Go Zumba!!

It’s touted as the best thing to have hit India since the yoga wave. I had heard rave reviews of this new ‘fitness revolution’ which is taking the world by storm and was thus elated when I was given a chance to experience and write on the phenomena called ‘Zumba’.

I should tell you that I am fairly fit and active. I religiously do aerobics and swear by a 40-minutes brisk walk daily for good health.

I called up to enquire and the instructor enthusiastically welcomed me for a trial session. “You’ll want to continue, I can assure you” were her closing words. ‘She’s just doing PR’ were my thoughts.

So, on D-day, it was with some amount of skepticism that I entered the class.

I was greeted by a smiling and excited group of men and women, a mix of fat and thin, young and not-so-young, all eagerly awaiting their instructor to start the class.

Well start it did and within minutes, the entire group was completely transformed, right in front of my eyes! They seemed to follow the instructor’s steps with ease. What began as a warm-up soon morphed into a trans-like orchestra of men and women dancing to red-hot Latin music, their smiles only getting bigger as they moved their bodies to match the dance-beats and their friends around.  

Their smiles were infectious and I soon joined them as they did their side-punching, hand-shuffling, hip-swinging thumkas in tune with the peppy music.

The one hour that followed was a heady mix of exotic rhythm, thumping Latin beats and a non-stop combination of kicks, shoulder-shaking, rounds and turns, squats and claps.

I was dancing in front of complete strangers and it didn’t bother me. I was in a space of my own, where every step I took, in tune with the reverberating beats playing in the background, I felt a step closer to achieve an even superior level of fitness.

I didn’t realize how soon the hour passed and we reached the end of my session.

Even as I write this blog two days later, I can still feel the beats pulsating below my feet. My body feels light, agile and spunky. I feel greater vitality and energy running through my veins. And I wish to tell the instructor that she was right: I want to continue!!