Kidsday reporters take a Zumba class
Kidsday reporters from Susan Stanco's fifth-grade class at the Connolly School in Glen Cove warming up before taking a Zumba Class in Glen Studio on Glen Head. In the back in orange shirt is their instructor Raphael Francois. Credit: Newsday/Pat Mullooly
Jump, pop, bam! Are you ready to get funky?
Here’s a riddle for you. It’s a kind of dance. It starts with a Z and ends with an A. Are you ready?
Give me a Z, give me a U, give me a M, give me a B, one more letter! An A!
That spells Zumba!
Do you know what Zumba is? It is a Latin dance that combines fast-paced music and an aerobic workout.
We and a few of our classmates went to the Glen Dance Studio in Old Brookville to take a Zumba class. Our instructor was Raphael Francois. It was a lot of fun! We jumped a lot and made tons of noise.
Our favorite parts were the dance, which was just a little “friendly competition”: girls vs. boys, and learning how to Zumba. We also did freeze dance but, when we froze, we had to be in an animal pose. We all got a great workout.
We also learned how to merengue. Some steps we did were to walk forward and backward. We also danced in a circle around the room. My whole class says it was fun, so maybe you should try it.
If you want to take up a sport and get a great workout at the same time . . . try Zumba! Raphael made it fun, and we did about five different types of dances during our hour. We were all sweating from our workout.
