zumbafuerteventura

Where is everybody? I mean, everybody? OK, let’s see, there was Semana Santa, then Feria de Abril, then Día del trabajo... But that’s it. Is it? There were very few people attending recently. And when I say very few, I really mean very few. You know that even if just one person turns up, I give a class. During the last two weeks, three classes were cancelled. Not a good sign.

If you remember, two months ago I did my first fundraising Zumba class in CEIP “Antoñito El Farero”. Which I thought was a success: local people were talking (at last!) about Zumba. So I did expect a little bit more turnout for our second Zumba event on 7 May 2012. Obviously I was wrong. Maybe it was too short a notice, but there were far less people yesterday.

Could it be that everybody was watching Gran Hermano instead? For some time, my fellow Spanish Zumba instructors were discussing Zumba being promoted on The Big Brother. Personally I do not subscribe to a view that every publicity is good publicity. Zumba, “as seen in Gran Hermano”? If I never heard about Zumba, I would probably say “no, thank you”.

Still, I got my endorphins going wherever they go, couple of new songs were learned for the occasion, and there were children who apparently enjoyed Zumba too (especially the fact that some of them got to wear hip scarves). Tamara did two songs with me, Hecha Pa’lante and La Gota Fría. All in all, I think it was not a bad class.

Song List

1. Mbube — Warm-Up (1) — African song — by Miriam Makeba
2. Samba De Janeiro — Warm-Up (2) — Samba Dance
3. Chillin’ — Merengue
4. Vivre — Salsa — by Zap Mama
5. Alegria Pa Zumbar — Samba
6. Busamba — Salsa / Cha-cha-chá
7. La Peinada — Quebradita
8. Hecha Pa’lante — Bellydance
9. La Gota Fría — Cumbia
10. Hindu Cumen — Indian Fusion / Cha-cha-chá
11. Mambo — Rumba Flamenca — by Bandoleros
12. Caipirinha — Brazilian Dance / Bellydance
13. Aña Pa’ Mi Tambor — Salsa — by La Excelencia
14. Zorba — Sirtaki
15. Vuelvo al sur — Cool-Down — Tango — by Gotan Project

This is the fourth and probably the last Aqua Zumba CD/DVD set I am getting (and therefore reviewing). I suppose I still will be able to purchase the follow-ups but frankly I don’t see why I should.

Music: not especially bad, but nothing remarkable. I heard Hola my Friend already on MegaMix 25 (although there it was called “Pacific Rhythm” rather than “Polynesian Rhythm”, even though it sounds like calypso to me). And of course, Daler Mehndi’s bhangra is always a welcome addition to the usual merengue/salsa/cumbia/reggaeton programme.

The choreo... once again, not bad, but nothing to write home about. Also, I have nothing against using the bench, but hanging on the frame looks like an extravagance I can live without.

Song List

1. La Mujere Quieren Más — Merengue *
2. Cumbia de mi Tierra — Cumbia *
3. La Extranjera — Reggaeton — by K.L.C. Clave Cubana
4. A Gozar Timbero — Timba / Cha-cha-chá *
5. Hola my Friend — Polynesian Rhythm ◊
6. Tú Tienes — Merengue *
7. Me Enamoro de su Piel — Cumbia — by Periko
8. Oxígeno — Salsa *
9. Ho Jayegi Balle Balle — Dance / Bollywood — by Daler Mehndi

* Covers
◊ Zumba Fitness originals

The brand new ZIN newsletter (April 2012) says:

First Zumba^® Instructor Conference Is a Worldwide Hit! Top-notch media from all over the world traveled to London, England in February to visit the first-ever Zumba^® Instructor Conference. Reporters were blown away by the passion and off-the-charts energy of our instructors.

And what could be the best way to commemorate this historic event? Two scenarios spring to mind.

• The truly cunning: to present the highlights of the Conference in such a way that anybody (both attendees and those who did not find either time or money to go there) would not just think that it was half grand well spent, but also ready to part with such (or larger) sum come the next conference.
• The really nice: to give back something useful to ZINs whose hard-earned cash made this conference possible in the first place. (But frankly, I wouldn’t put much money on it).

Guess what? Neither of these. Instead, we are sent just another £@€%!#$ CD/DVD set.

On ZIN 38, the music keeps hitting new lows, what with annoying trademarking, imaginative lyrics like “Dancing the salsa, Zumba te llama” (Dancing Salsa), misinformation (Zumba Time!! is not a calypso) and even a house song. And did anyone notice the small print on the disc:

All songs PPL & PPCA free except track #6.

That’s new. I just checked all ZIN CDs and DVDs I have: none of them has exceptions like this. I don’t care much about Pitbull’s song but this sets an unpleasant precedent. After all, thousands of instructors are using Zumba’s covers or even so-called “originals” instead of the real thing precisely because they are free to use without paying additional licenses.

