Zumba Tice Walnut Creek parties after 5-week session

“It’s fun & it’s easy,” said Barbara after her first Zumba class at Tice Valley Gym’s beautiful exercise studio.  Barbara, as well as a total of 30 students came out every Tuesday night for 5 weeks to join the party.  As you know by now, Zumba is known as exercise in disguise because the music is infectious and makes you feel like you’re at a Latin night club.  Whether we’re doing salsa, tango, cumbia, belly dance, or Bollywood, we’re burning 300 – 800 calories per hour.  It’s worth coming out at 7:30.  After every 5 weeks we celebrate the healthy hearts we’re maintaining.

If you would like to join the fun, the time is now to try Zumba Fitness at Tice Gym in Walnut Creek.  New session begins next Tuesday, March 23rd.  Register now by going to www.WalnutCreekRec.org or calling 925.943.5858.  Questions?  Contact me at Janice@ZumbaContraCosta.com.

Zumba Contra Costa Tice Class Celebrates

Janice teaches Bollywood routine

By Wendy Lemlin
Posted on Sat, Mar 13th, 2010

Zumba's Beto raises funds for ALS

The music was loud and Latin. The level of upbeat energy in the San Diego Convention Center ballroom was nuclear. The crowd of 700 ZUMBA® fitness enthusiasts worked their booties off with moves that fused steps from Latin, hip hop, African and belly dancing with a fast-paced cardio workout. The sweat was running, but the atmosphere was as much party as it was exercise.

Why was everyone grinning Thursday night as they shook those hips, worked those abs, squatted, lunged, and danced almost non-stop for an hour and a half? Because this Master Class was being led by Beto Perez, a celebrity fitness trainer and choreographer who invented ZUMBA® back in the mid ’90s in his native Columbia and has made it today’s fastest-growing workout program.

For many in the crowd, Beto, who just turned 40, is the god of ZUMBA. From one end of the stage to the other, he exhibited phenomenal energy, swiveling his hips in the way seemingly only Latin dancers can, moving his feet with lightning speed, and clowning with the crowd while encouraging them to push even harder. He never stopped smiling and seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself with every step. His incredibly fit “team” of several women and one man joined him onstage for most of the numbers, inspiring and entertaining. After the program ended, Beto was still smiling as he graciously posed for photos and chatted with the hundreds of fans wanting to meet him.

Exercise endorphins aside, Beto has good reason to be happy. The growth of ZUMBA’s popularity has been phenomenal. Every gym and fitness center in almost every country in the world is scrambling to offer it, and most classes are filled to capacity. In the San Diego area, there are over 100 different facilities offering numerous classes each.

The range of ZUMBA’s appeal was reflected in the makeup of the class at Thursday’s event, which was held in conjunction with the IHRSA Fitness Industry trade show taking place through Saturday at the convention center. (Beto and his team will be doing demos there through Saturday, March 13). Young women with incredible bodies in ab-baring outfits worked out alongside middle-aged women in sweats. Although the crowd was mostly female, there were a good number of men, and even some children. Many in the class, such as Adriana Rodriguez from Chula Vista and Azi Farsoudi from San Diego, were instructors themselves. Others were first timers; most were somewhere in between.

Ben Elhy, who has been taking ZUMBA classes four times a week for about the last three months, summed up the appeal: “It’s just a really fun workout with full class participation. The steps are relatively easy to follow, and you can fit right in no matter what level you’re at.”

When asked if he’s surprised by the success of the program he created, Beto Perez thinks carefully before answering. “No, I had this dream a long time ago and saw how much people loved it,” he says. “But what’s surprised me are the consequences, how I’ve changed peoples lives. ZUMBA isn’t just a work out, it’s like a party and it is fun, so people who never liked to exercise before do it and keep it up. They lose weight, or they regain energy after surviving cancer, or they make money teaching it, or some such thing. Even tonight, which was a fundraiser for Augie’s Quest, we raised over $30,000 to hopefully change the lives of those suffering from ALS.”

