Hip way to get fit

By SUSAN CAMPBELL

‘Ditch the workout, join the party.’

Zumba is a dance/exercise regimen done to a mix of Latin and international music.

We are five minutes into class when I realize that my feet do not appear to be attached to my brain.

My brain wants so badly to follow the lead of the instructors of my first-ever Zumba fitness class, but my feet want to march stiffly in place. I am pretty sure what I am doing is not Zumba-quality work.

No matter. All around me, women (it’s all women in this class, although this is emphatically not a gender-specific workout) are moving and smiling and looking like they’ve been doing this forever – which is impossible, because Zumba, a dance/exercise regimen done to a mix of Latin and international music, has been in this country slightly more than 10 years. It arrived at Bodyworks Fitness Center in Marlborough, Conn., just last month, and there has been enough interest to add three classes, said gym owner Janice Flanigan.

And Marlborough is only a microcosm of the exuberant dance/workout’s popularity. Zumba (pronounced ZOOM-buh) has gained devotees in China, Italy and Spain.

And everywhere, its slogan is: “Ditch the workout, join the party.”

Make that the “sweaty party.” By some counts, reasonably committed participants can burn 500 calories in an hourlong class, said Danielle Rich, a Zumba instructor at the Taking Care Center in downtown Hartford, Conn. She has been teaching since October.

“I’m a dancer, so I was thinking, ’I don’t really know if I’m going to like this,’ but I really like the dance-fitness thing,” Rich said. “I think a lot of people feel silly at first, but that’s what makes people smile. I love watching the looks on the faces of the people in class. That’s what makes the class for me. I know they’re having a good time.”

Participants forget they’re working out. It’s not a boring half-hour on an elliptical machine or a mindless moment on a stair-stepping machine. And Zumba, a Colombian expression for moving fast and having fun, invites participants to move at their own pace.

The workout method was born of desperation in the mid-1990s when founder and fitness instructor Alberto “Beto” Perez arrived at an aerobics class in his native Colombia without his music. Instead, he rooted around in his car and played for his class the Latin music he found there, and he improvised energetic steps inspired by salsa, merengue, reggaeton and hip-hop, among other musical styles. As Zumba’s popularity grew, more work came Perez’s way, including choreographing some dances for performer Shakira (“Hips Don’t Lie”).

Perez brought the workout to the U.S. in 1999 and launched it in a big way with a series of videos and infomercials the next year. Today, Zumba has its own specially trained instructors, age-specific workouts and gym togs, including special cargo pants, although regular gym wear works fine.

“It’s not like you’re working out,” instructor Jeanne C. Warren said. “It’s the music, too. That plays a large part of it. And the whole basics of Zumba is making it easy for people to pick up. There are three or four moves, and that’s repeated over and over again.”

Yes, she has heard the excuses – I can’t dance, I have two left feet, I have no rhythm. But by the end of the class, even my feet are starting to pick up. My arms still kind of just hang there, and I’m not sure Shakira’s people will be calling. But you know what? It’s fun, and I don’t care.

XFor more information and to find a Zumba instructor, go to www.zumba.com.