Once Upon a Zumba Class

A sweet friend of mine recently told me that she takes her little girl with her to Zumba class sometimes and I suddenly got a very funny vision in my head of Katie attempting to Zumba. I thought this is something we must try.

Our first attempt was a dismal nightmare because the instructor canceled class at the last minute and Katie had a throwback to 3 years ago and screamed and demanded to do Zumba class anyway. So I started jumping around the family room with her and she rolled her eyes and scoffed at me that I couldn't possibly have been doing it right. Which gave me a flashback to the reason I had to stop going to Zumba class a few years ago.

Because I may look Latino, and I took 2 years of high school spanish so I can ask you where the bathroom is and tell you your cat is fat, but I can NOT dance. I have no rhythm, no coordination, and no sense of direction. If the crowd is moving left, I go right and watch everyone leap out of my way. Most importantly, I have no bootylicious shakeability. Which is a requirement for Zumba.

I also always have such a dumb look on my face when I'm exercising. I'm trying to remember the steps, counting the moves and trying to remember when I'm supposed to turn, or flip to the side, or switch feet, or wave my arms in the air -which I always seem to do precisely when everyone else has just finished. And in Zumba, I cannot keep up with the rapid succession of changes and dance steps.

So my friend didn't tell me that she was an expert in the art of sexy latin dancing... for one song, the instructor moved her up to the front row as a shining example for us to watch. Catcalls and everything, she was really rockin the sports pavillion!

I had to laugh when we got there because I'd assured Ryan that he wasn't missing out on anything and this was a girlie thing. He will get his big day to partake in a class at the pavillion sometime, but this just wasn't going to be it. So when we got in the room and secured our spot safely in the back row, I noticed an old man in the front corner. I whispered to Katie if that little old man can dance, we definitely can handle it. Little did I know that he choreographs some of the songs and could out-zumba everyone in the room except the teacher. While singing along to the music. Of course I knew she'd rat me out to Ryan and let him know that boys can do it too.

Katie did great. She loved it and was bouncing around happily the whole time. There was only one collision where she was still moving forward when everyone else was on the way back already. She did every step wrong, but she's too young to notice or care. She can't wait to go back.