I am all about the Zumba Life. Like so many other people it changed my life for the better! It slowly broke me out of my shyness, allowed me to make friends of all ages from all over the world. What is Zumba? It began for me when I got certified as a Zumba instructor in 2016. During the training I also met my best friend. He got certified on that day also, and over the next 5 years he blew up and is a star Zumba instructor in the tri-state area.
In 2017 for a very short time I ran my own little class in a dingy church. Now I teach a song here and there in my BFF or another instructor’s class, that is if I’m lucky and get called up by them to do a dance. That’s me in the photo with the other instructors after a Zumba Master Class in the park. I don’t have the flair to choreograph a routine from scratch like Luna James does in Six Feet Apart Love in Quarantine. I get my routines off of YouTube and Zumba.com and add my own flavor with a few original steps throughout.
Anyway, enough about me, I want to tell you about Hedda. Every summer, even during the Pandemic, Zumba classes are held in 3 parks around downtown—one park has close to 150 participants. To claim a good spot amongst all the men and women in their colorful Zumba attire you should arrive half an hour early.
This year there is a new star in town! She now stands in the front row. We all clear the way for her when she walks up to claim her spot to dance. Her name is Hedda, she is 93 years young, and she does Zumba in the park!
I remember the first evening Hedda made her debut, my BFF was teaching a Zumba dance on the wide stone steps in front of about 100 people in the biggest park in the city. He pointed to Hedda, a class participant, and motioned to her to come on stage. She looked around to see who he was pointing at. Then she pointed to herself, with her index finger to her chest, and I could see she mouthed the word, “Me?”
She slowly climbed the steps in her red Equinox baseball cap and bright red lipstick. And she slowly began to dance beside him. Swaying her arms and moving her feet. Everyone in the audience cheered. Hedda’s face showed she was overjoyed as we all were. She made us all so happy. And that was it. Hedda is a now regular at all three Zumba in the park classes downtown.
Do you do Zumba? How has it affected your life? Please share below. I love the stories here: How Has Zumba Changed Your Life? So inspirational, just like Hedda is to me!
