Several hundred villagers now are enshrined as Zumba role models after participating Thursday in a learning video that will be distributed worldwide by the Zumba Fitness Organization of Miami.
The villagers and their local instructors danced and moved to the music at Lake Sumter Landing under the direction of professional Zumba instructors Joyce Prouty and Josie Gardiner.
Zumba uses music and dance to achieve fitness. Zumba Gold is moderate type of the exercise designed for older adults.
The Zumba Fitness Organization of Miami, which supervises instructor training, was founded in 2001. More than 30 Zumba classes are offered in The Villages and nearly 100 are available in the area.
The Zumba Gold video, produced by Native Films of Miami, will be used by the organization to help teach the exercise style worldwide, said Barb Matson, a Villages Zumba Gold instructor.
She said Zumba Gold classes in The Villages have been working on choreographed dance moves for several weeks and practiced together on Wednesday at Lake Miona Recreation Center.
Zumba Gold certified instructors in The Villages include Stefanie Bristol, Sue Campbell, Susan Feinberg, Cindy Halse, Sandra Henthorn, Connie Lumpkin, Matson, Carol Ann Nelson, Laurel O’Brien, Dana Ruland, Kathy Templeton and Elaine Vaques. Bette Rowley of the Village of Charlotte, who began Zumba exercise last month, was among those joining in the video.
“It gives me a lot of energy,” she said. “My blood pressure has never been so low and I’m getting a lot of cardiac exercise.”
Besides the fitness, Zumba classes are a great social opportunity, said Judy Hommel of the Village of Orange Blossom Gardens, who said she began participating in Zumba classes nine years ago in Massachusetts.
“I’ve never met so many wonderful people,” she said.
Betty Neary of the Village of Duvall, a Zumba veteran of seven years, said the exercise helps satisfy her need to dance.
“My husband doesn’t dance,” she said. “It’s so much fun and you get a good workout.”
