ZUMBA (Fitness Dance) - How I Started and My Experience

I still remember every detail about my Zumba beginnings. :)

In case you are not familiar with Zumba, it is a dance fitness program that combines dance and aerobic movements with uplifting and energetic music. It was founded by Colombian dancer and coreographer Beto Perez.

It was the beginning of November 2013. I just came back from Switzerland and went to see my friend I haven't seen for a while even though we lived in the same street. We were talking for a long time when she mentioned she took a free pass in one of the popular fitness centers in Novi Sad. She wanted to go and try some of the group programs out but the problem was she didn't want to show up there alone. So of course she asked me to come with her. I started to laugh. Me and fitness - two different worlds. I never went to any kind of classes or trainings. But she kept insisting and I was in that state when I wanted to try out something new and I always loved dancing so I was like "Let's do it!"
We agreed to take it easy and try Bodybalance, mix of yoga and pilates (which later turned out to be a lot harder that I tought!). Class was suppose to be on Sunday. But then, few days before the class, my friend told me she got tickets for basketball game on Sunday and asked me if it's okay if we go on Saturday instead. I was okay with that. We decided to try Zumba, since it was the easiest program for that day.
When we came to the fitness center there was so many people. All that I had on my mind is how I'm going to embarrass myself. My friend was so excited and I was like "Let do this so I can move on with my life!" Haha!
The class started and the feeling of embarrassment was soon replaced with "I'm having so much fun!" feeling. Of course it was hard to catch all the steps but the atmosphere and music made me feel like I am at the party and I loved it. After the class I was totally blown away by how much I liked it! And my friend ended up being disappointed. She was expecting something else, I guess she had a picture in her head how Zumba is going to be and it was something completely different.
So I decided to join the fitness center and continue going to Zumba and she gave up.
Being a shy person, it took me a while to make friends with people from the class but now I can say that there is a few people that I consider to be true friends, especially @jadrankaajduk :)

Funny thing is, Jadranka and me went to same high school for 3 years (since she is one year older than me) and we haven't know each other. We always like to say that high school wasn't the time when we meant to hang out and become friends.
Unfortunately I'm not taking Zumba classes at the moment because of few different reasons but I have some plans to go back to it this summer, at least for a while, just to feel that amazing energy, vibe and atmosphere again. There is no better feeling than finishing Zumba class after a long day (since our classes were at 9pm) with a smile on your face, being surrounded by friends and dancing off all the negativity, stress or any other negative feelings. Not to mention that it can be a real workout and cardio if you give your maximum. :)

Here are some pictures and moments I shared with my Zumba family

After Zumba feelings haha

Hanging out on a summer evening

We celebrate birthdays together

We take selfies on the elevator lol

Another birthday celebration

Days of Brazil festival in Novi Sad with the girls

If you have Zumba classes near you and you love to dance but have a good workout at the same time, I definitely recommend you to try it out.

Here is a You Tube channel of my instructor Goran and his dance partner Nevena, they do choreography's and Master classes together, they have over 100,000 subscribers and almost 30 million views on their channel!
Check it out - https://www.youtube.com/user/nevenagoran

What is your favorite physical activity?

Thank you for reading!

Nikolina