Shaking My Stuff at the Latin-Inspired Dance Fitness-Party

Over the summer, my girlfriend and I dipped our toes into new exercise classes at our new suburban YMCA. When fall rolled in, I planned to switch to basketball, but with a full schedule of math and science classes, I did not have too many free weeknights to commit to a team sport.

Instead, Rebecca and I had time for just one class. So we chose Zumba and Tuesday became another night we exercised instead of watching television.

“Zumba (The Zumba Song)”

I like quoting the official Zumba site, but “Latin-inspired, dance fitness party” is not particularly illuminating.

Zumba is an aerobics class with an emphasis on music. In some ways, it has to be a third cousin once-removed of those old Sweatin’ to the Oldies videos.

On our first day, the instructor jumped right in without any instruction. Rebecca speculated that she is used to regulars and does roughly the same routine every class. That has proven correct.

I really enjoy our instructor and the few other Zumba classes I have taken have confirmed her energy and creativity. The other instructors have stuck more to dance steps, hip movement and Latin music. Our regular instructor’s routines, set to popular music as well as traditional Zumba tunes, have more big movements, including squats, jumps and thrusts.

For a while, we had a routine in warming up with “Give Me Everything” by Pitbull and then switching to something I call “Zumba (The Zumba Song)” both because the lyrics repeat the word Zumba and because it perfectly captures Zumaba's fast pace and frequent left-right-left-left-right-left-right-right shuffle.

Half the fun of Zumba is wondering what song comes next on the weekly Hot Zumba Chart. Not every hit makes a good Zumba song. “Pumped Up Kicks” only lasted one week because the routine featured a lot of little kicks. “We Found Love” just made the charts last week.

Sometimes the right movements can redeem a song. For example, “Yeah” by Usher is way too clubby for me, but the movements are squats, so it feels like one of the best workouts.

One of my favorite combinations of song and movement is “I Wanna Go” by Brittany Spears. It is a little feminine, but we also do cross-body jumping jacks in the middle. Rebecca really likes “Waka, Waka” in which we do something resembling a side lunge.

For a few sessions in a row, we did Adele’s “Someone Like You” as a cool down. That was too much for me. What is this, Sweatin’ to Adult Contemporary?

The Gender Gap

Very recently, I saw the Zumba instructor passing through the weight room while I ran on the treadmill. She stopped and we chatted briefly about Zumba and the Y Cycle class she also teaches. Every indication is that I am a welcome regular to the class.

Yet, I still feel a bit awkward walking past all the other women. Even after three months of regular attendance, I am still the only guy.

First, I do not believe in exclusion based on race, religion, gender, national origin or sexual orientation. But I cannot help but empathize and I worry every time about invading someone’s safe space. Exclusion is wrong, but I’ll be a martyr rather than make women uncomfortable.

There was one other guy once. He too came with one of the woman regulars. For a moment, I felt like a hero, like I was breaking down barriers. I could not tell at the time if he was having fun or not, but he has not returned.

On the other hand, one of the women patted me on the shoulder, told me she respected me for coming and wished her husband would come too.

Of course, there are setbacks. One night while I waited to go in, a man coming out of the spin class looked at me and said “you must be either very brave or very single.” But I’m not sure I would have had the courage to do Zumba without Rebecca there to vouch for me.

Once More, with Feeling

I keep going because it is more fun to do cardio when it feels like a dance party than to do 50 minutes on the treadmill, even if in other situations I hate dance parties.

I have said before that a great adventure is when you get to live out the best part of classic movies. Zumba is my Billy Elliot moment. But ballet, while a source of embarrassment for a young boy from a working class neighborhood, does have a required masculine component. Zumba doesn’t have a Mikhail Baryshnikov.

I joked before that Zumba is the best boob workout I have ever had. There is a lot of chest shaking and butt gyrating. One night, we even did Peggy Lee’s “Fever” complete with slinky hip swings. There are many songs I do a sort of twist while the rest of the class is doing a rump shaker.

Zumba is a tiny bit gender-bending. It is possible that Zumba is more like a Priscilla Queen of the Desert clip.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what musical I am doing, what matters is that it is fun to break out in song and dance. It is why people do flash mobs, I imagine.

Zumba is most accurately a jukebox musical. Our favorite is probably “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon Five, which we have been doing since day one.

I requested it at a wedding recently, thinking that since Rebecca and I had a choreographed routine we could totally be that couple that takes over the dance floor. It did not quite work out that way, but the photographs are still priceless.

I said before that Zumba is competition for television. But it is really a complement for job night in our house. Sixty minutes of high energy Latin dance is sometimes just enough to prevent me from crawling into the fetal position.