Augie’s Quest is named for Augie Nieto, of Corona Del Mar, a prominent leader in the fitness industry for nearly three decades, and who is now suffering with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. At Thursday night’s class, an emotional Beto read a letter from Augie who is now unable to walk or talk due to the disease, thanking the participants who had each paid a $25 donation to attend.

“I love coming to San Diego”, says Beto, who now lives in Miami. “The weather is perfect, people are so fit, and because we use mostly Latin music and dance steps, San Diego, with its large Hispanic population and influences, is the perfect venue for ZUMBA.

None of the 700 attendees Thursday night would have argued with that.

(As seen in SanDiego.com Beauty & Fitness)

Thanks to Alfredo & Aileen Padilla who led us to this rare occasion, representing Zumba at an NBA game.  Alfredo & Aileen were poised and ready when we showed up for our rehearsal at noon that day.

They were so organized that they even brought their own sound system with microphone for our rehearsal.  The Clippers staff were also supportive and efficient; every detail was considered and handled.  Everything went off without a hitch, from where to stand to how to get there in less than 60 seconds.

Once the actual performance time arrived, the thrill was so strong that we checked our minds at the gate and just swished & shimmied to the salsa beat, like we do so well.  Seeing the swell of pink Zumba tank tops moving as one, in the video afterward, made the experience even more surreal.  Having my husband and teen-aged son there to cheer me on and share in the thrill epitomized the event for me.

Afterwards as I walked through Staples Center, home to both the Clippers & the Lakers, I felt a new, deeper bond every time I passed a Zumba pink tank top.

For me, even with all of my dance background, this experience exceeded all others.  My family are huge NBA fans, especially my son, my niece, Lauren & my mother, Sylvia.  Combined with my love of dance, instilled by my mother at an early age, and my love of Zumba, dancing at a Clippers game was a dream come true.  Thank you, Clippers & a big thank you to Beto and everyone at ZO for creating this opportunity to represent Zumba in this way.  “Zumbaaa!”

Zumba Dancers Perform at LA Clippers

Zumba dancers rehearse for LA Clippers show

Registration Open for New Session Beginning Mar 23rd

Pre-reg Now www.WalnutCreeRec.org

New Zumba Session at Tice - Mar 23rd

Zumba of Walnut Creek -  Tice (2055 Tice Valley Blvd.) begins a new 5-week session for only $48…  That’s only $9.60 per class!  Sign up now at www.WalnutCreekRec.org or 925.943.5858!

I will be collecting donations in all of my classes, for which you will receive an American Heart Association Go Red Ribbon & tax donation receipt.

Make a donation of $5 or more and speak up against this tragic — but often preventable — disease.
Please help me to help the American Heart Association fight heart disease.
For more information go to GoRedForWomen.org

It took four trips from his native Colombia to Miami before Beto Perez got his big break. The fitness and dance instructor simply wanted to bring his workout classes to America. But with little money and even less English, he couldn’t get fitness-center managers to watch his Latin-dance-inspired videos.

Beto Perez Zumba Contra Costa

Finally, in 1999, one manager said, “Teach me.” Caught off guard, Perez asked, “Only you?” Yes, she said. It was 3 p.m., and the gym was empty. Soon a passerby wandered in to watch, then two, three, four. “After 20 minutes,” says Perez, “I had about 15 people. They thought it was a new class and wanted to sign up.” Recognizing Perez’s sharp choreography, charisma, and energy, the manager invited him to teach a Saturday morning class.

But on the first day of class, Perez got stuck in traffic. “I was ten minutes late,” he says. “I didn’t know how to say ‘I’m sorry,’ but I played the music, and they loved it.”

