Sometimes great ideas are born from accidents



Sometimes great ideas are born from accidents. In the mid-'90s, no one could have predicted the success of the Zumba® program, not even Alberto "Beto" Perez, who created the Zumba experience, after what many have called a true "happy accident."

 

THE ORIGINAL "FITNESS-PARTY"

As a fitness instructor in his native Cali, Colombia, Beto's life took an unexpected turn one fateful day in the mid-'90s when he darted off to teach an aerobics class and forgot his traditional aerobics music. He improvised using his own mix of music from tapes he had in his backpack (salsa and merengue music he grew up with). Spontaneously he created a new kind of dance-fitness, one that focused on letting the music move you (instead of counting reps over the music). Energy electrified the room; people couldn't stop smiling. His class loved it! And on that day, a revolutionary new fitness concept was born – the Zumba®Fitness-Party.

After the initial success in Colombia, he took the class to the United States in 1999. Zumba is considered exercise in disguise, with a typical class burning between 500 and 1000 calories.

As of 2009 there were more than 20,000 Zumba instructors in 35 countries.

Exercises

Zumba exercises include music with fast and slow rhythms and resistance training for fitness and losing weight. The music comes from the following dance styles: cumbia, salsa, merengue, mambo, flamenco, chachacha, reggaeton, soca, samba, belly dancing, bhangra, hip hop music, axé music and tango. There are seven different types of classes for different levels of age and exertion, including one based in the swimming pool.

Cumbia is a Latin American music style that originated in Colombia's Caribbean coastal region.

Salsa is a dance form with origins in Cuba as the meeting point of Spanish and African cultures. Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there are recognized solo forms such as solo dancing "suelta" and "Rueda de Casino" where multiple couples exchange partners in a circle. Salsa can be improvised or performed with a set routine.

Merengue is a style of Latin American music and dance with a two-step beat. Partners hold each other in a closed position

Mambo is a Latin dance of Cuban origin that corresponds to mambo music

Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part.

The Cha-cha-chá is a style of Cuban music. It is popular dance music which developed from the danzón in the early 1950s.

Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin Caribbean urban music. 

Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, it borrowed ideas from predominantly black popular music in the United States and Caribbean such as soul, funk, disco, electric blues, hip hop, and rap beginning in the 1960’s and zouk from the French Caribbean islands of Martinique &Guadeloupe, as well as reggae from Jamaica in the 1970s and the more melodic form of modern Jamaican dancehall.

Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical style originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions.

Belly dance or Bellydance is a "Western"-coined name for a traditional Middle Eastern dance, especially raqs sharqi. The term "Belly dance" is a translation of the French "danse du ventre" which was applied to the dance in the Victorian era. It is very misleading because you use every part of the body in the dance; the most featured body part usually is the hips.

Bhaṅgṛā is a form of South-Asian music and dance highly influenced by the culture and language of Punjab. Bhangra also refers to a folk dance. Bhangra dance began as a folk dance conducted by Punjabi farmers in 11th century to celebrate the coming of the harvest season.

Hip hop music is an American musical style that developed as part of hip hop culture, which is defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti writing.

Axé is a popular musical style originating in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil approximately in 1986, fusing different Afro-Caribbean genres, such as Marcha, reggae, and calypso. It also includes influences of Afro-Brazilian music such as Frevo, Forró and Carixada. The word "axé" comes from a Yoruba religious greeting used in the Candomblé and Umbanda religions that means "soul", "light", "spirit" or "good vibration".

Tango is a dance that has influences from European and African culture. Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former slave peoples helped shape the modern day Tango. The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download