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)