On DVD: another masterclass by Beto, no better (to put it mildly) than Beto’s classes from the times when ZIN volume numbers were in their twenties and the man himself still did care about stuff. The choreography is rather tired, with the only exception of The Trip. Wait a minute. Is this really Beto or his avatar from Zumba Fitness Rush?

Another novelty is that there are three different instructors in one-on-one class, each presenting three songs. This may be not a bad thing, considering that you are bound to dislike at least one of them. As an icing on the cake, we are reminded that we are not supposed to break down the steps for the class. Nice.

Song List

1. Bunda — Merengue — by Watatah
2. Dancing Salsa — Salsa ◊
3. The Trip — Arabian Reggaeton *
4. Loco — Cumbia ◊
5. Eva Maria — Quebradita *
6. Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor) — Hip House — by Pitbull feat T-Pain
7. Zumba Time!! — Calypso — by Watatah
8. Balans — Caribbean Hip-Hop — by K-Liber4life
9. Stereo Love — House *

* Covers
◊ Zumba Fitness originals

One year ago to the day, I qualified as a Zumba Fitness instructor and joined ZIN. Like many other things, this happened by accident. For a couple of months, I was entertaining the idea of becoming Zumba instructor while still in the UK (the plan to move here was around for much longer). However, according to the Zumba website, there were no Zumba Basic training anywhere close to Cambridge. In February, I was visiting the USA and came back to England for a few days before flying to Fuerte. Out of curiosity, I went to check the Zumba web again. And behold, a miracle! There were places for training in Peterborough on 15 April. So I went ahead and booked my place. As soon as I did that, the Zumba web site was showing the same course as “sold out”. Maybe there was just one place available, the cancellation or something.

The training, with Naomi Mokoena and Natalia Bull, was great. By the end of day I was thoroughly exhausted and just wanted to lay down. The rest... well, is not history yet, but it is covered in this blog in reasonable detail.

All in all, it was a rewarding thing to do, if not financially, then as an experience. How long will I stay with ZIN and give Zumba classes, is another matter. Check this space one year later.

Thank you Tamara Kulikova and Luisa Curbelo: I would never go that far without your support.

I loved The Samba Reggae Workout so much that I decided to get another one by Quenia Ribeiro. Perhaps inevitably, I kept comparing this DVD with SRW.

Here, Quenia introduces samba no pe (Rio-style samba). She breaks down the basic steps — and then not-so basic steps — in the tutorial section, and there are enough repeats to get at least some hang of them. If not, go to the beginning.

The warm-up, just like in SRW, is more like cool-down. But here it is extra-long: 27 minutes! This is like a workout on its own. During the cardio workout proper, we are going through all the steps and moves from the tutorial, first slow, then at the “real samba tempo”. Which means, fast. Really fast. At least for me. Unless you know the choreographies from the tutorial real well, it’s almost impossible to follow the fast bits. The good news is, that the first four sections of cardio workout exactly correspond to the sections of tutorial, so you can work, say, on section 3 only. The last part of the cardio workout combines all four choreos at the full speed.

The cooldown is surprisingly short (under three minutes!) but, as it utilises some of the warmup moves, I guess one could freely borrow from that section to pad it up.

SRW features the live samba band playing on the same stage as the dancers. Alas, no such luxury here. The backing track is very repetitive, even by samba standards. But I guess you were not going to use it anyway.

Cardio Samba Workout

Check it out: live class with Beto. Cardio party with Beto, Tanya and Gina. Beto. Beto. Tanya. Live class with Beto, one-on-one with Gina. Beto. You get the idea. Tanya, with guest appearance of Beto. Beto with some guys. Beto again. And now, ladies and gentlemen... Tanya and Gina. Why am I not so thrilled? I’ll tell you why.

But first, I have to declare that I may be prejudiced. I heard a lot of (mostly negative) opinions about ZIN 37 long before I started to worry whether my own copy was lost in transit. Which seems to be the case. Finally, when the MegaMix 28 arrived, I sent a note to Zumba Home Office and, to their credit, they sent me a replacement copy pronto. After watching it, I almost regretted troubling them. It was so not worth waiting for.

Remember the worst ZIN MegaMix you ever heard? I promise, music-wise ZIN 37 is even worse. The live class in Frankfurt is... to say “disappointing” would be an understatement. The dance routines feature a lot of clapping, apparently designed both to work the class into frenzy and enliven the dull choreography. When Tanya and Gina appear together on the stage, the choreo does not seem to be well coordinated between the two. It is embarrassing to listen, embarrassing to watch. It must be embarrassing squared to dance to it — not that I tried. How does it feel to teach this?

One-on-one class with Lindsey Taylor is more watchable (as far as the annoying distorted-honeycomb background allows) and the choreo looks more interesting. But it cannot save the sheer awfulness of the music.

