Zumba!

I am taking my first Zumba class this evening. I am so excited! I keep watching a clip on You Tube of what it is and can't wait to take it! It's a combination of aerobics, salsa, cha-cha and hip hop dance. Being a dancer for over 10 years when I was a small girl, I've longed for taking up the hobby again.

I spent the majority of the day online researching what exactly it is and who the instructor is on the You Tube clip. Her name is Tanya Beardsley and she is a master Zumba instructor. I also investigated the clothes she's wearing. She and quite a few other participants are wearing something called UFO pants which are comfortable cargo pants that give you a lot of room to move around in. I called my 16 year old yesterday and asked her if she knew what they were. She knew them by another name an actually had a pair. I found a website that sells them but I'm not buyin for $64 a pop. I'll find a pair but first I want to see what this class is like tonight. . . with my luck I'll think it's supposed to be one thing and it'll end up being something completely different.

You should look this woman up. She is amazing! The way she is built, the way she moves, it's mezmerizing. I used to be able to move my body in just about any direction that I wanted to. People used to be in awe of the fact that I could grab my foot and put it straight up and over my head. Now that I'm a little closer to 40, my feet haven't seen the clouds in decades. However, I've been taking an aerobics class for a couple of months now and it's limbered me up quite a bit so that I can move more freely that I could before. My goal is to be as flexible as I was before, understand current dance moves and master them with my own style and to get back into shape. I'm not far away from being back into shape. I've been working hard on that and my efforts are paying off.

One of the biggest things that I loved about dancing is that you can make it your own if your comfortable in your own body. As I've gotten older, I've become uncomfortable in my body. I think that's the biggest problem that I have today. My good friend Barbarian has told me time and time again that I am too hard on myself. I think that I more or less just have a body that I can't move the way that I'd like it to nor am comfortable with. With exercise and trying out new venues of movement, I should be able to overcome that. I know that when I master something, I can make it my own and put my own style on it. . . I'll keep everyone up to date on how this class pans out. Wish me luck everyone!