SMALL CANADIAN TOWN ZUMBA FITNESS INSTRUCTOR ONE OF 30 ?ZUMBA BOOMER? DANCERS IN ORLANDO CONVENTION
Saint-Anicet, QC September 14, 2009 -- Heather Diodati, Zumba Fitness Instructor in Saint-Anicet and Huntingdon, Quebec, was one of the chosen few that participated in the Zumba Fitness 2nd Annual Instructor Convention last Saturday, September 4th in Orlando, Florida; and as luck would have it, she was the only Canadian among the dancers to appear on stage in front of over 2,300 Zumba instructors from all over the world.
"I feel so honored to have been chosen to be part of the group dancing a Flamenco on stage at the Zumbathon and was very proud to represent Canada and Quebec and the 50+ boomers." Diodati explained.
"And not only that," she added "we were dancing on stage with the creator of the Zumba Fitness program, Beto Perez."
"Among over 15,000 Zumba Fitness instructors worldwide, there are a great many of us who range in the age of between 50 and 75. This years' instructor convention proudly welcomed over 160 Zumba Fitness instructors in that age bracket. I myself am 56 and have found that dancing and fitness, particularly Zumba Fitness, has kept me young, and I'm not the only over-50 fitness instructor who has also admitted to this." Diodati went on to say.
"It's good for the mind, body and spirit; it helps you maintain your flexibility, balance and strength as well as making you look and feel better about yourself. It's the peppiest I?ve ever been in my whole life!"
"I wanted to bring in something new to my small town. No one was holding Zumba Fitness classes here and where they were held they were very popular. You move your body to the music" Diodati says "and the music is so exciting and infectious it creates a party atmosphere. It's dancing, it's aerobics and so much fun that you don't even realize your actually working out!"
Zumba Fitness (www.zumba.com) is one of the largest fitness programs in the world today, with over 16,000 certified instructors and more than five million people taking weekly classes in over 40,000 locations all over the world.
Heather teaches Zumba Fitness in Saint-Anicet and Huntingdon five times a week and welcomes everyone from teens to seniors, men and women, to attend her classes.
The Zumba Boomers photo shoot with Beto 'hamming it up'!
The caricature I designed for Beto and for each member of the Zumba
Boomer committee. The second photo is of me giving Beto his caricature!
Revolutionary Dance Fitness-PartyTM Lets Players Party Off the Pounds
EDISON, N.J., August 11, 2009 - Get ready to ditch the workout and join the ZumbaŽ movement! Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and ZumbaŽ Fitness LLC, today announced a partnership to bring the ZumbaŽ fitness experience to video games. This one-of-a-kind exercise program pairs Latin rhythms with red-hot international dance steps so you can have a blast as you party your way into shape. The first ZumbaŽ game will release holiday 2010.
"As the biggest trend in fitness right now, ZumbaŽ has effectively transformed the way people workout," said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco. "This dance-infused fitness party is the perfect complement to motion-based gaming and we're excited to offer players a totally new, and incredibly fun, means to achieve their personal fitness goals."
"Who says working out and having fun are mutually exclusive?" asks Alberto Perlman, Chief Executive Officer, Zumba Fitness. "We don't believe this and neither does Majesco, which is why this union will take exergaming to the next level."
Through invigorating, high calorie-burning fitness classes, ZumbaŽ Fitness has helped melt the pounds and inches off more than five million Zumba-enthusiasts in more than 75 countries. This addictive fitness craze blends Latin and world rhythms with easy-to-follow dance moves to help fans successfully tone and sculpt the body while burning fat.
The first ZumbaŽ game is expected to release next holiday.
Here's another Zumba item that you're sure to want (all 304 pages of it!) !!
ZumbaŽ: Ditch the Workout, Join the Party! The Zumba Weight Loss Program (Hardcover Book!)
by Beto Perez (Author), Maggie Greenwood-Robinson (Author)
TIRED OF LOGGING HOURS AT THE GYM AND NOT GETTING RESULTS?
WANT TO EAT DELICIOUS FOODS AND STILL LOSE WEIGHT?
SHAKE THINGS UP AND SLIM DOWN WITH THE WEIGHT LOSS PHENOMENON THAT'S TAKING THE COUNTRY BY STORM...ZUMBA!
