Is Zumba only for women?

NO!

And this post could end at that. But just to further prove my point (and encourage those reluctant potential Zumbaers out there to shake off their fears and give it a try!), I will present you with a few rather compelling bits of evidence in favour of my exclamation at the beginning of this little entry.

No.1:
The guy who “invented” Zumba is, well, a guy.
Meet Beto Perez, the brain and the body behind this party! ‘Nuff said.

No.2:
When I first came to Austria in December of 2009, I landed in the midst of what I thought was the gloomiest city in the world. For the next two months I saw maybe a ray or two of sun every forthnight and was seriously contemplating packing my bags and moving back to my – possibly equally cold but much brighter – northern Virginia. But I wanted to stick it out at least for a year, so I searched desperately for a way to cheer myself up. I knew Zumba would do the trick, but I could not find any classes anywhere. Luckily I stumbled upon Floridita and Javier Calderon Morales, my salvation and self-proclaimed pioneer Zumba instructor in Vienna. Here is one of his classes, chosen for the sole reason that I am in this video 🙂 Javier’s classes are super fun and I can highly recommend them. Not that a guy has to take classes from a guy – au contraire, mon amis, but I just wanted to show that there are guys out there doing it and doing it well!

PS: Extra credit for Jelena-spotting in this video! 🙂

Reason No.3:
Some guys are just super cute when they do it and women all over the world should not be denied the opportunity to enjoy such sights. See example below:

But jokes aside, Zumba is for anyone who would like to get a bit more movement in their daily existence – whatever their gender! The single prerequisite for Zumba is the desire to have fun and the willingness to sweat a bit. Or a lot (as is my case).