Zumba for the New Year!

        2013 is knocking on the door, and one of the all-time top new year’s resolutions is to get in shape. For six years I’ve been shaking it and sweating in Zumba^R  classes. If you’ve decided to Zumba yourself into shape, I’ve got some pointers for you.

       Even though Zumba was invented by a man, Beto Perez, most of the people in my Zumba class are
women, so my advice is more female oriented.

        Before you go to class, get two good pairs of shoes. 

Nike Musique IV shoes with pivot point.

Nike makes Musique dance/cheer shoes that have a pivot point under the ball of the foot. Cross training shoes are also good. I’ve found that heel support is not as important as a shoe that can flex, because I dance more up on the balls of my feet than on my heels. Running shoes can trip you up when you move side to side. You can use them, but beware. Two pairs of shoes allow you to alternate them so they won't wear out as fast.

Absorbent socks are a good thing. When I get home from Zumba, I put my shoes in front of a heating vent to help them dry out.

After you’re done shoe shopping, pick up a few good, supportive, sports bras. Be prepared. A whole lotta shakin’ and shimmying goes on in class. You can wear anything over the sports bra, a tight tank top, a loose t-shirt, or whatever you’re most comfortable in. If you get too hot, and you're daring enough, you can go with just the sports bra.

I usually pull my hair up in a pony tail to keep it out of my face. Others use head bands, or have the foresight and time to braid their hair. Some have short hair and don’t need to do a thing.

As for what to wear on your lower half, in my class, there’s a lot of variety: Yoga pants, capris, running shorts, and tennis skirts, depending mostly on the temperature outside. Fabrics made to wick away moisture are the way to go. Keep in mind that dark colors are better at hiding sweat.

Sometimes for fun I’ll wear a belly dance hip scarf over my yoga pants. Keeping the coins jingling on beat is a challenge, and I like to think of it as doing Zumba with weights.

Don't buy too many new workout clothes though because it probably won't be long before you have to buy more in smaller sizes. Zumba melts the fat off quickly.

Finally, before you leave home, fill up a water bottle. You’ll need at least 20 ounces to stay hydrated during an hour of 600-800 calorie burning Zumba. Some people like ice in their water. I prefer mine room temperature. Smart Water with electrolytes is another option. If I’m doing a 90-minute class, I’ll bring either two 20 oz. water bottles, two bottles of G-Series Performance Gatorade, or a combination of both.

Now that you’re ready, on to class. Get there before class to meet the teacher, and fill out any forms. Trust me, everybody’s nervous before their first Zumba class. Will you know the steps? No. Will you make mistakes? Yes. Will everybody be watching you? No, unless you make the mistake of standing in the front row.

Don’t stand in the front row until you’ve been doing Zumba for awhile and know most of the routines. If you stand in the back, staggered between the two people in front of you, you will be able to watch everybody in front of you and follow them even if you can’t see the teacher. The gals in the front row usually know what they’re doing, and when they started, they started in the back. It won’t take long before you too will know the difference between a cha cha and salsa, hip hop and belly dancing. Then the new people will be pushing you up to the front row.

My Halloween Zumba class.

Put your water bottle, somewhere nearby, but not where anyone can trip on it. You can grab a drink between songs. Introduce yourself to the people around you because sooner or later, you’ll be turning the wrong way and running into them, so you may as well get to know them before hand. They were all beginners before, so they know how you feel. A quick smile and the ability to laugh at yourself go a long way toward making class fun.

One of the great things about Zumba is that you don’t have time to over analyze what you’re doing or fret over any mistakes you make. If everybody is moving left, you better be too, even if your footwork isn’t perfect. Keep moving with the school of fish. Don’t stop dead or you’ll get run over. The music dictates how fast you better be moving.

Sometimes you can divide how fast you move your feet in half if you need to, but you’ve still got to pay attention to the beat. If you can’t find the beat, find someone else’s feet to watch, or if there’s a cowbell clanging, follow it. When I get lost, I focus on correcting my feet first, arms second. You can adjust your movements to be high energy, or low impact. When you’re just starting out, don’t go too big or it’s hard to recover and get back to where you should be. As with anything, the more you practice, they better you'll get, so keep showing up for class if you want to improve.

Ready for a Zumba flash mob.

