Fitness buffs go crazy for ‘Zumba’

Combine Latin music and salsa dancing with resistance training, and you have the recipe for “Zumba,” the new exercise dance craze that’s trying to make working out fun again.

“We take that feeling you have in the club when you go out dancing and take that to the fitness room,” said Tony Witt, a Kansas City-based Zumba instructor who recently led an instructor certification session in Indianapolis.

Witt said Zumba is “a party.” The exercise class dances to Latin rhythms with simple moves inspired by salsa and merengue dances.

The dancing, fused with resistance training, burns fat while toning and sculpting the body. 

The Zumba craze is beginning to spread locally.

The Monroe County YMCA offers Zumba four days per week. The classes cost $35 for members and $88 for non-members.

The Indianapolis instructor certification session held Sept. 14 also drew a sold-out crowd, Witt said.

That kind of popularity is easy to explain, said freshman Emily Kitchen.

“It’s a fun workout,” said Kitchen, who started Zumba six months ago at her home in Carmel, Ind. “I always feel great after I’m done. I don’t even feel like I’m exercising.”
She said she’s now looking for a class to take here in Bloomington.

So far, Zumba is not offered at the Student Recreational Sports Center. Kim Cullman, publicity assistant for campus recreational sports, said it’s also unclear if any classes will be created next semester or in years to come.

Even so, people are becoming more aware of the workout, said Shelly Vail, an Indianapolis-based Zumba instructor.

“People are always saying ‘What’s Zumba?’” she said.

Vail moved to Mooresville, an Indianapolis suburb, about 11 weeks ago to create the city’s first Zumba class.

The goal of Zumba, according to its Web site, is for participants to “want to work out, to love working out, to get hooked.”

“Beto” Perez, a famous Colombian fitness trainer and choreographer for international celebrities, created Zumba in the mid-’90s after he forgot to bring music to his aerobics class.

He used Latin music instead, and choreographed new moves to coordinate with the beats, creating Zumba.

“(Zumba classes) use music the way that it was written,” Witt said. 

While most aerobics classes remix songs to create beats for the class, Zumba does the opposite.

The instructors look at the music and create moves that coincide with the song. There is one dance move for the chorus and another for each of the verses, Witt said. This creates a total of only three or four moves per song.

“It’s fun. You come to class, and you don’t have to think,” Witt said.

Although the steps are easy, the beats change every couple of minutes, keeping the class energized.

During a one-hour Zumba class, the average person will burn about 700 calories, Witt said. However, he has seen people burn up to 1,400 calories in the same one-hour class.

This combination of simple moves, high-energy music and fat burning makes Zumba appealing for people of all ages, he said.