Zumba is a fitness program that involves cardio and Latin-inspired dance. It was founded by Colombian dancer and choreographer

Beto Pérez Alberto "Beto" Pérez (born 15 March 1970), is a Colombian dancer, choreographer, businessman, and Zumba instructor. He created the exercise fitness program Zumba in the late 1990s which involves dance and aerobic exercise elements with accompa ...

in 2001, and by 2012, it had 110,000 locations and 12 million people taking classes weekly. Zumba is a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

owned by Zumba Fitness, LLC.

Origin

Zumba was created in the 1990s by dancer and choreographer

, an aerobics instructor in Cali, Colombia. After forgetting his usual music one day, and using cassette tapes of Latin dance music (

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...

and merengue) for class, Pérez began integrating the music and dancing into other classes, calling it "Rumbacize". In 2001, Pérez partnered with

Alberto Perlman Alberto Perlman (born 1977) is a Colombian American businessman and co-founder of Zumba Fitness.infomercial. Pérez decided on the word "Zumba" because of its similarity to the word "rumba", the Cuban musical genre. Pérez and his partner began to replace the first letter of "rumba" until they landed on "sumba", and Pérez ultimately decided to spell it with the letter 'z' because he liked the fictional character

Zorro Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...

when he was a child. In 2012,

Insight Venture Partners Insight Partners (previously Insight Venture Partners) is an American venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City. The firm invests in growth-stage technology, software and Internet businesses. History Insight Partners was fo ...

and the Raine Group invested in the venture. The company expanded into class instruction, and by 2015, according to Perlman, there were 14 million Zumba students in 186 countries.

Choreography

Zumba choreography is composed using all or some of sixteen core steps. There are four basic rhythms:

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip hop, ...

, merengue, and

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include: ...

; each basic rhythm has four core steps.

Classes

US Army 52862 Zumba adds Latin dance to fitness routine

Zumba classes are taught by instructors licensed by Zumba Fitness, LLC. In one Zumba class, typically around one hour long, a participant can burn up to 600

kcal The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of o ...

, depending on the intensity. The music combines the dance styles of

, merengue,

mambo Mambo most often refers to: * Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

, chachacha,

, soca, samba, hip hop music, axé music, and

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

. Zumba instructors have the option to become members of the Zumba Instructor Network (ZIN), to receive monthly music and bimonthly training DVDs to assist with the creation of music and choreography for their classes. By 2019, there were more than 100,000 Zumba instructors around the world. There are ten types of classes, for different levels of age and exertion: *Zumba Gold — a low-impact, lower-intensity version of a typical Zumba class. *Zumba Step — a lower-body workout that incorporates Zumba routines and step aerobics with Latin dance rhythms. *Zumba Toning — for people who do their workouts with toning sticks, targeting the abs, thighs, arms, and other muscles. This type of Zumba class provides participants with a

cardio workout Aerobic exercise (also known as endurance activities, cardio or cardio-respiratory exercise) is physical exercise of low to high intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. "Aerobic" is defined as "relating to, inv ...

and

strength training Strength training or resistance training involves the performance of physical exercises that are designed to improve strength and endurance. It is often associated with the lifting of weights. It can also incorporate a variety of training te ...

. *Aqua Zumba — classes held in a swimming pool. The instructor leads the class poolside while participants follow in shallow water. The moves have been adapted to combine the dance movements used in a Zumba Fitness class with those used in aqua fitness classes. *Zumba in the Circuit — combines dance with

circuit training Circuit training is a form of body conditioning that involves endurance training, resistance training, high-intensity aerobics, and exercises performed in a circuit, similar to high-intensity interval training. It targets strength building and mu ...

. These classes usually last 30 minutes and feature strength exercises on various stations in timed intervals. * Zumbatomic, Zumba Kids, and Zumba Kids Jr. — classes designed for children aged 7 to 11 and 4 to 6, respectively. *Zumba Gold-Toning — a toning class for older participants with the goal of improving muscle strength, posture, mobility, and coordination. *Zumba Sentao — a chair workout that focuses on using body weight to strengthen and tone the body. *Strong Nation (formerly Strong by Zumba) — a class launched in 2016 that combines high-intensity interval training with Synced Music Motivation. *Zumbini — a class for babies and children at the ages of 0–3 years old and their caregivers. Their live classes stream on

BabyFirstTV BabyFirst (stylized in all lowercase since 2019) is an American TV channel that produces and distributes content for babies from 0–3 years and their parents through television, the internet, and mobile applications. The channel is owned by F ...

. *A Plate by Zumba — an

e-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

program to learn about healthy eating habits.