That tends to be the reaction to Perez’s fitness program, called Zumba (pronounced “zoom-ba”). The hour-long classes alternate easy-to-follow fast dance moves with slower ones for an interval-training workout that tones muscles and burns hundreds of calories. When the music starts pumping—salsa, merengue, reggaeton—people forget they’re exercising. And that just may be the secret to Zumba’s success.

Ten years later, five million people take classes every week from 30,000 certified instructors in 75 countries, from Canada to China. More than four million DVDs have been sold, and Zumbawear has taken off (the $64.95 cargo pants are the top seller).

Perez, 39, is now creative director of the privately held Zumba Fitness. His success is all the more impressive given the obstacles he’s overcome. Raised in Cali, Colombia, by a single mother, Alberto “Beto” Perez was just 14 when his mom was injured by a stray bullet. To help support them, he worked three jobs.

All the while, he dreamed of turning his passion—dance—into something more, but he couldn’t afford lessons. (Perez says he saw the movie Grease when he was seven or eight, “and I knew I wanted to dance.”) What he lacked in formal training, though, he made up for in raw talent. At 19, he won a national lambada contest. One of Cali’s best academies called with an offer to study dance while teaching step aerobics.

One day, Perez forgot the music for his class. He had one cassette with him—Latin music he’d taped from the radio. “I improvised,” he says, “and that was the beginning of Zumba.”

Once the popular instructor got his break in Miami, would-be investors started approaching him about opening a gym. One of Perez’s students asked him to meet her son, Alberto Perlman. At 24, Perlman was doing market analysis on startups for an Internet incubator with his childhood friend Alberto Aghion (an operations guy) and watching his career options disappear with the dot-com crash. Perlman (now CEO of Zumba) hit it off with Perez immediately and recruited Aghion as COO and president.

With no money or experience, the partners needed to showcase Perez’s talents. They spent a night laying down plywood boards on Sunny Isles Beach, then invited Perez’s students to take a $20 class that they would film and show to potential investors. But after September 11, 2001, all leads dried up. Eventually, they made an infomercial, which sold about a million DVDs in six months.

When asked about revenue, Perlman is tight-lipped: “We don’t disclose figures, but it’s in the many millions.” The partners say they’ve barely tapped the possibilities for the business. “We’re releasing a Nintendo Wii game in 2010 and adding to our Zumbawear line,” says Perez. “Expect to see our first sneakers soon!”

(As seen in November Reader’s Digest).

When Beto Perez comes out to center stage to teach over 100 people, he does not say a word!  Instead, the music plays and the people begin to dance and shout for joy.  His magnetism is created by not only his talent, but also his enthusiasm, warmth and sense of humor.  On July 18th I attended one such Master Zumba Instructor Certification led by this one-man force, Beto (short for Alberto) Perez, founder of Zumba Fitness.

In addition to learning new Zumba routines, I learned the nuances between several Latin rhythms, including Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, & Reggaeton.

I’m working hard to bring more Zumba classes to Contra Costa so stay tuned.

Did you know that it was Plato in 600 B.C. who said, “lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. “

So get moving, whether you bike, hike, climb, or dance…keep moving.

Why is Zumba taking off like the Santa Ana wild fires?  Because the routines are simple and easy to follow, geared for movement enthusiasts of all levels.   Music from all over the world is incorporated so that classes are always fun, and new music is released often so that classes do not become redundant or stale.

Remember, if you can walk, you can dance!  Keep moving!

Get in touch with any questions or to be added to my mailing list so that I can send you the latest updates directly…Janice@ZumbaContraCosta.com.

No dance background is necessary because all of the routines are simple and easy.  There’s even an 80+ year old gentleman in the class I take.

From time to time, I will even add recipes and other information about weight loss and exercise.

Feel free to drop by for Zumba of Contra Costa’s class schedules.  Beginning in January Zumba Contra Costa will be available throughout CC County:  Lafayette (Lafayette Community Center), Walnut Creek (Tice), & Pleasant Hill.  Stay tuned for exact details.

See you on the dance floor in Contra Costa County, CA!