If you were wondering where your favorite Zumba instructor is this weekend, chances are he or she is in Orlando, Fla., for the 2012 Zumba Convention, where an estimated 8,000 Zumba instructors are learning new routines, developing choreography and dancing the nights away at fitness concerts featuring Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee and Vanilla Ice.
The convention kicked off Thursday afternoon with opening speeches from Zumba creator Beto Perez, CEO Alberto Perlman and keynote speaker, actress Kathy Najimy.
Perez talked about the evolution of Zumba and the fitness world over the past few decades.
“In the '80s, the dance world and the fitness world were separate – I don’t know why,” he said. His goal in developing Zumba was to bring the two worlds together and create an easy-to-follow program for everyone. “This program is not for fitness people – this is for regular people.”
Najimy, who joked that she first signed up for Zumba because she “thought Zumba was the Spanish word for buffet.” She quickly fell in love with the workout, which allows her to dance with people who “wear clothes like we’re all in a production of Godspell.”
That vibrant Zumba fashion sense was on display at the Peabody Orlando hotel and Orange County Convention Center as instructors from all over the world blended neon with bellydance scarves, bandanas and hair feathers.
Thursday night was the kickoff fitness concert, a fund-raiser for breast cancer research. And instead of passive viewers, the fitness instructors and their guests danced the entire show, with custom Zumba routines to live performances by Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee and Vanilla Ice, who debuted his Zumba remix of “Ice, Ice Baby.”
At a press conference before the concert, an animated Ice said he was excited to be working with Zumba, which Billboard magazine recently called the future of music.
“This is an adventure that we’re all on, and I’m honored to be a part of that,” he said. “There’s nothing like joining a party and getting fit.”
The convention continues through Sunday with more fitness concerts, demonstration classes and parties.
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