Dance Craze

Dancing in the kitchen, secretly imagining that you are 18 and a finalist on Dancing with the Stars… snap out of it, Mom, the kids are hungry. The closest you are going to get to that dream is heading out to a Zumba dance class, where you can dance your heart out, burn a pile of calories and release some endorphins.

Alana Hock of Dance with Alana, dance instructor extraordinaire, ran a series of trial Zumba classes over the summer that were so popular Glebe Fitness has now picked up two classes a week.

Zumba classes are a mash-up of salsa, merengue, tango, swing, cha-cha and even Bollywood moves from Indian musicals. Throw it all together, and you get a high-energy and calorie-burning tour of the world. Best of all, the moves are easy to follow and fun—the hour-long class flies by.

The Zumba craze was started by a Colombian fitness instructor who forgot his aerobics music one day and improvised a fitness class with the tapes he had in his car—traditional Latin salsa and meringue. The class soon became the most popular one at his gym. He later brought it to the U.S., where thousands of people started showing up at the party.

Find other classes around town through the Zumba website. If you can’t sneak out of the house and you really don’t want to miss the party, DVDs are also available at zumba.com.

So ditch the work out and join the party…that’s what the Zumbas say.

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