With thousands of Zumba miles on my many pairs of dancing shoes, the thing that keeps me going back for more, is that I don’t think of it as grueling exercise that I have to endure. It’s an energy filled dance party that I get to go to five or more times a week. There are new songs and routines to figure out each week. My teachers also rotate and keep things fresh. Each one has her own style or “flava.”

Before every class, before the music takes over, my Zumba Maniacs teachers call out to us, “Bend your knees! Pick up your feet! Have fun!” That’s not hard to do at all!

Laura Keolanui Stark will Zumba-on through 2013. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

2012 Puyallup Fair Flash Mob Flash Back

          The last day of the 2012 Washington State Fair was Sunday, September 23. For me, this year the fair was all about music and dancing. It started with a fun band of crazy dancers for a flash mob on opening day (see previous 9/9/12 blog). That pretty much set the rhythm of the rest of the fair.

The following Sunday, John and I had barely put our suitcases down from a five-hour drive home across smoky from wildfires Washington when a friend offered us free tickets to the Enrique Iglesias concert at the fair. 

Enrique Iglesias

We giddy upped downtown for a concert full of surprises, and although the audience was definitely younger than us, I knew a lot of the songs from Zumba. The Spanish/Filipino heart throb, like his father before him, had the girls swooning. I had eaten breakfast with Sarah and John at WSU that morning, enjoyed a concert with John that night, and then blew out the candles on my birthday cake at home after the concert.

My third visit to the fair was for another concert, the Doobie Brothers. John's cancelled business trip meant we had to scramble for tickets at the last minute, but we got two in row two. Don Felder, a former Eagle, and his new band kicked off the concert. Hotel California, Already Gone, Life in the Fast Lane, Witchy Woman and other songs from our younger days spilled over the rockin’ audience in the Grand Stand.

Don Felder, from The Eagles.

The Doobie Brothers!

Then the Doobie Brothers took the stage. The audience was up on its feet again as we Listen(ed) to the Music. They played my favorite hits: Black Water, Long Train Running, China Grove, Takin’ It to the Streets, as we sang out loud and danced. The level of musicianship of Don Felder’s band and The Doobie Brothers was amazing. I saw the Doobies when I was in college. I feel so lucky that I got to see them again with John this time.

More music and dancing drew me through the turnstiles of the Gold Gate for the fourth time on Friday. My friend Vicki and I lucked out, finding a rare, free parking space on the street. As we walked toward the fairgrounds, she felt self-conscious wearing a hot pink jacket. I told her not to worry. People weren’t looking at her pink jacket. My crazy dancin’ pants were a much bigger distraction.

My crazy dancin' pants

In the VIP tent we met up with 170 other flash mobbing Pitbull fans dressed in pink and ready to dance! There were a few brave men sprinkled in with our amazing group of women who share an enthusiastic love of dancing. The “usual” characters: a duck, a couple of chickens, a small posse of cowboys, and a bevy of daffodil princesses joined us in the rehearsal. 

We laughed and clowned around in the bleachers while we waited for the signal for us to begin. Then we moved into our positions in the aisles facing the stage. When the guitar started the opening notes of “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” we turned to face the audience with our thumbs hooked in our real or imaginary pockets. Click on link for video: Pitbull flash mob Puyallup fair

Rosie, Vicki and I ready to flash mob

As we danced, people beamed smiles at us and pulled their phones out to record us. A couple near me tried to ignore us and find their seats. I warned them they’d be better off just sitting anywhere right then. We’d be done in 30 seconds. They could find their real seats then. Just like that we were done!

The back of our flash mob t-shirts.

The 253 Crew (253 is Puyallup’s area code) headed back to the bleachers, but not for long. In a few minutes, the lights blazed, the music hit us, and Mr. 305 (Miami’s area code), Pitbull took the stage. He brought us all to our feet and we surged up front to dance for the rest of the concert. 

Pitbull, Mr. 305, Mr. Worldwide!

An overwhelmed security guard kept us from getting too close, but he couldn’t put a lid on our Pitbull-mania. At Zumba that morning, our teachers had warmed us up for the concert with a full hour of Pitbull songs: I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho), Give Me Everything, Back in Time. Now we were salsa-ing, samba-ing, shimmying and dancing in the moonlight to Pitbull, Mr. Worldwide, live! What an unforgettable, wild night shared with my sassy Zumba girlfriends.