Song List

1. If You Wanna Dance — Techno Cumbia ◊
2. Hasta Que Se Rompa el Cuero — Salsa *
3. La Bomba — Merengue / Techno Cumbia ◊
4. In a Search — Reggaeton — by Obie P
5. Mr. Saxobeat — Eurodance *
6. Vino Tinto — Rumba Flamenca / Pop
7. Sexy Movimiento — Electronic / Reggaeton *
8. Asi Te Quiero Ver — Merengue — by Fulanito
9. Quiebra — Quebradita ◊

* Covers
◊ Zumba Fitness originals

If you, like myself, thought that MegaMix 27 was bad, what can be said about the latest compilation? MegaBad? Don’t you feel sick of another axé by Ceceu Muniz, another rumba flamenca by Bandoleros? Apart from Nachde Ne Saare, absolutely nothing, I repeat, nothing of interest.

One would think that with so many new ZIN members paying their licence fees, ZIN should have enough money to bring us some decent music. Instead, they send something that I wouldn’t bother downloading for free.

Song List

1. Merengue con Letra — Merengue *
2. Barranquillero Arrebatao — Salsa *
3. Lovumba — Electroflow / Reggaeton *
4. Todo Duro — Axé — by Ceceu Muniz
5. Rumbatone — Rumba Flamenca / Reggaeton — by Bandoleros
6. I Wanna Go — Dance pop *
7. Baile Privado — Urban Merengue *
8. Ay Mami — Socaton *
9. Nachde Ne Saare — Punjabi — by Devender Khannewala
10. A Heart That’s Full of Love — Acoustic Pop ◊

* Covers
◊ Zumba Fitness originals

Spring is here, and the carnival came to Corralejo! So it was decided (a) to move classes to 10 am (by mid-day the sun is getting really hot) and (b) to dress up for the occasion. (And beyond, because in search of carnival accessories I went to FuerChina shop and bought there, among other stuff, the bellydancing hip scarves for €2.90 each.) We had two lovely classes on Tuesday and Thursday.

The new song we tried this Thursday was Busamba (from Aqua Zumba Vol. 5). I think I managed to confuse most of my students with some non-traditional steps, so have to work on cues for it.

This year’s theme is “musicals”. Whatever I am wearing is supposed to represent Berger from Hair. I should say the ’60s wig did not stay on my head longer than warm-up, mostly because I couldn’t see much in it.

Once upon a time, I mean, Some time last Autumn, I went to my son’s school, CEIP “Antoñito El Farero” to attend the parents’ meeting. Apart from discussing Timur’s progress, we’ve talked with his teacher about the end of the year school trip, or rather, the ways of raising money for it. I have suggested giving a class of Zumba at the school, and, to my surprise, got an enthusiastic response. Nothing followed though for three months or so. And then... I was asked to do it!

So: on Monday 5 March I did my very first fundraising Zumba class with 25 people attending! Tamara helped me a lot, not only managing to attend the class after her chi kung marathon, but also doing one song with me. (I know, I know, I do have to work on those cumbia steps, but still, I impressed myself by remembering most of them.) Also, several students from my morning class came to support me. All in all I think it was a success. After the class, a number of ladies came to talk and I hope I will get some new students. Most importantly, Spanish audience seemed to like what they saw and did. In the evening, the president of school’s AMPA (Asociación de Madres y Padres de Alumnos) sent an email to all the parents which I found very flattering... Fingers crossed, we will have another Zumba party!

(download)

Click here to download:

zumba-in-the-school-uJrGJFdgoFineGncHgyj.zip (1.42 MB)

Photos © Tamara Kulikova

Song List

1. Anatomic — Warm-Up — by Afro Celt Sound System
2. Baila Pa Emociona — Calypso
3. La Fiesta Ya Se Encendió — Merengue
4. Taboo – Axé / Urban
5. Toul Omry — Salsa / Bellydance
6. Tunak Tunak Tun — Bhangra
7. The Click Song — African / Cha-cha-cha — by Miriam Makeba
8. La Batidora — Reggaeton
9. Dança Da Mãozinha — Axé
10. Rosa — Cumbia
11. Zu Bailaito — Quebradita
12. M’Toto — African — by Zap Mama
13. Last Tango in Paris — Cool-Down — by Gotan Project

The final result of the last month’s Zumbathon (released on 27 February) is... €7,443.50 for charity! Well done Zumba Lanzarote!

In case you did not notice, I was not writing anything here for the last three weeks. I am pleased to say that the morning classes saw an increase in attendance. (On Thursday 1 March we had 11 Zumber@s, including two gentlemen!) Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the classes in FuerteFusión. Two people at most. Where are all those who wanted the evening classes? As a result, this month there won’t be classes at 19:00. I am taking a two-week break and then the classes will resume at a different time slot. Watch this space!

The new songs we practiced these weeks were La Fiesta Ya Se Encendió (ZIN 36), La Vida Es Un Carnaval by Celia Cruz, Samba De Janeiro (ZIN MegaMix 24), The Click Song by Miriam Makeba and Vivre by Zap Mama.