If you know me well, if you’ve read my blog before, if you’ve seen me on a dance floor, or if you’ve bumped into me at Platt Lane Sports Complex talking about the new Zumba classes, you will already know… I LOVE TO DANCE!!!
I am honoured to have been trained by totally inspiring Mexican Zumba instructor Sandra Bayliss in April 2018, with the hope of bringing Zumba classes to Manchester Met students and members of the local community at Platt Lane Sports Complex!
The training day was 8 hours, combining highly energetic dancing, and sitting down writing notes on genres, rhythms, specific dance moves and all kinds of visualisations to help us remember moves. Visualisations like landing a plane, rubbing your boobs up a wall (lol) for the body roll, chopping the sugar cane, carrying a candle… And for me, these visualisations have really helped with the learning process.
And my is it a learning process?! I have spent hours and hours listening to the different tracks, identifying intros, verses, bridges, choruses and breakdowns all in a language I don’t yet understand! Then came the watching of the Zumba Instructor Network DVD On repeat. Throughout summer, watching and practicing, even drawing little stick men with arrows in different directions to help me memorise portions of tracks.
A major springboard moment in the learning process was when I enjoyed dancing to a free Zumba-for-everyone class in the streets of Columbia, where Zumba comes from! This was a recent trip and dancing with everyone in the streets to Zumba, was a real life affirming moment! It gave me a real boost for the mind, body and soul, it gave me more confidence in my Zumba dancing, and I learned some news moves too!
I felt so happy to see all ages of people , all genders, getting right into it, and it was FREE! Apparently this happens every Sunday in the Trinidad Square in Cartagena. How’s beautiful is this? GOALS! Loads of people were wearing the yellow Colombia football team shirt, and there was a real electricity in the air, because Columbia had just won their first World Cup 2018 game that afternoon! They were out a few weeks later, but hey, people still experienced pure excitement and pleasure in the moment, that lifted their souls.
Which brings us back to the power of DANCE! Specifically Zumba! Zumba Fitness really is ‘the most joyful money machine on earth’ Haha.
And there’s a reason why Zumba is the most successful dance class in the world. In fact there are many:
Not only do you lose yourself in all the intoxicating, colourful, vibrant rhythms of reggaeton, salsa, cumbia, merengue and more… You also reap these benefits: Calorie and fat burning, improved coordination, full body workout, aerobic benefits, anaerobic benefits, confidence boosting, increasing self esteem, it gets you hooked on exercise, anyone can join in, it is social and IT IS FUN!
I learned on the Zumba course that your participants might not really remember how to execute correct technique, but they will remember how you made them feel. I love this.
During my first ever Zumba class, I got the giggles at the start, but a few tracks in, I was lost in the music, I had lost all my inhibitions, I was FEELING THE MUSIC and I started to notice my mood was getting more and more lifted with each track. The intensity varies between each track, to create an interval training session, better for fatburn and preserving energy for more intense moves! But gradually the moves get more intense and complicated, as you pick them up and own it!
There is so much to say, but I must dash. I am so ready for tonight’s session! All fitness levels welcome. From experienced dancers to complete beginners (18+) come and give my Zumba class a go!
Wednesdays 6-7pm at Platt Lane Sports Complex, Fallowfield, Manchester.
£4.70 per session or included in the gym membership.
Bring a water bottle and a towel! See you in the fitness studio in the Leisure Dome! LET’S DANCE!
Here’s the brand new Platt Lane Sports Complex fitness class timetable. See you there!
Fiona Ledgard Personal Trainer 