My fifth, and last trip to the fair was to flash mob again on the closing day of the fair. Each time, the mob changed—different dancers, different schedules, different locations. This time I disguised myself as just another mild mannered fairgoer by standing in the scone line and fake texting on my phone. Fellow mobber, Linda, kept an eye out for where the mob leaders were so we’d be in the right place, at the right time. It was easy to spot the big characters, especially the duck.

It was really packed, so I was a little worried about how the crowd would get out of our way when we started dancing, but it worked. The sea of fairgoers parted and we did our dance. We “got our happy on” and the impromptu, smiling audience did too. Click on link for video: Closing day flash mob

It was the perfect finishing touch to wrap up the final flash mob with a rousing chorus of Do the Puyallup: 

All the people and the animals down at the fair,
They do the Puyallup like they didn’t have a care
And it looks like so much fun to do
I think I’m gonna learn how to do it too.

Oh you can do it at a trot,

You can do it at a gallop,
You can do it real slow so your heart won't palpitate.
Just don't be late.

Do the Puyallup!

Laura Keolanui Stark is finishing up the last of the baker’s dozen of fair scones and recovering. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Flash Mob at the Puyallup Fair

September 7, 2012 was the opening day of the Puyallup Fair and it was a doozy! The weather was perfect, sunny and hot. That combined with free entry from 9 until noon if you brought a donation for the Puyallup food bank, meant that thousands (75,000 at last year’s opening day) headed for the fair.

My Zumba buddy Vicki and I thought we had the perfect plan to get around the traffic/parking problems. We were taking part in a top secret fair event, so we had a parking pass to one of the employee parking lots.

With half of the Puyallup streets closed, a trip downtown that usually takes less than 10 minutes stretched out to a frustrating hour. The fact that neither of us had bothered to find out exactly where the special parking lot was didn’t help. As the clock ticked closer to noon, we switched to Plan B and panic parked in a lady’s backyard for $10.

We didn’t have to report to our top secret fair event until 3:30, but killing time at the fair is not a problem. We crammed into the Americraft Showplex tried new skin care products, cut tomatoes with ceramic knives, and watched an expert make salsa.  We compared notes on what we’d each bought at past fairs, what worked, and what we were still using.

Outside in the sunshine, we chomped on hot, juicy roasted corn. I savored a pulled pork sandwich from Pete’s Barbecue. Vicki gobbled a turkey leg from Young Life.

At 3:30, we headed over to the VIP tent where Brenda from The Puyallup Fair (and Zumba) told us how to check everyone in for the secret event: a flash mob.

Vicki and I ready to check flash mobbers in.

A duck joins us to help the check-in process.

4:15: the first rehearsal. It went very well considering most of us had been practicing in different Zumba studios or at home individually by watching an instructional YouTube video: Puyallup Fair flash mob instructional video

4:30: the second rehearsal. Our leader, Kristyn from Zumba Maniacs tweaked how we’d flow onto “the stage.”  Things got a little more complicated when men on horseback and a giant duck were added to our dance troupe.

4:45: the final rehearsal. Good enough!

       Kristyn timed our group departures so that we’d slowly trickle out into the crowd, unnoticed. We milled around near the State Patrol building and the Americraft Showplex trying to look casual as rodeo cowboys and horses clomped by.

5:30: The opening guitar twangs of Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy started blasting from speakers turning one of the major intersections of the Puyallup Fair into a honky-tonk. 160 flash mobbers tucked our thumbs into our pockets (real and imaginary) and strutted our stuff across the asphalt. 

We Yee Hawed, grape vined, twirled, threw our hands up in the air, screamed with Usher, and did our best to Take Ova the “dance floor.”  Kids, grandmas, dads, costumed cowboys with built in horses, giant ducks, and sassy women, also known as flash mobbers, danced like crazy for four minutes, hooted and hollered, and then turned back into just your average fair-goers.

People watched the flash mob with grins on their faces. A few tried to join in. John did a great job videotaping us in action from the sidelines. Here’s the link:  Puyallup flash mob street view Look for me in my crimson Cougar t-shirt, skirt, and cowboy boots. Here's the fair's video of the mob: Puyallup fair flash mob

This year the Puyallup Fair’s slogan is “Get Your Happy On!” Woot! Woot! That’s exactly what did!

Laura Keolanui Stark crossed “Be part of a flash mob” off her bucket list. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com. If you’d like be in the flash mob on closing day, go to The Puyallup Fair’s Facebook page and click on Events.