Created by celebrity fitness trainer Beto Perez, ZumbaŽ combines fun, easy-to-follow dance steps with hot Latin beats to help you shed pounds and inches fast. Now the DVD and classes that have hooked millions are available in book format, with a complete workout program, fat-burning diet, and an exclusive instructional DVD with 60 minutes worth of music to help you Zumba your way to the perfect body.
Using the principles of interval and resistance training, the simple dance and sculpting moves (inspired by the traditional cumbia, salsa, samba, and merengue) tone and shape your body. And because it burns 600 to 1,000 calories per hour, you don't have to restrict your meals to boring or bland-tasting diet foods. The Zumba diet begins with a 5-Day Express Diet to jump start weight loss (lose up to 9 lbs in 5 days) and then offers 14-day meal plans and recipes that target weight loss in the stomach and thighs. You'll find:
ˇ Hot moves that make you feel like you're on the dance floor-not on the elliptical machine!
ˇ Recipes for mouthwatering meals that boost your metabolism
ˇ Dozens of workout combinations so you never get bored
ˇ An exclusive jump-start program to get you ready for that big event next weekend
ˇ An easy plan to help you keep up your progress and maintain the weight loss
So start moving, grooving and losing with Zumba today!
About the Author:
Celebrity fitness trainer Alberto "Beto" Perez is orginally from Cali, Colombia. Before creating and launching Zumba in the U.S. in the late '90s, Perez attended the Maria Sanford Brazilian Dance Academy, became an instructor and choreographed dance routines for high profile performers, including platinum album selling artist Shakira. He now resides in Miami, FL. The Zumba brand sells DVDs, CDs, clothing and workout gear at www.Zumba.com and www.Zumbafitness.com
Dance Your Way to a Hot Bod!
I thought this post was really great - had to share :-)
Momlogic's Winter: Zumba, a new fitness craze, is sweeping the country so fast that I had to check it out here in Los Angeles. Days later, my butt still hurts.
I consider myself a fairly fit woman, logging in four-plus workouts a week, drinking sugar-free cranberry juice daily and giving random lectures to friends and family on the importance of veggies. However, nothing could have prepared me for the butt-breaking combination of salsa, hip hop, cardio and strength training known as Zumba. All I could say during every combination was, "Thank you, God, that I have rhythm."
Walking into the dance studio at 7 a.m., there was a whopping total of four other die-hard workout junkies. However, I found out some things very quickly:
1. When an instructor is late, he will make up for it by working you harder .
2. Small classes mean that he can yell at you like a Nazi easier and also...
3. Find out if you're taking an advanced class in the beginning, versus the end of the class.
The workout began with a quick dance-inspired warm-up and was followed by multiple salsa, merengue and hip hop combinations--with 3-pound weights in tow. Despite the early hour, the salsa music was amazing and my legs were remembering everything. I felt pretty good until we had to pull out the barre--the next 15 minutes was a grueling combination of butt-killing leg lifts to the back and side, 30 plus calf-raises on each leg, and push-ups and crunches in between sets.
"You gotta lift higher and go faster than that! WORK THOSE BUNS! BURN THOSE BUNS!" Wil kept barking in my ear as I was attempting to hold in my abs and not cling to the barre. After the barres were put away and squats and booty-shaking done, he had us pull out the mats for floor butt-work. Not lifting my leg high enough received a motivating poke as the Nazi/instructor loomed over me. But at the end of the class, he rewarded us with a soothing stretch.
I am currently feeling the endorphin kickback and relaxation that only a good workout can give. My trouble-spot tummy feels toned and the wobbly bits were engaged. And while I was thinking that the man was insane the entire class, I'll be going back soon for more.
According to a recent news ad:
Zumba is a fun and exciting fitness program inspired by Latin American dance. It combines Latin rhythms with cardiovascular exercise to create an aerobic routine that is fun and easy to follow. The name Zumba is derived from a Colombian word meaning to move fast.
Zumba utilizes the principles of fitness interval training and resistance training to maximize caloric output, fat burning, and total body toning. It is a way of mixing body sculpting movements with easy-to-follow dance steps. The upbeat Latin rhythms take the work out of working out.
