Zumba catches fire in country

 

Istanbul (Dunya) – It is 7 p.m. at the Shaka Dance Studio here, and a dozen women are swaying, hopping, jumping and belly dancing and jerking their knees to the Algerian Rai singer Rashid Taha's fast-paced, melodic song 'Abulkadir' as they try to slim down.

Suddenly, the music changes to 'Jai Ho,' the theme song from the Oscar-winning Indian film 'Slumdog Millionaire' and the women keep bouncing up and down.

The music fades away to become Kylie Minogue's 'Can't You Out of My Head,' and the women begin robotic motions to the strain of the music.

The women are part of the estimated 20,000 persons in Turkey who have signed up for courses in Zumba -- a fusion of fitness exercises with belly dancing, Salsa, Flamenco, Merengue, Samba, Martial Arts, Cha Cha, Calypso and hip hop -- for physical fitness and to lose weight. Turkey has an estimated 100 authorized Zumba instructors.

"Zumba is fun," says dance instructor Evren Buyuksarioglu, 39. "The mind and muscles work in harmony, fine tuning the metabolism. Participants become happy. They become addicted to Zumba. This is the most useful and healthy addiction in the world."

Each Zumba session lasts about one-hour long and participants are guaranteed to burn 750 calories to 1,250 calories each time.

"The workout is heavy, but participants are very happy," Ms. Buyuksarioglu says. 

 

Perky dance instructor

The perky, petite Ms. Buyuksarioglu, a dancing instructor for the past four years, has been teaching Zumba since 2010. In the past eight months, the number of her students has swelled from 20 to 150.  Four of her students have become authorized Zumba instructors.

 

Among her students are men from Saudi Arabia and Russia, and women from Thailand, Azerbaijan, Greece and Britain.

 

 

She has always been interested in dancing and in Pilates, a body conditioning program of physical exercises. While in primary school and in junior high school and high school, she was a member of her schools' folklore dancing teams.

But in 2008, she gave up a 20-year career as a specialist in foreign trade, exporting textiles, carpets and iron and steel, to take up dancing professionally.

"I was working day and night at an office. I got fed up with the desk work.  I said to myself: 'Enough is enough.' There must be a B plan, and I quit and started dancing," she said.

She became a dance instructor, teaching salsa, and worked for Turkey's Dancing Sports Federation. 

In 2009, she found out about Zumba, a global lifestyle brand that brings together fitness, entertainment and culture into an exhilarating dance-party workout, and went to Holland to take courses to becoming an instructor.

She founded Shaka Dancing, which is located near the Kozzy Shopping Center, with a partner, and a wide variety of dance programs are being taught. The Kozzy Shopping Center is in Kozyatagi, in Kadikoy district, on the Asian side of Istanbul.

 

Columbian creator

Zumba is a Columbian dance-fitness program created by dancer and choreographer Alberto 'Beto' Perez during the 1990s.

In 2001, Perez moved to the U.S., where he teamed up with cofounder Alberto Perlman and childhood friend, Alberto Aghion. The trio produced a demo reel and the concept was licensed by the Hollywood, Florida company Zumba Fitness Quest LLC to create a marketing campaign and a line of home videos.

Zumba began selling DVDs. In 2005, the Zumba Academy was established to license instructors for teaching Zumba classes. In 2007, the company launched a clothing line called Zumbawear. In 2010, Zumba released its first fitness video and has sold 3 milliion copies as of August 2011.

Zumba doesn't charge licensing fees to gyms and fitness centers.

But only instructors who have been trained by Zumba Fitness Quest in teachers can become genuine instructors, though there are a number of unauthorized instructors in Turkey operating out of fly-by-night gyms..

By mid 2012, over 12 million people around the world were taking weekly Zumba classes in over 110,000 venues across more than 125 countries.

 

Zumba has become internationally popular partly because many celebrities around the world took up its dancing and fitness programs, including the American actresses Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Natalie Portman, Emma Watson, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, recording star Toni Braxton and action films actor Jackie Chan.

Different types of Zumba classes are offered to different levels of age and exertion. One program is designed for the elderly to build strength, improve motion, posture and socialization.