The Zumba Formula so you’re class isn’t Foomba!

What is the Zumba Formula?

• One move for each part of the song
• Each part of the song can include mini moves but make sure not to many to be hard to follow
• Each song should contain no more than 6 different parts because some songs are good for Zumba and some aren’t
• Use of clean music – so no profanity or sexual jargon
• Latin music, most of your class should contain Latin music and the rest can be a mix
• Latin music should be a balanced mix of salsa, merengue, reggaeton, cumbia, quebradita, samba, batchata, and also a mix of other international tunes like belly dancing, african, bangra, greek etc
• Last but not least, the class is taught by a LICENCED Zumba Instructor. So if you’re not licenced yet, please do, because we pay the money to become licenced, and some of us even pay for the membership ZIN fee (which I do) to remain up to date on the industry to keep classes interesting.  If not’s that’s FOOMBA!

LATAH CHICA’S !

Dancing with Tanya Beardsley in the Flesh B1 Zumba Training at Can-Fit-Pro

OM -effin- G! I did NOT come to know the meaning of Zumba Love until I met that girl on the right. Tanya Beardsley!!!!

When I booked the spot for the B1 Training at the Can-Fit-Pro conference (Zumba Fitness sponsored the event for the 3rd year in a row …woo hooooo!), I saw her name but I didn’t really know who she was but I knew she was more famous than the other ZES’s in in the area.  Main reason I just got into doing Zumba fitness classes in March of this Year which is only recently. 

When I took Zumba Gold training on July 18th I was chatting it up with another Zumba Fitness instructor and mentioned that I’ll be going to the B1 training with Tanya Beardsley. All of a sudden her eyes opened up wide with a big smile on her face and shaking her head in amazment and said ” Oh my God Tanya Beardsley is so amazing you’re really gonna love her”. It was like she was at a loss for words but continued to repeat how amazing she was.   So I was thinking okay great..it should be good then but wasn’t convinced that it was worth the $430 bucks I paid to be there. I actually called Can-Fit-Pro twice and asked what I’m getting for that money and they told me that if I was can fit pro certified I get four credits and stuff like that which isn’t worth much to me at this point.  So after hearing the feedback of the girl telling me about Tanya Beardsley I was like…..what can be so amazing about this girl…I thought….confused I was at that time.

After spending a few hours with Tanya Beardsley at the training I began to understand what she meant.  This girl beams with inspiration to all Zumba Fitness Instructors.

• What she says when she gives advice and how she speaks with conviction
• How she dances with a hip hop b-girl Latin style is aaammmmaaaazzinggg
• How she looks and dresses, she is beautiful, fit, sexy and coool!!!!
• How she teaches in a way so that you remember what she teaches you by asking you questions one after another in a funny way. And what’s your name? uuuuhhhhhhh hahah! love her!

She calls some of us on stage to dance with her like OMG. Here am I dealing with nervousness and feeling like I’m getting cold feet and I was in front row and she calls me on stage FIRST! .   Like OMG…I was freaking in my head.  It was the samba step which I totally know how to do because I was practicing at home a lot.  And you know what was the most surprising part to me? I didn’t get one butterfly in my stomach..and I wasn’t nervous as I expected to be. My anxiety was more coming from being excited rather than being afraid.   As I was following her with another instructor who also got called up to dance with her I was saying in my head “man everythings gonna be okay..I already know how to do these moves..and other variations of the samba step” WOW!!! That was a great confidence booster for when I do my own classes… IT WAS GREAT TO DANCE BESIDE HER ARM IN ARM!!!!

I asked her in the washroom if I could be her BFF and she smiled and said “suureee”, which would really be great I’d call or text her like every day;)  I took a photo with her at the end and I was like the third in line after the other fans and she was sweaty and said as I was about to put my arm around her and hers around me “oh I don’t wanna get my funk all over you”..and I said “Oh I’ll take your funk any day girl”…we smiled and took the photo.  

aBSOLUTELy the best day EVER in a long time!!!!

Just a few other things about Tanya:

• She lives in Manhattan, New York
• She cuts up her zumba t’s either mens or womens shirts and wears them
• Saw her in the dreamer zumbawear shirt and it looks ammmmazing! and chica sexy!!
• She has a muscular build now and some big guns! I forgot to ask her to flex for me or even arm wrestle..but she still looks sexy and very feminine
• She has a favorite golfer hat which she looks great in
• Some of her words to live by “Doubt Kills, Some movement is better than no movement at all, Give 130% when teaching your classes and maybe your classmates will give you back 50%, if 5 people don’t like your style there are 15 others that will, when you’re teaching if they don’t get the steps by the fourth round then simplify the steps for the next time, teach at the learning level of your class but give your energy 130%, the more energized your participants are the and the more they get the steps the more calories they burn, don’t repeat songs just make your steps easy enough so that they can do the steps to burn calories, 35% of the class routines should involve fitness moves by using a dance step and sprinkle a fitness variation into that step to keep it fun, music should be 70% international and 30% regular, that 30% should be included in your warmup and cooldown songs, use your warmup as a hook with easy steps to get everyone moving but make them work for the fund stuff, warmup should be 8-15 min and cooldown at least 5 min and the body of the workout 40 min and Zumba is a Fitness class based on international dance rythems not just latin music. 

