Zumba Leader for a Day

Katie D.

February 1, 2011 - 6:31 PM

Something wonderful happened today.

Well, it started with something not so wonderful, with my Zumba teacher twisting her ankle. Lindsay is one of my very favorite people in the world, and is a fabulous dancing and dance leader. She loves Zumba and leading our classes, and has often told us that our goofy, happy dancing is the high point of a day.

So she wasn't about to let a twisted ankle stop the show.

For the second half of class, she had the experienced Zumba students come to the front of the room to help her lead. I went up front, and danced my heart out leading the whole room.

Zumba has been my major source of stress relief for the past year. I love how focused I get while I'm dancing, and how hilarious the whole process can be. Zumba dancing isn't particularly pretty. It's sort of like 1990's Jazzercizing meets Shakira music videos. It's funny. I concentrate super hard, shutting out the rest of the world and all my worries, and at the end of the song remember that what I was focusing on was a sequence of hip circles.

Zumba is silly and fast and it makes me feel a combination of the exhilaration of intense exercise combined with the sensation of just having been to a really good dance party.

Since it has been such an enjoyable and central part of my life and my self-care, I've managed to get pretty good at most of the dances. I might not be the world's most graceful dancer, but I've got the muscle memory part down. When we do a shimmy-circle, you can count on me turning the right direction. So being in front of the class was a joy. It fueled that part of me that wants to be acknowledged as a leader, even if it's just a silly dance class. It also renewed a sense of community with the other Zumba students who have taken a full year of classes with Lindsay, like I have. We were up there having a ball together.

I notice that the days which include Zumba classes are usually happier and healthier days. They include more hilarity on my part. In a week of feeling a bit frustrated with other elements of life, Zumba lets me feel like a goof ball. It's steadying, and re-centering.

Anyway, today felt like a truly red-letter day with Zumba to launch my morning. We even danced to one of my personal favorites, "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha. Don't even get me started on musicality or the bizarre social statement of having a dollar sign legally included in your name, but that is really quite a fine Zumba song.

I hope Lindsay has recovered by Thursday's class. And I hope my good Zumba vibes keep on rolling in. Dance on!