Margot Venema
On Thursday May 10, an impressive total of 193 people gathered at the Rotary Sports Park for the BCRPA and Healthy Families BC Move for Health Day to do Zumba.
Zumba is the latest hot fitness thing to do. Alberto “Beto” Perez created this Latin dance-inspired exercise program by accident in the mid-1990s. At the time, Perez was an aerobics fitness instructor in Cali, Colombia. One day he discovered that he had forgotten his traditional aerobics music when he was about to teach his aerobics class. So he decided to use the salsa and merengue music he had with him instead and focused on letting the music move you. The class turned out to be a great success and from there it grew. At present, Zumba is practiced by 12 million people of all ages, in over 125 countries.
The number of people participating in the Zumba Fantastica event shows how popular this dance now is in Clearwater. After an hour of dancing in the evening sun there were healthy snacks and lots of prizes. All participants went home tired but with smiles on their faces and a little fitter.
– Margot Venema