10:03 PM
Salsa Circuit
PINELLAS PARK – The lunchtime Zumba class at the Broderick Recreational Center in Pinellas Park Sept. 6 starts with a word of encouragement to its newest participant.
“Everybody's been in the same place before, where you're like, 'What the heck am I doing?'” instructor Michelle Mazuros says, cautioning the newbie against worrying too much about getting the dance moves just right.
She switches to Spanish for the benefit of some of the nearly dozen women in the room, all dressed in workout clothes and ready to dance and sweat to the upbeat music.
You've got to make sure you're enjoying Zumba, Mazuros explains. It's about having fun while you exercise. Otherwise, what's the point?
She runs through some of the more strenuous moves, demonstrating what she'd like to see in regards to safety before turning on an iPod plugged into a large portable speaker in a corner of the room.
“OK, who's ready?” she calls out as Cascada's “Evacuate the Dancefloor” begins to set the pace for the hour workout. “Let's do this thing.”
The Broderick Center features Zumba classes three times a week: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:10 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:15 a.m. Mazuros is one of many Zumba-licensed instructors who teach classes throughout the Tampa Bay area.
“I love Zumba,” says Jill Donaldson, a retired city of Pinellas Park employee who's been taking the classes since June. “It's addicting after a while.”
The Zumba program itself is designed to burn calories through easy-to-follow dance moves based on a wide range of Latin and international dance styles including salsa, merengue, samba, tango, belly dancing and hip hop.
In 2001, fitness trainer Beto Perez started Zumba Fitness as a company in Miami with entrepreneurs Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, according to the company website, www.zumba.com. Perez had developed the fitness program in his native Columbia after accidentally combining aerobics with traditional salsa and merengue music, eventually taking his classes to the United States.
Since then, the popular new way to combine exercise, dancing and fun has become a worldwide phenomenon, taught by thousands of licensed instructors in 110,000 locations.
“It's great to keep up your stamina,” says Marian Capozza, of Pinellas Park, who's been a Zumba enthusiast since December.
As the high-energy rhythm of several songs pumps the class through the fitness dance moves, Mazuros directs with her expressions as much as her hand gestures, reminding the women to breath and get into the music.
“Just as a student and teaching Zumba, I've lost 60 pounds,” she says later.
After a couple of years as a student, Mazuros, who grew up in Panama, began teaching classes in August 2008.
“The nice thing about the program is that you see instructors of all different ages, all different sizes, all different backgrounds, just like our students,” she says. “There's something for everybody.”
And the Zumba program isn't intimidating, Mazuros adds.
“You go to a gym, and you can be intimidated if you're not a person that exercises. This isn't like that,” she says. “Obviously you're getting a workout, but the emphasis is on fun first.”
Pinellas Park resident María Pepe, a mother of three children ages 4, 9 and 17, agrees that fun plays a big part into why she loves the Zumba program.
“As a mom, I don't go out dancing much anymore,” she says. “It transports me back to my 20s.”
Posted in
0 comments:
Post a Comment