If that is not enticing enough, 'the class' (the class mentioned in this news ad is in Maine) is taught by a 53-year-old mother of four who proclaims to "live, eat and sleep Zumba." Watching her in motion is inspiring and it is no mystery why the class is full of happy people of all ages. Currently the age range of dancers is from 16 to 60 and they welcome more. Come join the fun and shake away your stress in this upbeat environment.
Samba Lines at the Gym
By MIREYA NAVARRO, LOS ANGELES
From New York Time, July 10, 2008
WITH a name like Zumba, the exercise class defined by its Latin rhythms and party atmosphere was not exactly an easy sell at first.
?Zumba?? people would ask. (It connotes buzzing like a bee, or going fast, in Spanish.)
Worse, it could have run the course of any other fitness fad: Word of mouth excitement. Feverish following. Media attention. Hardcore fans. Then on to the next fitness craze.
But five years after arriving in gyms and dance studios, Zumba Fitness (www.zumba.com) keeps expanding, most recently into schools, senior centers and unconquered territory like New York City, and some foreign markets.
A session of Zumba, a cardio-dance routine, can feel like a trip to the nightclub of a cruise ship, where a well-toned crew member teaches you to wiggle your hips and do the fast footwork for a mix of dance styles to the thump of loud music. While Zumba crowds are not plied with alcohol, people often throw away inhibitions ? they pump their arms, applaud, let out ?yeahs? ? as they work out.
More than 3.5 million Zumba DVDs have sold through infomercials and about 20,000 instructors in 40 countries now teach Zumba, 15,000 of those in the United States, said Alberto Perlman, the chief executive of Zumba Fitness, in Hollywood, Fla.
Recent additions include ZumbAtomic, a program on DVD for children 5 to 12 ; Zumba Gold, classes for people 60 and older; and Zumba Toning, a sculpturing program using weighted sticks that sound like maracas, offered on DVD and through classes starting this year. Still to come are water exercise classes called Aquazumba, and a guide to all things Zumba (including a nutrition plan) to be published next spring.
The man who started it all, Alberto Perez, 37, said he still does not fully grasp the empire he has created.
?Remember when Forrest Gump started running and people followed him?? Mr. Perez said. ?I feel like the Forrest Gump of dance.?
MR. PEREZ, a former aerobics trainer from Colombia, said he stumbled upon his fitness concept by accident. In 1986, as he was about to teach a class in Cali, Colombia, he realized he had forgotten his aerobics music tapes. He grabbed his own music from his car ? salsa and merengue from El Gran Combo, Las Chicas del Can and other popular bands ? and improvised the class.
From then on, he said, his students refused to go back to the old tum-tum-tum-tum aerobics beat. He taught in Bogotá, Colombia, and, in 1999, in Miami, where he got together with Mr. Perlman and another fellow Colombian, Alberto Aghion, to offer Zumba videos through infomercials.
The enthusiasm for Zumba is now in evidence in cities like Los Angeles, where more than 100 instructors offer classes. Most students are women, but the cross-section of ages, from 20 to 60 in one class, speaks of Zumba?s wide appeal, despite its challenging pace.
Over the course of an hour, a Zumba class will span a variety of dance rhythms, like mambo, cha-cha, cumbia, and merengue, with the occasional hip-hop or belly dancing move thrown in. Because instructors are free to put their own stamp on things, a sampling of classes in the Los Angeles area at prices from $10 to $15 a class yielded somewhat different styles.
Lisa Blasco at Anisa?s Dance Studio in Sherman Oaks, Calif., lent her class an old aerobics feel with shouts and clapping. Gina Amato at Do It Now Fitness Club in Los Angeles was quieter, focusing on movements like the upper body undulation of belly dancing.
At different sites in the San Fernando Valley, Juan Pablo Santana, a former aerobics trainer, kept an intense pace that combined dance with aerobics.
And at classes in Beverly Hills and Culver City, Wilson Williams, known to his followers as Wil, combined Zumba with boot camp: he makes his students do 10 push-ups and 30 crunches in between music sets and sometimes dance while holding 3- to 5-pound weights.
During his Friday afternoon class at Your Neighborhood Studio in Culver City, he instructed: abdomens in and out. But when most abdomens seemed to be on strike, he stopped the dancing and barked: ?Do 30 crunches and teach your tummy to listen to you!?
