Went to my first Zumba class on Monday.
It’s been very hard finding a class that’s at a convenient place and time for me, working long and erratic hours as I do. As it turns out, my Thursday evenings may soon be free, because I’m sick of being the only one with two left feet, and a perpetual wallflower, at my ballroom and Latin dance classes. But that’s a decision for another day.
So, at 6 pm on Monday, I turned up at the Northland community hall, ready for Zumba with Paula. I was confused by the roomful of young people in karate outfits throwing each other to the floor when I arrived, but it turns out Zumba is in the smaller room out the back and down the stairs. I got there early, and wasn’t surprised that Paula was the only one there. She’s a little younger than me, bubbly and friendly and slightly chubby. Shortly afterwards, someone else turned up, but this turned out to be an assistant instructor. With five minutes to go, two participants arrived, and that was the full complement. Everyone obviously knew each other, I wonder if it’s just been the four of them for a while? Anyway, everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Paula had just bought a impressive new speaker, which flashed with various disco colours in time with the beat, and was nicely base-y, but had an unfortunate tendency to lose its connection with Paula’s phone, and play tracks in a random and unexpected order. In spite of that, it was a fun class. Paula was very enthusiastic , with a tendency to sing along loudly with the music. She got tired out after a few songs, which gave her co instructor an opportunity to show her skills. She was a tiny bird like Asian lady, who did an energetic routine which I found hard to follow although everyone else seemed to know it. It was martial arts inspired, with lyrics that asked us to dance like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
When Paula had got her breath back, her next routine had a scary amount of audience participation. We were encouraged to take turns to do our own moves, which was alarming, or would have been if there were more people there.
In spite of the slightly amateurish nature of the class, it was still good exercise and fun, and certainly exceptionally good value for money, at only $5. As I left after class, everyone was very encouraging, and said with possibly a slight note of desperation that they hoped to see me again. I waved and smiled and muttered something noncommittal. It would be like kicking a puppy not to go back, but we’ll see.
