Here at The Viking, our staff is chock-full of athletes of all persuasions, from vicious water polo stars to dainty baseball studs (that’s right Jack and Sam). Many of us even play more than one sport. Throw in five classes, this magazine and whatever the heck Talia does on weekends to save the world and finance our entire magazine, and you’d think our lives are pretty well varied. Not true. After half a year of the same ole’ same ole’, we here on staff are ready to put some spice in our lives and some pep in our step… with salsa. What could this mean, you ask? Well the answer is simple, although you might be surprised. The Viking has caught Zumba fever.
Now, none of us who tried Zumba are the easily embarrassed type, but there certainly seems to be something about stumbling around like a fool in front of a classroom full of elder, experienced, and shockingly well-coordinated women that just makes your cheeks turn red—unless that was just the natural result of 60 straight minutes of intense Latin dancing. Our instructor Carla, a middle-aged lady with bronze skin, fully clad in black workout attire, put us through the gauntlet. From samba to salsa to bhangra and merengue, our bodies were in constant motion until the music stopped—which it didn’t. Not until well after we had made downright fools of ourselves, and probably had more fun than we’re willing to admit, anyway.
Carla, the never-tiring ball of energy that she is, simply knew how to boogie. Nine or more different dancing styles made no difference. Her steps were perfectly timed, she was feeling the rhythm, she even threw in plenty of cool-looking (and confusing for the budding zumba dancer) mini-moves, little hip turns and half steps that showcased her oodles of dancing skills.
We brought along 2011′s cutest couple, Alexandra Kershner and William Glazier, to mitigate the embarrassment. Both Will and Alex came to the Jewish Community Center, one of several Zumba locales around town, swagged out (neon headbands, leotards and all) with their game-faces on. Seeing that Alex describes Will’s dancing abilities as comparable to “an elephant trying to walk on its tiptoes,” we figured we couldn’t possibly be the worst Zumba dancers on the floor. We were wrong. These two love birds wasted no time getting down to business. After a few short minutes wallowing in confusion, they quickly got to busting some funky moves (even if they weren’t necessarily the ones everyone else were doing).
How was this “clumsy elephant” able to catch on to the fast-paced Zumba moves so quickly? Two words: his mother. Katherine Glazier has been attending Zumba classes at the YMCA every Tuesday morning for a year and several times during the class, Carla would stop to point out that the dance move we were just about to butcher was one of Mrs. Glazier’s favorites. I guess we finally know what Will is actually doing when he says that he can’t go out with us because he “has to go see a movie with his mom.”
Will and Ali’s performance, along with our own shimmyin’, which was near-respectable by the end of the class, seems to point to the underlying message to be taken from our adventure: dancing is fun! Despite the embarrassment that comes with trying intense, foreign dance routines in front of people you don’t know (there’s a video on facebook for all you interested), and despite the added embarassment of being laughably out of sync with the rest of the room (who clearly were not at it for their first time), the simple act of “gettin’ down” to some fantastic tunes was so enjoyable that the four of us might even be considering a return trip. So the next time a Make a Wish for Kiva dance comes around, or maybe just a music filled Friday afternoon on the quad, don’t be too surprised if you see four kids in ridiculous outfits cuttin’ a rug…Zumba style.
