So, sometimes in the middle of the night when I am nursing Archer and I am happy because I am under the illusion that it is 5am - that Archer has slept through the night - when in fact it actually only 2:30am (note to self: get a digital clock in the bedroom), I think of random things like "what should I title my blog tomorrow"? And since my blog was going to be about my experience at my first Zumba class, the possibilities were really quite endless. In the middle of the night, half asleep, I thought it might be a stoke of genius, for example, to call this piece - "Zumba-doba-do" or "So I know I can't dance" or "Zu-laander"... but "I, Zumba" was my favourite and hence, the title above.
Like I said, it was the middle of the night.
I *love to dance and sorta think I can dance... this is based on the fact that I spent 8 years as a child taking all sorts of dance lessons - jazz (I do a wicked "jazz hands"), ballet, tap, even Ukrainian. And I starred in my high school production of "42nd Street" in which I perfected my time step. Note I said "my time step" not "the time step". Good dancing was very much a relative thing at Catholic girls' high school.
It was for all of these reasons I thought it would be a good idea - in trying to get back into shape post-pregnancy - to try a Zumba class.
You've heard of Zumba, right? It's the latest workout trend - it's the Tai Bo of 2009 and is very much inspired by the public's obsession over shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing With the Stars". It is supposed to be a high cardio workout revolving around steps from various dance forms - salsa, hip hop, tango, etc...
I was skeptical about Zumba's high cardio potential - which, quite frankly, was exactly why I went. I'm trying to ease back into things and so, for example, despite the fact that I have gone to 2 spinning classes post-birth, I can hardly say that I have actually really gone "spinning" - I have really only gone to 2 classes that have played loud music in which I have moved the wheels of a stationary bike around on the lowest possible resistance for an hour. Still, I am *pretty pleased with myself.
But the Zumba class completely kicked my ass. In addition to the fact that I spent a lot of mental energy just trying to keep up with the basic steps, it's really hard to dance for a long time y'all! To tell you the truth, I just about gave up... I thought it would be ok to leave about 40 minutes in - I had done a respectable job all things considering. There would be no shame in leaving.
That was, until, I heard the opening of the next song... "Proud Mary"... you know the slow opening to that song... it slowed everything down with its bluesy steady rhythm and all of a sudden I could hear myself singing with the song under breath... "Left a good job in the city..." and slowly, despite my exhaustion, I started to feel inspired again - a whole new bolt of energy was surging - I started thinking of Tina and Beyonce and how many times, I secretly practiced these moves on my own in my condo. And I thought to myself, "this is my moment!" "I know this!"
And when that slow rhythm revved up to the full on rock n' roll pace, I was a crazed woman. I was moving to left and moving to the right and was pogo-ing up and down to the beat, not caring what anyone thought. It was glorious!
And then the song was over and I felt totally stupid.
But whatever. I got my Zumba money's worth and burned a whole crapload of calories. And you try not moving to this song... no seriously. Click on this link to a Zumba class in which they did the dance (and btw these women were *waaay better than the folks in my class - except for maybe the one sole guy who looked like "Lloyd" from Entourage and had clearly done this before) and see if you're not at least tapping your toes to the rhythm. And if you find yourself in the middle of song up on your feet, flipping your hair back and forth a la Tina and Beyonce, you might want to try and find a class near you.
zumba looks hard core, im kind of compelled to get my ass kicked by it
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