Zumba beat helps keep residents fit

Chances are, everyone in the Las Vegas Valley knows someone who is taking Zumba fitness classes. At the Zumba.com website, 554 classes are listed within 25 miles of Las Vegas. Classes are offered at fitness and athletic clubs, gyms, YMCAs, senior centers, Strip hotels, schools, dance studios and even Opportunity Village.

Zumba is the current big thing in fitness. In the mid-1990s, a Colombian named Alberto "Beto" Perez forgot his aerobics music when scheduled to teach an aerobics class. He improvised using his personal collection of Latin music and found his class had new energy. An idea was born.

Zumba came to the United States in 2001. Fitness classes with a party atmosphere and lots of rhythmic Latin music have since spread to 110,000 locations in 125 countries. DVDs are available, as is Zumbawear and even a Zumba-branded video game.

According to Bret Fitzgerald, vice president of corporate communications for Las Vegas Fitness Clubs, Zumba classes are the most popular classes his organization offers. One student noted that some classes are so crowded, participants are urged to arrive a half-hour early to "get a good spot."

Although most Zumba classes in the Las Vegas Valley follow the basic fitness format, an instructor can be licensed in eight different levels of classes, including classes geared specifically to the active older adult, classes for children ages 4 to 12 and even water-based workouts using the Zumba formula.

Local entertainer Elisa Fiorillo, currently on tour as a backup singer with Prince, says Zumba classes are the only workouts she enjoys. Fiorillo was on a seven-day-a-week Zumba schedule before going on tour.

"I'm happy when I'm in class. I get lost in the music," she says. "Also, the more I can develop my lung capacity, the better I can sing and move onstage."

The teacher who first sold Fiorillo on Zumba fitness is 74-year-old Ginny Jones, almost a legend at the Las Vegas Athletic Clubs, having taught for them since 1984. Jones is a former ballet student, skater with the Ice Capades and the "Lido" shows in Paris and Las Vegas, a dancer in Las Vegas shows such as "Viva Les Girls" at the former Dunes and an aerobics teacher.

Jones typically teaches eight classes a day at the Green Valley Las Vegas Athletic Club. Her schedule recently was affected by a tendon issue. "Such a bother," says the tiny blonde, still retaining a hint of her British accent. "I teach a number of different classes, but Zumba fitness is by far the most popular. We typically have classes of 60 to 70 people."

The energy level of "the legend" is such that when not bothered by that tendon, she will, on Mondays, teach three fitness classes in a row at the club.

Dancer Kendall Heim, 21, has a bit of time before reaching legend status. She teaches Zumba fitness at Anytime Fitness on East Charleston Boulevard. A recent visit to an early evening class finds just two students, Nancy Silva and Julie Yuli, not missing a beat.

Heim is new to Las Vegas, having come from Carroll, Iowa, earlier this year. Zumba classes started at Anytime Fitness in January and are slowly gaining traction, particularly the later evening classes. She is helped by a large sign on the front of the building offering free Zumba fitness classes to members.

Zumba classes are typically free with most local club memberships and range in price between $5 and $15 when paid for as individual classes. Clubs such as 24 Hour Fitness will offer introductory free passes to sample club activities, including Zumba classes.

Heim says that although Zumba fitness music comes with prescribed Latin dance steps such as the merengue and salsa, teachers are free to tweak and "add bits and pieces" of other dances.

Jones notes that several Las Vegas performers are Zumba fitness students. The emergence of Las Vegas nightclubs has also spurred enrollment. "Young people want to be in shape for the nightclubs and they want to learn some new dance moves," she says.

"I see Zumba as the perfect solution for people who don't like to work out," says instructor Katherine "Kat" Johnson. She teaches at several locations in the Las Vegas Valley, including the new SkyView YMCA in North Las Vegas.

"To me, anyone can participate in a Zumba class," she says. "I tell my students to try your best to follow my steps, but if you have trouble, make up your own steps. The important thing is to keep moving."

Watching Johnson in class means seeing her at the front of the class, then in back and inside the rows. The music is loud, and the participants are smiling, sweating and clapping as each dance segment ends. Moms and their youngsters are exercising side by side. Big people and small are participating. One young girl proudly dances in athletic shoes with lights in the soles that blink with each movement.

Johnson and her husband, Jerry, sometimes teach in tandem, and both teach a variety of workout routines in addition to Zumba fitness. Kat Johnson was a volunteer Zumba fitness teacher at Opportunity Village and has since been hired there to teach regularly. "I'm doing what I love," she says, echoing the sentiments of all the teachers interviewed.

Cynthia Marsh has a chronic autoimmune disease. She attends five Zumba fitness classes a week at SkyView YMCA. "The classes help my pain and help me get stronger," she says. "And if some days I don't feel well, I can just do the steps in a simpler way. We have a family atmosphere here and we aren't in competition. I feel better because of Zumba. My clothes are looser, too!"

On Oct. 8, Bre Herron, also a member at SkyView YMCA, decided to change her life. She began eating differently and attending Zumba fitness classes. She says, "I needed to sweat." So far, Herron has lost 50 pounds.

"I love her," says Grace Pearce when referring to Kat Johnson. Pearce works at Opportunity Village and every Thursday morning brings her clients - disabled adults learning to bake cookies and cakes - to Zumba fitness classes at her worksite. In addition, since about a year ago, Pearce has also joined the SkyView classes. "This was my first time working out," she says. "I've lost 26 pounds."

Visit www.Zumba.com for a listing of Zumba classes in the Las Vegas Valley.