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Rhythm Is Gonna Get You

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

LUTZ - The music thumped, and you could feel your body vibrating along with the bass.

"Here we go; let's get loud," Marcelino Velez said above the din. "You wanna get loud!"

The crowd was screaming and hopping and punching hands into the air to the beat. It felt like a dance club, but it was 9:30 a.m. under fluorescent lights, and the dancers were wearing sneakers, tie-dyed shirts and headbands.

Second-graders at Lutz Elementary got a dose of Zumba into their physical education routines. They spent a recent morning bouncing and salsa dancing as Velez, a Zumba instructor at the New Tampa Family YMCA, led them through moves and talked to them about healthy living

"Are you tired yet?" Velez asked during a break.

"No," the children shouted.

Teacher Victoria Morse, who has taken classes with Velez, invited him to Lutz to show her students the popular workout, which puts dance and aerobics to a Latin beat. The children greeted it with enthusiasm, jumping up for their turn to groove and then flopping on the ground in exhaustion. While other students danced, the seated ones clapped to the music or made up their own dance moves from the floor.

"I like it better than regular exercise," said 7-year-old Caitlin Jordan.

Across the state, teachers are seeking creative ways to inject fitness into the classroom. A new law requires elementary students to have 150 minutes of physical education weekly. Not all of it has to come from gym class. Schools may try anything from designating time to play games outdoors to offering brief breaks where children run in place and do jumping jacks in their classroom.
Lutz Principal Mary Fernandez said her school has fitness time during the morning show, before lunch and during transitions to different activities. Students may take advantage of a walking course at the school, and teachers experiment with ways to integrate it into the curriculum, such as linking spelling lessons with movement.

Of course, she said, Lutz wouldn't pass up regular visits from fitness instructors.

"If he came every day, that would be fun," Fernandez said, joking, as Velez danced with the students.

Morse said she had been trying to incorporate new ways to exercise into her second-grade class. She got into Zumba about six months ago and thought her students might enjoy it as much as she did. She was pleased with their reaction.

"Kids are up and moving and having fun," Morse said. "That's a great outlet for them."

They got to experience some ballet and hip-hop as well. Velez's wife, Joan Gittens-Velez, a professional dancer, showed the children some ballet leaps before teaching a hip-hop routine. Ruth Aweke, 7, ran to give Gittens-Velez a hug afterward. Ruth took ballet lessons from her and said she had fun doing hip-hop as well.

Velez told the group that fun was the key to successful exercising.

"The best way to stay healthy," he said, "is to find something you like and have fun with it."

WHAT IS ZUMBA?
Zumba puts to music aerobics and Latin dance moves, including salsa, merengue, flamenco and rumba. The pace varies throughout the routines for an interval workout of fast and slow rhythms. Colombian-born fitness trainer and choreographer Beto Perez created Zumba in the mid-1990s and founded Zumba Fitness in Miami in 2002. For information, see www.zumba.com.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.

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