How to Throw a Zumba Party

I attended a fantabulous Ladies Night at the Orem Rec Center last evening.  I was fortunate to have my marathon-running friend Chellese join me to which I am tremendously grateful.  Lady Night just doesn't have the same ring to it.

They had some beautiful fruit and vegetable trays set out, some giveaways (I didn't win) and then they had a bunch of physical fitness activities.  They had a woman who showed you around the weight room giving tips on weight training, water aerobics, spinning class, and of course a 90 minute Zumba party.

It was one of those legit parties, complete with spotlights and a stage, and I kind of felt like I was going to a high school dance without the nervousness of a wallflower (again, thanks to my hot date).  The party coordinators and Zumba instructors were wonderful, high energy, organized, and in general great hosts. 

Since this was my first Zumba party, and my brain is immersed in conference planning for my job, I couldn't help but pay attention to the details that make for a great Zumba Party experience.  So, as a gift to all of my certified Zumba instructor friends (current count: 0) here is a list of the details you might want to keep in mind in planning one of these babies:

• The stage needs to be about eye level--anything lower, it is tough for the people in the back to see
• Lower lights, to keep anxiety low for new people
• Flashing color lights to keep the energy high
• Lots of Shakira
• Encourage people to spread out and ask them to stand with their arms wide out to both sides to do a quick check
• Have 3 instructors on stage to have more people to follow and to keep the energy high
• Stick with songs with a steady beat; remixes and syncopated songs are hard to follow
• Stick a plant in the crowd to periodically yell out encouraging words or exciting cheers
• Aim for surround sound--placing speakers in the back can help pump up the jam
• Keep a sound person on call so that if anything goes wrong with the sound, you have someone there to keep the instructors free
• Hand out some little belly dancer/gypsy scarves so people can shake their hips with an amplified sound track

I highly recommend the Zumba Party and hope to attend a few here and there when possible.

Three Dimensional

For so long I have felt like a one-dimensional person, whose main conversation topic is education.  As I counted a 4th arrow in my quiver, I could add failing parenting and/or managing children to my topics.

Most everything else I don't have much to offer.


But I have a NEW thing that I want to talk about:  Zumba.

I have always been a zumba girl, I have been attending classes off and on for a number of years starting with a salsa aerobics class about 7 years ago with my beloved instructor, Sergio.  If only I blogged at that time, I link you to a few pics of him.  He was truly adorable, a little latino man with a motorcycle.

The class was full of older latinas who were very focused on Sergio's physique.  I tried to avert my eyes because, well, strangers who are good-looking like that kind of embarrass me.  I wish now my gaze had lingered longer, but, I am sure I am not lacking anything in my life for having a cloudy memory.

For the years in-between, I went to hip-hop and a few zumba classes in Sacramento, and then I kind of petered out when we got to SB.  I started to pick up SOME momentum again before we moved thanks to the efforts of my friend Lisa who helped encourage me to go by... going.

Now I live in Orem which has GOT to be some kind of zumba capital.  I go to a class 4 nights a week plus Saturdays and it is PACKED.  I like all the instructors and the classes are good exercise, but one of the instructors is absolutely phenomenal.  She is easy to follow yet she does some fun steps that keep my mind off of the fact that I am exercising.  She is super energetic without being annoying AND her taste in music is so similar to my own it is uncanny.  So I stayed after class to get to know her, maybe kind of stalkerish to her since apparently in Utah there are so many students in the classes they don't even need to ask your name.  It turns out that she is one of those amazing people who has six kids, an amazing body, and a podcast--and she is a great instructor to boot.

I feel like I should thank her and of course Chellese my awesome friend who got me started down the road of fitness, for my current happy mentality about life.  Exercise really DOES make a difference and may I always remember how much nicer I am to be around when I am taking care of my body.


So next time you see me, I will be happy to show you the 20 youtube videos I string together to make a workout when I can't go to class, or talk about a playlist, or contemplate whether the classes in Utah have cleaner music than they do in California.

3-D me.