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11/23/2018 A Short History of Zumba - Womens Fitness Club

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A Short History of Zumba

ubs.antaris.ca/)
(https://womens tnessclubs.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2012/07/OZ14.jpg)
WFCC Promenade members enjoying a
special outdoor Zumba class with our
instructors!
If you’ve been to the gym at all in the past several years, you’ve probably seen or taken a Zumba class. (We’ve
got lots of them here at WFCC (https://womens tnessclubs.com/classes.php?class_cat_id=5).) This Colombian
exercise-dance style incorporates international in uences including Caribbean dance styles like soca, South
American dances like meringue and samba, Indian styles from Bollywood lms, and even martial arts (it’s
similar to the Brazilian martial art/dance capoeira (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira)in that way). Zumba
is also one of the most fun, and best fat-burning, workout classes out there. Over 12 million people all over
the world take Zumba classes every year.

But where did Zumba come from, and how did it get so popular?

Zumba was created by the choreographer and tness instructor Alberto “Beto” Perez in the mid-1990s.
According to the o cial Zumba website (http://www.zumba.com), it was a result of a “happy accident” – Beto
was on his way to teach an aerobics class and realized he’d forgotten his music. He didn’t have time to
double back and get it, so he improvised, using the salsa and merengue tapes he happened to have on him.
Instead of strict rep-counting, he ended up improvising a class that was the perfect mix of dance and
aerobics that kept his students moving and having fun!

In 2001, he started teaching his hybrid dance/aerobics in Miami, and through another “happy accident”, he
got in touch with two other Albertos – Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion. Together, they called the new
style “Zumba”, a word that doesn’t have any speci c meaning but has become synonymous with this great
combination of tness and fun, and brought it to tness centres all over the world.

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11/23/2018 A Short History of Zumba - Womens Fitness Club

Zumba was designed to be low-impact, and to be an intense and e cient calorie-burning workout that is
adaptable and suitable for all di erent ages, body types and levels of tness. At Womens Fitness Clubs of
Canada, we aim to help women of all ages, shapes and sizes reach their tness goals in a healthy,
comfortable and supportive environment. Zumba’s philosophy therefore ts in well with ours!

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