There’s a certain time of day that’s only seen by a rare group of people: very motivated runners who start their day with a little sweat. Middle school students scowling the public school system at 4:45 a.m. Groggy graveyard shift workers clocking out with their eyes already closed. And overly enthusiastic Zumba dancers after an all-nighter. I have evolved from the middle schooler to the Zumba dancer, since I did Zumba for the first a few weeks ago.
It had been a very long time since I had watched the sky shift from black, to pitch black, to bruise blue, to pink. Recently participating in all night UCF event, I walked and walked while the sky changed above in the same speed grass grows. Different activities and themes changed around me, the night almost passing by in a whirl. For the first time in a while, I was pretty tired. But they had announced a 5 a.m. Zumba class; and my best friend and I were not missing out. We were determined.
About 15 minutes later, a very energetic woman almost literally bounced by me and my group. Her outfit reminded me of a Wynwood Wall, colors all coming together in different places. They called for Zumba a little while later, and a small group of us trudged to a stage area, very unprepared for what was about to happen. Let me note the fact that for some illogical reason, I thought I was prepared for Zumba. I had watched my mom at a few classes she went to after work, but did not participate because I was still in that rebellious, “I’m too cool,” middle school stage.
For some reason, I was very surprised to see the Wynwood Wall Woman standing on the stage. I rubbed my eyes and sighed, kicking off my Kinos. At the exact stroke of five, she introduced herself all too quickly, and my first time ever doing Zumba began almost instantly after. There were about ten of us.
Well, in the beginning there were ten of us. A large portion of the group backed out after about three minutes (I actually checked my Fitbit for the exact time on this.) After those three minutes, the next 57 minutes were a whirlwind of hunky dory Miami music, dance moves I didn’t even know existed, and lots of screaming. Wow. So much screaming. Wynwood Wall Woman kept us telling to scream. Pretty much through the whole thing.
However, I learned a lot of things during this experience. This hour of my life gave me a lot of confidence I didn’t really know I had.
After a little while into the workout, I stopped feeling self-conscious about the dance moves. I started realizing that even if I sometimes didn’t stretch my arm far enough, or if I turned the wrong way, or didn’t shake my booty the right way, that I was still having fun. And I was still being encouraged. Wynwood Wall Woman didn’t care if we did some moves wrong, as long as we didn’t pull a muscle and we were still having fun.
When we hit the 20 minute mark, I stopped feeling self-conscious about my body. I was incredibly ill prepared for Zumba when I did it. This cannot be stressed enough. I was in pajama pants and a sleeping bra, and I’m a 36G. Without furthering detail, it is safe to say the dancing was a lot more challenging for this reason. But after a while, I stopped caring. I was having fun with friends, dancing to good music, working out my body. It didn’t matter how my body shook. It didn’t matter if I was out of shape. Zumba is for everyone.
And by the end, I stopped being self-conscious about everything. People were watching us the whole time, and I was very aware of them for the first 15 minutes of that hour. But by the end, I couldn’t even tell you if they were still there. I was taken almost into a confidence trance, like an infomercial that was too good to be true. I felt great. I was ready for the day, and I hadn’t even slept for it.
Because that’s what Zumba does to you. Zumba is for everyone. And that became very apparent to me, when I looked around and saw the diverse group around me, how much fun they were having, and the rising sun. Needless to say, it was a great first time.