I did it! I joined the smelly, sweaty, awkward party yesterday!
Before heading over to the New York Sports Club to check out their Tuesday Zumba class, all I knew about this trendy workout craze was this: It's a workout to Latin music. And all the ladies in the Bally's commercials are smiling and shimmying and have really nice butts.
When I arrived, I surveyed my Zumbamates. All female. (Not surprised.) But still, it was a diverse bunch. Young and old. Thin and not-so-thin. Black, white, Cuban and Asian.... It was a real life Will Smith song!
The instructor, Shelly, immediately blasted very loud Latin music and waved us inside the large space, mirrors to our front, glass wall to our backs. She bellowed "Let's practice! Follow me!" and started dancing. Um, where's the instruction? Oh. There is none. This was a watch-and-learn kind of class. I wasn't aware of this at the time, but she was teaching us the steps that we'd later do in "the dances". This was our warm-up. It was warming.
Her only demand was that she wanted us to clap after every dance so she "could feel the energy". She also said, "follow me, and if you can't get the steps, just SHAKE IT!!" And of course these comments made me giggle a little bit. With that, we were off. The music was very energizing, indeed. The steps were fairly simple, if a little silly and whimsical. Lots of prancing. It required a good deal of hip+foot+arm coordination that I found challenging. Having taken ballet lessons for more than 10 years as a child/teenager, and then hip-hop classes as an adult, I'm familiar with how to learn dance steps quickly. I was able to get the sequences easily after a 4-count of missteps. And the format of Zumba is repetitious, so you have a few tries to get it right.
The most unfortunate part of this class was the floor-to-ceiling mirror directly in front of us. For Zumba, which is more about exercise than perfecting the steps or the form, I would have preferred to not see my awkward, flailing reflection. I tried to focus on Shelly's form and not watch my own. But occasionally I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked like a wounded stork.
Luckily, the rest of my classmates were no more graceful than I. Save for a tall girl who danced directly in front of me. She clearly Zumbas with frequency. But there was no art in her steps; only precision. She knew all the steps immediately, and perfected the "shake". Oh, what's the shake? Well, Zumba occasionally involves shaking one's ass violently from side to side with forceful hip motions. There are also lots of forward hip thrusts. Does this make one's butt cheeks firmer? Rounder? I don't know. It sure feels like ridiculous motions to perform in front of others. But all I know is that after an hour of dancing behind the tall girl with the good shake, her ass was inspiring.
Results: Zumba is fun! And a great workout, I was sweating. I still prefer the art and skill of hip-hop dance classes, but I'd happily Zumba again. I just need to work on looking less like a limping bird and more like a Latin princess.
Status: Success!