Benefits

Zumba is intended as a total-body cardio and aerobic workout, which provides a large calorie consumption. One 2012 study found that a participant burns 300 to 900 kcal with an hour-long Zumba exercise. Because Zumba offers different options, proponents of the Zumba program claim that it is safe for all ages, meaning anyone can participate. Some of the classes are specifically aimed at elderly people. Besides its high calorie burning benefit, Zumba can help lower the risk of heart disease, reduce blood pressure and

LDL cholesterol Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is one of the five major groups of lipoprotein that transport all fat molecules around the body in extracellular water. These groups, from least dense to most dense, are chylomicrons (aka ULDL by the overall dens ...

, and increase

HDL cholesterol High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is one of the five major groups of lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are complex particles composed of multiple proteins which transport all fat molecules (lipids) around the body within the water outside cells. They are t ...

Legal issues

In 2013, the

Rabbinical Court A beit din ( he, בית דין, Bet Din, house of judgment, , Ashkenazic: ''beis din'', plural: batei din) is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel. Today, it ...

of the Ashkenazi Community in the

Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...

city of

Beitar Illit Beitar Illit ( he, בֵּיתָר עִלִּית; officially Betar Illit; "Illit" is pronounced "ee-leet"; ar, بيتار عيليت) is an Haredi Jewish- Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, sou ...

ruled against

Zumba Zumba is a fitness program that involves cardio and Latin-inspired dance. It was founded by Colombian dancer and choreographer Beto Pérez in 2001, and by 2012, it had 110,000 locations and 12 million people taking classes weekly. Zumba is a ...

(a type of dance fitness) classes, although they were held with a female instructor and all-female participants. The Court said, in part: "Both in form and manner, the activity

umba Umba may refer to *Umba, Russia, an urban-type settlement in Murmansk Oblast, Russia *Umba (White Sea), a river on the Kola Peninsula, Russia *Umba River (Tanzania), a river in Tanzania *Umba sapphire, a sapphire from Tanzania *Umba Valley, a valley ...

is entirely at odds with both the ways of the Torah and the holiness of Israel, as are the songs associated with it." In June 2017, Zumba was banned in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

for being un- Islamic. In August 2017, six people were arrested after being accused of "trying to change lifestyles" by teaching Zumba.

Events

The annual ZIN-con for Zumba instructors from around the world takes place in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, including master classes, specialty training and a Zumba concert. In addition to the Annual Zumba Convention, Zumba also operates a number of one-day Academies where instructors can attend master classes and rhythm sessions. These events are held in cities globally. In January 2016, the first Zumba Cruise took place.

Products

Zumba began selling

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

s via infomercials in 2002, selling more than 10 million DVDs by 2012. In 2005, the Zumba Academy was launched to license instructors for teaching Zumba classes. In 2007, the company launched a clothing line called Zumba Wear; as of 2012, official apparel sales amounted to $10-million per year. In July 2012, Zumba released the compilation album '' Zumba Fitness Dance Party''.

Video games

In 2010, Zumba released its first fitness video game—'' Zumba Fitness''—on 30 November 2010 for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

(on Epic Games'

Unreal Engine 3 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genre ...

), selling 3 million copies by August 2011. It was followed by '' Zumba Fitness 2'', released in November 2011, with a similar game released on the

as '' Zumba Fitness Rush'' in February 2012. In October 2012, ''

Zumba Fitness Core ''Zumba Fitness Core'' is the third video game in the installment of the Fitness series, based on the Zumba program. It is also the sequel '' Zumba Fitness 2'' (2011), later followed by '' Zumba Fitness: World Party'' (2013). It is developed by ...

'' was released for the Wii and Xbox 360, including new features such as nutrition tips and the ability to set personal goals. '' Zumba Fitness: World Party'' was released on 5 November 2013, featuring a new "World Tour" mode that unlocks songs from seven global destinations as a player progresses, as well as authentic customs, local rhythms and native dance styles. The game was followed a couple weeks later by ''

Zumba Kids ''Zumba Kids'' is the fifth video game based on the Zumba program. Although '' Zumba Fitness: World Party'' (2013) is the game before this, ''Zumba Kids'' is not a part of the Fitness series, which is only from '' Zumba Fitness'' to ''Zumba Fitn ...

'' on 19 November 2013. On 19 November 2019, ''Zumba Burn It Up!'' was released by 505 Games and Sega in Japan and certain countries (digital only) for the Nintendo Switch, as the first Zumba game in six years.

References

External links

How I Built This - Zumba: Beto Pérez & Alberto Perlman
{{Zumba 1999 introductions 2000s fads and trends Aerobic exercise Colombian inventions Dance and health Exercise organizations Exercise-related trademarks Franchises