At the time I am writing this, I have taken exactly two
Zumba classes in my entire 39 years on this planet. So I am clearly not a
seasoned expert in this type of exercise. But regardless of my lack of
experience in Zumba, I feel compelled to share my thoughts, because I think a
lot of people disregard these classes and in doing so, they are totally missing
out on the fun.
I know many people who are true Zumba enthusiasts: they
teach it, breathe it, live it, and love it. These friends own Zumba footwear
and Zumba clothing and they are Zumba-tastic at Zumba-ing. I myself had always
wanted to try it (I absolutely love to dance) but felt completely intimidated
to even sign up, never mind walk into a class. I’m not even sure why – I took
dance as a young girl and can actually count and move on time to a beat. Truthfully, I think it was just my fear of the unknown scaring me off; that and I just didn’t
know how I’d measure up to all those Zumba enthusiasts out there – I didn’t
want them to think I was some kind of Zumba poser.
But then a friend of mine
(one of the non-Zumba enthusiasts) who has similar coordination and athletic
abilities as me, asked me to join her for a Zumba class. I figured now was my
chance to give it a shot, because humiliating myself with a friend seemed a lot
less terrifying than doing so by myself.
In the few times I have taken any type of dance class as
an adult, I always feel like I can relate to Jennifer Grey’s character Baby in
the movie Dirty Dancing. When she’s
first learning to dance she is completely distracted by everyone else around
her, letting the people who are more experienced and more expressive intimidate
her. She also feels a lot of frustration when trying to understand and learn
various dance moves throughout the movie. When I first started Zumba class, that was totally me. I wanted to
get every move right on the first try (kind of hard to do when you are a
newbie) and not being able to do so made me feel like a Zumba failure. Why was
everyone else getting it and not me? (By the way, this was all an illusion – I was
not in a room full of professional dancers, they were all regular people like
me, sometimes getting the moves, sometimes not. But in my perfectionist head, everyone
around me looked like Gene Kelly and I felt completely out of sync).
Then I remembered something the teacher said when she
first introduced herself to me at the beginning of class: “This class is what
you make it. Even if you don’t get it right away, just keep moving, and most
importantly – have fun! Getting the steps right isn’t as important as enjoying
the exercise.” So I took a deep breath,
stopped looking at the people dancing around me, and just let my body move to
the music. And you know what? It was
fun! Once I stopped overthinking it, the dancing came easier to me. And even
when I missed a step or two, I just kept going - and it really felt good.
At the beginning of Zumba, this was me:
“I carried a watermelon”.
Then by the end of my second class, I was here:
Okay, not quite. But after completing two classes, I
definitely started to get the hang of it and I learned a little something about
getting out of my own head and having fun. It wasn’t “the time of my life”, per
se, but I really enjoyed it and got a good sweat on.
So if you love dance and are looking for a new and fun
way to get a full body cardio workout, I highly recommend Zumba. And don’t be
intimidated by the Zumba enthusiasts out there, learn from them – they are the best leads to follow when you fall
out of step in class. And here’s the biggest secret of all – they are having
the most fun, because that's what it's all about.
