In the 1990s, a Colombian dancer and choreographer called Alberto ‘Beto’ Perez forget to bring a tape of aerobics music to the class he taught. Instead he found a tape containing salsa and merengue music (both types of Latin American dance) in his backpack. He decided to combine the moves of both styles and zumba was born! The new dance fitness programme became so popular that Perez teamed up with his friends Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion and took it to the USA. A company called Fitness Quest took one look at the demo video and licensed it. The rest as they say is history!
The Zumba Academy was set up in 2005 to train instructors. Today, zumba classes are held in over 150 countries and the workout has more than 14 million and followers.
Zumba incorporates moves from a host of dance forms such as hip-hop, soca, samba, mambo, belly dancing, martial arts and even Bhangra! Each session is about an hour long and there is a different-Zumba routine for different age-groups. There is even a workout for the swimming pool called Zumba Aqua and video games based on zumba.
Celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Jackie Chan and Victoria Beckham are said to be zumba addicts.
Picture Credit : Google