ZUMBA Founder Energizes San Diego

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)