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KSL Nightside's Danielle Wood reportingThe dance workout craze started in Colombia. With success there, the creators brought it to the U.S. And since then it's been one of the hottest ways to workout. There are a few zumba-certified instructors here in Utah.
"It's a class in which you dance meringue, salsa, samba, cha cha - everything. We dance everything," says Salt Lake zumba instructor Christina Johnson. She says the high-energy high-impact class uses a specific combination of dances to tone and sculpt the body. The class is for people of all ages. Joyce Kelen says she's one of the older women in the class, but she keeps up.
"I was doing a lot of different kind of workouts; he said to keep this up," she says.
Julie Bottino's been going to zumba for the last six months. Before, she says her hour-long workouts weren't nearly as fun.
"It was just running and it was so boring and monotonous, and the same thing," she says. "This is fun and she's son energetic so it's hard not to join in."
Johnson says zumba satisfies Utah's need for something tropical. "Here we are in Utah. It's really cold right now; it's not very tropical at all," she says. "It's actually the opposite of tropical. And I think this brings a little warmth, a little bit of Miami, San Juan, Cali, to the mountain west."
The class is gaining popularity throughout the country, with the interval training, fat burning, and total body toning. Plus, those who attend the classes say who wouldn't want to dance like Shakira for a night?