Zumba Tunes – The Zumba Soul’s Playlist

The site playlist.com operates funny eh’ and deletes songs without notice or they just become unavailable. Anyway, I updated our playlist – Check it out – Beware of involuntary shoulder shimmies http://www.playlist.com/playlist/20072801803

Zumba Instructor Network ZIN- Is it worth it?

Well apparently it is and I’m going to list a few reasons for you:  For $30/month USD you can:

• Avoid paying the B1 Basic Zumba instructor training every year, or if you wish to take it get a big discount
• Qualify to take other instructor training sessions such as Zumbatomic, Zumba Toning, and Aqua Zumba and Basic 2 training at discount rates
• Get a 5 to 10 dollar discount off Zumbawear clothing
• Keep yourself up to date on Zumba coreography and music
• Get access to Zumbawear clothing that other non ZIN members don’t have access to
• Kept up to date on the latest events

Now if that’s not enough value fer ya I don’t know what is. I’m signing up as soon as I can after my Gold and Basic 1 training. Beto!@ Here I come!

Too bad we can’t get coin belts on the Zumba network but you can get one here:

http://www.zumbaworkoutscanada.com/buy_hip_scarves

Listen to Hot Zumba Dance Music Tunes

Missing Zumba Basic Training 2

Maybe it’s just me but don’t you find it’s a hell of a time finding when the next Zumba basic training 2 is being held? Maybe there is a mailing list that I’m missing out in being on or something. When I go to www.zumba.com/us/workshops/overview I don’t find any instances of another training session being held for that level.

For any of you who don’t know, this level focuses on Belly dancing, samba, flamenco, and tango.

Before I continue writing let me double check now: Search completed …and I got my hopes up for a sec there because when I clicked to search all locations in Canada, the screen only turned up:

• zumba basics 1 training – teach adults at fast pace
• gold training – teach adults and seniors at slower pace

I like zumba because it was designed for all ages – there’s even one for kids called zumbatomic.

If anyone can hear me out there why isn’t 2 being hosted by anyone…maybe we need to get the big man himself Beto to host that one. But I think you can’t host one until you take the course first and who knows when that’ll happen.

Hey I’m not too panicked about it because I know the belly dancing part already. I’m okay at doing samba but I haven’t got the flick of the hips incorporated with it yet. Flamenco is pretty easy but tango even though it is slow, I get confused over the footwork.

If anyone has news on this training being held, give me a buzz in the comments section on this post. Thanx! Don’t forget to check out my website for some cool stuff to experience at The Zumba Soul http://www.zumbaworkoutscanada.com/

How to Belly Dance

I decided to add a page on my website http://www.zumbaworkoutscanada.com/ on how to belly dance. It includes handpicked http://www.youtube.com/ videos on belly dancing techniques. I managed to find some pretty awesome stuff.

I took belly dancing lessons in Toronto a few years ago, only for fun because I married into a Middle eastern family and I wanted to be able to fit in. Who knew that it would actually turn out to benefit me years later.

If I end up teaching Zumba Fitness classes which is my goal, belly dancing will surely be something that will be in there. And not just the shimmies but more advanced techniques. I went up to intermediate level only because in the advanced level you had to begin handing props like canes and balancing things on your head more; basically to become a belly dancing goddess. It was all great fun too!

Did I mention that belly dancing lessons are pricey?? You can expect to pay about 300.00 per level and possibly more for the advanced level! ouch!

I did a little bit more research at http://www.zumba.com/ and found that the Basic 2 Training involves focusing on Belly dancing, Samba, Tango and Flamenco. Unfortunately I didn’t see any upcoming training sessions for that so at the point I have no idea how to take that level. I’ve taken maybe 50 or more Zumba Cardio Workout Classes already so I’m pretty familiar with all of them. The main point of these movements, fast or slow is to get your body out of your usual comfort zone and as time goes you get your body and your heart into better shape.

Did you know that with diet and exercise you reduce your risk of a stroke by more than 80%??

Got news recently that a Nascar driver got a stroke in his 40′s – I was surprised to hear that because he’s still young right. I automatically said maybe he wasn’t working out or exercising. It’s sad because I don’t think he can drive after that.

Because there are so so many techniques in belly dancing, I believe it’s the dance that gets you out of your comfort zone the most – of course second to doing latin moves of course which Zumba workout classes are known for.

I truly appreciate the zumba class instructors that appreciate using belly dancing and latin moves in their routines – some even encourage wearing coin belts during that point in the workout session – and all the more better when you can see in their expressions that they love it;)

Check out the Belly dancing tutorial videos posted on my website and get your freak on at The Zumba Soul at http://www.zumbaworkoutscanada.com/