Health: Zumba: Dance Dance Revolution

Burn up the dance floor and tons of calories at Philly’s hottest class

“Zumba is coming!” We’ve heard instructors declare, throwing in a few Latin dance moves in the middle of Body Pump to reiterate their excitement over the hottest fitness craze to spread through the Philly area since Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo.

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This new dance workout (pronounced “zoom-bah”) is a mix of Salsa, Merengue, hip-hop and aerobics that’ll turn your regular sweat session into a heart-pumping dance party. The upbeat Latin music is so catchy that you can’t help but add some extra oomph to your moves — go ahead, picture yourself on Dancing with the Stars, we certainly are! — which helps you lose weight, tone up and burn major calories.

And it is, in fact, coming. It’s already at several area gyms — check our list of where to find classes — but, thanks to an already-sold-out instructor certification being held at 12th Street Gym on March 29th, more gyms are looking to add it to their class roster.

Invented in the late ‘90s by Beto Perez, a Colombian fitness personality, Zumba’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last few years. Perez has sold more than 3 million copies of his instructional DVDs, and thousands of trainers have been certified to get bodies moving from Cincinnati to Beijing.

"The popularity is amazing," says Suzanne Olson, group exercise coordinator at Club La Maison in Wayne. "People think it’s fun, and that makes the class go by really fast."

Fun, fast, a few moves to use on a Saturday night out and a killer bod? You’ll know where to find us!