue music he grew up with). Referred to as the “happy accident”, he created a new type of fitness dance that is all about letting the music move you instead of counting rhythms. In 2001, he brought the fitness dance concept to Miami, Florida and with the help of two entrepreneurs, started the Zumba Fitness, LLC. http://www.zumba.com/about/

As a member of the YMCA, I have been a participant in the Zumba fitness class that is taught four days a week there. It doesn’t even feel like a work out!

I got the privilege of interviewing one of my favorite instructors named Alleyne Schobol. She has been teaching Zumba for three years and other than being a stay at home mom calls her job at the Y an “expensive hobby”. I asked her why she chose to be a leader in Zumba and her response, “I felt so sexy working out that I wanted to show others how fun and easy it was”.

The Zumba dance steps are fairly easy to learn. Although the instructors don’t spend much time spelling it out for you, you can just pick up the steps while watching everyone else as you move to the beats. For a straight hour you not only sweat your butt off, but you also feel sexy as you do it.

One question people might have is if Zumba is for only a specific gender and age? No! Both men and women of all ages and of all shapes and sizes attend this work out class and most everyone enjoys the music. Although there might be some up-tempo hip hop and rap songs, the lyrics are clean so that the young and even the old will appreciate it.

While my focus is on what is appealing to Americans at the YMCA, I feel that this class alone is one main reason many women join the Y. Instead of paying a lot of money for each Zumba class you might take at a private dance studio, you get the same class plus a whole lot more if you become a member of the Y.

(Show some video of a Zumba class)

Project Update

Done:
*Interviewed 3 people
*Observation
*Intro to Paper
*Half of methods section in paper

To do:
*Interview at least 2 more people
*Prepare pictures and video for digital short
*Finish methods section

Intro to YMCA Paper

The YMCA

When I was in high school, I was continually left out of an important part of my friends daily after school activity. They were all members of the YMCA and would go there to work out. My family wasn’t members at the time therefore I wasn’t allowed to go without paying a ten dollar fee each visit. I remember telling my mom that my friends were so rude because they eventually quit telling me where they were going because they knew I couldn’t go anyway. At that time in my life, being a member of the Y meant so much that my friendships were altered because of it.

Today however, my family pays a monthly fee to be members of the YMCA. Out of the four people in my family, my seventeen year old sister and I use it most. My mom will go on occasion, and my dad has only been once at which time he was filmed in a music video, so he swore he would never return. By being a member of the YMCA, I have an insider’s perspective into my fieldwork site of choice.

The YMCA, or Young Men’s Christian Association, was founded by George Williams in London in 1844. This was a time of great turmoil and despair. For the young men who came to London to try and find jobs, there wasn’t much to offer. Troubled by what he saw, George Williams started the first YMCA with eleven people as a refuge of bible study and prayer for men around the area (ymca.net). The Y was unique because it strived to “meet social needs in the community and its openness to members crossed the rigid lines separating English social classes” (ymca.net).

“Years later a retired Boston sea captain, Thomas Valentine Sullivan, worked as a marine missionary and noticed that there was a similar need to create a safe ‘home away from home’ for sailors and merchants” (ymca.net). He was inspired by the stories of the YMCA in London and decided to form one here in the United States. On December 29, 1851, the first U.S. YMCA was formed at the Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts (ymca.net).

Overtime, the YMCA built housing to give young men moving to cities from rural areas safe and affordable lodging. Facilities included gyms, auditoriums and hotel style rooms. In 1861, a conference with President Abraham Lincoln led to a full-scale recruitment of YMCA volunteers that eventually totaled 5,000 (ymca.net) http://www.ymca.net/history/founding.html.

As the years pass, the YMCA continues to flourish not only as a place for members to work out, but also as a place of community and fellowship. Most people don’t think of the YMCA as a spiritual place, but it was built around Christian influences. If you take the time to look around, you will notice words, slogans and multiple brochures advertising small groups, bible studies, words of wisdom and spiritual vitamins.