A Fitness Party: the Zumba Craze

There is so much pressure to keep fit surrounding us on television, in magazines, in films… However some people can’t find time to fit it into their lives and they resent giving up their time for exercise when, well quite frankly, they see it as boring!

But where there’s a gap in the market, there’s a way… Zumba, and dance in general, has been seen as a way to turn sport into a party, and is even being utilised for a change in society’s attitude towards fitness.

In February last year Michelle Obama launched a “Lets Move!” campaign in order to promote health and well-being amongst American children. This was accompanied in April of this year with a video from Beyonce. In the music video for her track “Move Your Body” she is seen in a school cafeteria, showing off her new dance routine aimed at making exercise fun and entertaining. The routine was a hit on Youtube, and proof that dancing can be a popular way for people to keep active and lose weight. This has also been demonstrated by the latest craze across the nation – Zumba.

Zumba, a mix of Latin dance styles as an aerobics routine, currently has 12 million people taking classes in 110,000 locations across 125 different countries. No one could imagine how much of a hit this non-stop dance class would be, perfectly described as a “Fitness Party”.

Beyonce and Michelle Obama had the right idea encouraging kids to get active through dance – but one dance routine is eventually going to become boring (even if Beyonce is the one leading the class!) therefore the perfect substitute seems to be Zumba, it’s just one big dance party. With a raft of keep fit games focussing on the more fun, almost club-like, aspect of fitness, it’s a good way to enjoy sport if you have a desire to keep fit but can’t stand the thought of running on a treadmill. What a marketing slogan: take a Zumba class, you’ll feel like Beyonce.