I am standing in an empty nightclub at 9.30 on a Saturday morning, watching more than 100 women (and a few shy-looking men) queue to pay their £10 entry fee. Tru Nightclub, on Brighton’s West Street, still feels a little warm from the evening before – like the ghost of last night’s revelry is still in the venue, spritzing it with room spray that smells of youthful sweat and pineapple-flavoured Bacardi Breezer. A sausage stand, which must sputter into life on the pavement outside most evenings, is parked by the cloakroom, grease-free and gleaming. It’s not the obvious place to take an exercise class.
Only it’s not a “class” – it’s a party! I’m at the launch of Brighton’s monthly Zumba Party, the brainchild of ex-music industry executive Gillian Millar and events organiser Sarah Walker, who discovered the Latino dance-based aerobics craze a little over a year ago. Millar came to it while trying to shift 3st after having her son. “I lost all the weight I’d gained during my pregnancy by doing three Zumba classes a week in London,” she says. “And I loved it so much that I decided to train as an instructor when I moved to Brighton.”
Millar and Walker decided to take Zumba’s slogan – “Ditch the workout and join the party” – literally. Both women were bored of gyms and thought that taking the class – easy-to-follow workout routines set to salsa and merengue music – to a nightclub might remove the self-consciousness of joining a health club. “It works because there are no mirrors,” says Millar. “There’s no pressure to look a certain way and there are no fluorescent strip lights.”
Zumba is not hip, and doesn’t pretend to be, but it has become big business around the world. It was created by Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto Perez, while teaching an aerobics class in his homeland in the mid-90s. The story goes that Perez had forgotten his regular aerobics music and had to use a tape of recorded Latin songs for the class he was teaching; he threw in a couple of samba moves here, a salsa swivel there and it was such a hit that he renamed the lesson “Rumbacise”. Word got out that a fun new class had started and people began turning up in droves.
By late 1999 Perez had moved to Miami, where he met investors Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, who saw its money-making potential, and Zumba Fitness LLC was born. More than a decade later their venture has grown into a full-blown fitness phenomenon – more than 10 million Americans take a Zumba class each week, with 50,000 classes taking place across 75 countries worldwide on a weekly basis. Perez has also launched a host of spin-offs – specialised classes for children (Zumbatomic) and the over-50s (Zumba Gold), clothing lines, DVDs and a Zumba Fitness Wii game. Celebrity fans are a dime a dozen: Victoria Beckham, Natalie Portman, Madonna and Shakira are all said to be hip-shimmying Zumba fans. Last year Michelle Obama incorporated it into her Get Moving campaign and a mass Zumba class was taught on the White House lawn at the launch.
The “get fit and have fun” ethos is the key to the success of Zumba, says Millar. But it’s also a business model that works. Instructors operate as a franchise, paying for training sessions and CDs and using Zumba branding; the only caveat is that 70% of the class must be taught in the official Zumba style, and only 30% is under the creative control of the instructor. Millar and Walker aim to launch Zumba parties in nightclubs in other towns and cities this year, while also concentrating on children’s parties, corporate events, hen parties and festivals.
Back at the club, I’m stumbling my way through the hour-long class when I notice something remarkable: everyone is looking happy, as if we’re all slightly uncoordinated extras in a pop-music video. The three instructors, including Millar, don’t shout instructions – you just follow their steps as best you can. There are two (male) live percussionists on the stage, drumming enthusiastically, lost in the music, which flits from samba and salsa, to bhangra and African beats – even a touch of hip-hop. A couple of belly dancers burst out from behind the stage and dance into the crowd, adding to the already surreal atmosphere. I now understand why fans tend to evangelise: as well as getting fit (burning up to 1,000 calories per hour), it really is fun. Even the once-lingering smell of Bacardi Breezer has long since faded into the background.
Zumba Party Brighton takes place every first Saturday of the month (zumbapartybrighton.com). Independent Zumba classes are held across the UK (zumba.com)
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