ZUMBA

Zumba is a dance fitness program created by Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto "Beto" Perez during the 1990s.

Zumba involves dance and aerobic elements. Zumba's choreography incorporates hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue, mamboand martial arts. Squats and lunges are also included. Zumba Fitness, an organization that sells Zumba videos and products, does not charge licensing fees to gyms or fitness centers.Approximately 14 million people take weekly Zumba classes in over 140,000 locations across more than 185 countries.

Origin

In the 1990s, Beto Perez forgot his tape of aerobics music for a class he was teaching. He went to his car, listened to music – consisting of traditional salsa and merengue music – and improvised a class using this non-traditional aerobics music. After finding initial success in Colombia, he moved to the United States in 2001, where he teamed up with cofounder Alberto Perlman and a childhood friend, COO Alberto Aghion. The trio produced a demo reel, and the concept was discovered and licensed by a company called Fitness Quest to create a direct marketing campaign and a line of home videos.

Classes

An instructor coaches a Zumba class in a fitness center.

Zumba sessions are typically about an hour long and are taught by instructors licensed by an organization called Zumba Academy.The exercises include music with fast and slow rhythms, as well as resistance training.The music comes from the following dance styles: cumbia, salsa, merengue, mambo, flamenco, chachacha, reggaeton, soca, samba, hip hop music, axé music and tango. There are eight different types of classes for different levels of age and exertion. Zumba Gold mainly targets the older population. It is specifically designed to the needs of the elderly and includes the same kind of music as the Zumba fitness party class. Zumba Toning is for the people who do their workouts with toning sticks. Zumba Toning will target the abs, thighs, arms, and other muscles throughout the body. Zumba Toning is adding sculpting of body and cardio. Aqua Zumba is Zumba in a swimming pool. The instructor is on the ledge of the pool instructing while participants mimic his/her moves while they are submerged waist high in water. Zumba in the circuit is the dance combined with circuit training. These classes usually last 30 minutes and features strength exercises on various stations in timed intervals. Zumba Kids is a class designed for children between the ages of 4 and 12. It has the same dance and music styles as a regular Zumba Fitness class, but has routines designed specifically for kids. Zumba Gold-Toning is a toning class for older participants with goals of improving one's muscle strength, posture, mobility, and coordination. Zumba Sentao is a chair workout that focuses on using body weight to strengthen and tone the body. Zumba instructors have the option to become a ZIN (Zumba Instructors Network) member to receive bimonthly training DVDs to assist with the creation of music and choreography for their personal Zumba classes. ZIN members are the only instructors allowed to register for the new Zumba Core training class which helps to incorporate more core training into any type of Zumba class.

Because Zumba offers different options, proponents of Zumba claim that it is safe for all ages.At least some of the classes are specifically aimed at elderly people, to help them build strength, improve motion and posture, and socialize.