Talk to his sweat-drenched students, though, and all they recall is the fun. ?I wouldn?t call it a party, but it?s such a great way to dance,? said Barbara Linton, a health food caterer and avid walker in West Los Angeles who has been attending Mr. Williams?s classes for the last four months. ?It?s high-spirited, it?s uplifting. It?s brought me back to listening to music while I?m cooking.?
Health club industry representatives say Zumba is benefiting from higher attendance rates for group exercise classes and from a dancing trend in fitness that some clubs attribute to popular reality shows like ?So You Think You Can Dance? and ?Dancing With the Stars.?
The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association says dance classes have steadily expanded among its 5,700 member clubs. A census by the organization found that 1,017 of its clubs had dance programming this year, compared with 749 in 2002 and 603 in 2001.
DESPITE a sluggish start in New York City in 2006, Mr. Perlman said, instructor workshops in the city are now selling out. Lori Lowell, the national group fitness director for Gold?s Gym International, the country?s largest health club chain with nearly 600 clubs, says Zumba remains popular even at locations that started the classes five years ago.
She said the classes, offered at 120 locations, continue to grow, and attributes Zumba?s success to its simplicity. ?Easy moves, not a lot of talking or choreography,? she said. ?Because of the music, people are not afraid to try it.?
For clubs, Zumba?s appeal is that it requires no licensing fees or investment in materials, just a Zumba-trained teacher. (The training program is not rigorous: an eight-hour workshop is all it takes to become an instructor, with continued learning through CDs and DVDs and online access to new steps, music recommendations and tips.)
Ms. Lowell said the program could benefit from more stringent certification to maintain quality; Mr. Perlman said this was in the works for next year.
Zumba draws those adept at Latin beats, and about 30 percent of both instructors and those who attend classes are Latino, Mr. Perlman estimated.
Rosemary Lavery, a spokeswoman for the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, said Latino membership among health clubs has been on the rise, now accounting for 19 percent, compared with 15 percent in 2005, but she couldn?t say how much Zumba had to do with the trend.
On a recent Saturday night at the Spectrum athletic club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., for a Zumba dance-a-thon held by Mr. Williams, Fred Partiyeli, 44, said he enjoyed the classes but understood why he was among only a few men. ?Men mostly like to exercise the upper body and chest,? he said. ?They want to feel that their muscles are tighter. Zumba makes you sweat and you need a lot of coordination. If it goes too fast, I can?t follow.?
Some studios advertise that Zumba can lead to an 800-calorie loss per class, but Ms. Lowell said too many variables are at play to make such claims. Aerobics classes can burn 350 to 700 calories, she said, depending on the person.
Amy Wetzel, 24, said she has lost 28 pounds since January with Zumba, but she has taken five to six classes a week.
Fitness experts say Zumba is likely to endure. ?People want to do something that?s a lot of fun,? Ms. Lowell said. ?Where time flies by, and it?s not that complicated. They don?t want to think too much.?
Zumba Your Way to Fitness
Author: Vicki F. Chavis
Published: May 23, 2008
Thanks to Vicki Chavis for writing this awesome article on Zumba for all of us Zumba lovers and potential Zumba fans!
Working out shouldn't be drudgery, but often is. In a Zumba class you move muscles, burn calories and have fun while dancing to an irresistible Latin beat.
Spreading like wildfire, Zumba (pronounced zoom bah) has an ever-growing fanbase of mostly women, aged 10 to 100, who claim that Zumba is the best party around. (please read the full article here: Zumba Your Way to Fitness
High-energy exercise 'Zumba' created by Colombian is an international phenom (South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com)
High-energy exercise, rooted in South Florida, is an international phenom - By Nick Sortal, Sun Sentinel - February 3, 2009
At age 7, he mimicked John Travolta and led his playmates in Colombia through Grease routines.
At 18, he taught dance classes for children, and won a national lambada championship.
Now, at 38, Alberto "Beto" Perez -- the face of Zumba -- has the whole world dancing with him.
"You know that scene in Forrest Gump, where he starts running and then everyone joins in?" says Beto, who has a business office in Hollywood. "I feel kind of like Forrest Gump."
Drive a couple of miles in any direction and you'll hit a Zumba class. About 250 South Florida gyms, community centers and others offer classes. Some as many as 10 times a week.
Zumba is an aerobic workout combining salsa, merengue, samba, reggaeton and other Latin dance moves and music. Beto's simple goal: Make it fun. Make it playful. Make people dance.
And they do.
"I'll be standing in line at Publix and hear music and just start dancing," says Eileen Harmon of Tamarac, who takes a Zumba "Gold" class for seniors. "And people just look at me."
A few twists of fate
It all started because of Beto. And good businessmen and good timing.
"I came to the United States with no money," he says. "But I believed in the American dream. Work hard and persevere."
Beto grew up in Cali. He worked at an ice-cream store as a teenager.
"On my way to work, I'd walk past this dance studio, and I'd always stop and stare inside," he says. "Finally, they closed the blinds on me. But I kept practicing and I guess you can say that I had a God-given talent."
It got noticed. Beto competed in a Colombian TV station's contest in 1989 and took top honors in the dance of the era, the lambada. After that, the studio that once closed its blinds hired him, and he began taking classes from other teachers.
In the meantime, he also taught aerobics at another gym. Zumba legend has it that Beto forgot his aerobics music one day, and had only the salsa and merengue tapes in his car. With class ready to start, he decided to bring them in and wing it. There was no going back.
He made four trips to the United States to pitch what he called Rumbacize before moving here in 1999.
"I couldn't speak English very well, but I knew what I wanted to do in a class," he says.
Finally, an Aventura gym gave him one class. For a month. That soon grew to 22 classes a week in gyms across South Florida.
"I was working like crazy, but it was a happy crazy," he says. "I just kept persevering."
Getting to business
Meanwhile, by 2001, 25-year-old Alberto Perlman was riding the end of the dot-com boom.
"My mom says, 'There's this guy at my gym who's amazing; maybe you could do something with him!'" Perlman says.
The name Rumbacize had copyright issues, so they ran through the alphabet and came up with "zumba," Colombian slang for buzzing like a bee or moving quickly.
They launched an infomercial in 2002 via a partnership with a video company.
"My idea was to sell Zumba tapes, then go on to the next thing," Perlman says. "But people kept calling asking how to get licensed to teach it. So the model changed."
Now, along with a third partner, Alberto Aghion, they run Zumba Fitness LLC, a 28-employee business near Sheridan Street and Interstate 95 that includes Zumba clothes, instruction manuals and equipment such as weighted toning sticks that rattle like maracas when you work out.
Teacher licensing began in 2003. Instructors can buy a one-year license for about $250, or pay $360 to join a network that helps them with marketing and provides Zumba routines from Beto.
Today, about 4 million people a year in 40 countries take Zumba, Perlman says, and 20,000 instructors are licensed to teach it. An instructor convention in Orlando last October sold out at 1,000.
The partners admit to good timing: As TV viewers have gravitated to Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance? and similar shows, Americans' interest in dancing has soared.
Former pro wrestling personality Stacy Keibler, who competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2006, dances with Beto in a Zumba infomercial.
"We've had some luck," Perlman says. "There's, like, a hundred new fitness products a year and maybe one makes it. We're fortunate that we did."
Always a party
But that's the business part.
"I'm what they call 'the talent!'" says Beto, who lives in an apartment on Brickell Avenue in Miami. "I have no idea how much money I have. My accountant handles that. I'm not into the materiality."
Adds Perlman: "Beto is totally right-brained."
Beto now teaches one class a week, at Equinox Fitness Clubs in the Aventura Mall.
On a recent Wednesday, he pumps up the music. But Beto doesn't yell out directions. This isn't boot camp.
Instead, he whistles. And the 34 women look up. Then he points to his eyes. Follow me ...
The Latin beat takes over, and Beto is like a child playing in the sun.
When a new student struggles, he grabs her and merengues. When another woman takes an unscheduled water break, he fake-pouts and points to an imaginary wristwatch.
Liz Becker, 36, of Aventura, straps on two knee braces before the music plays, but whirls, twirls and shimmies with the best of them once Beto exhorts her.
"The time goes by so quickly, it's like not even exercising," Becker says.
That's the idea, Beto says. Make exercise a party. Make it fun.
He unconsciously rubs a scar on his forehead, earned while break dancing as a child in his backyard. "I love to make people smile," he says. "That's the best thing."
Nick Sortal can be reached at nsortal at sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4725.
