Zumba Workout And Fitness And Its Origins

Zumba has been the word on many of people's lips as of late, be it on the news, on the internet or in the passing conversation heard at work whilst enjoying your coffee. You might be forgiven for believing that Zumba it is just another obscure fringe form of dance or some fad out of Hollywood, but think again Zumba is a tangible and highly accessible new form of dance based workout. It is a workout and fitness achieving tool for achieving better health and what is more is highly enjoyable and allows you to meet new people through dance and that is always a good thing in my book. Zumba unlike many other forms of dance is free from the convention of having to partner up with someone and hence no need to feel the embarrassment and shyness some people experience when first taking up ballroom or Latin dance forms; moreover this means you don't need to do Zumba with a partner or have to worry about finding someone to dance with and we all know asking someone to dance takes some bravery when not accustomed to doing it.

So to surmise Zumba is a brilliant workout, it improves fitness and general health and is a great way to get off the sofa and out of the house and to enjoy and achieve the fitness and health you have always wanted.

Where did Zumba originate from? Zumba is attributed to being contrived by Alberto "Beto" Perez a native of Cali Columbia, Alberto was during the mid-1990's a fitness and aerobics instructor and taught the traditional moves associated with his craft and had done this for a while. But as with some things they just seem to happen out of nothing; a happy accident if you will. Alberto one day left his usual aerobics music at home and instead had to improvise the music for his class. What Alberto did was use mix tapes of the music he that he grew up with such as Salsa and Merengue, and as if by magic Alberto had come up with a new way to dance to music and one that allowed the music to truly inspire how you moved. Thus Zumba as a dance inspired workout and fitness regime was born and a new way to achieve health and fitness and have fun whilst doing it had arrived.

In 1999 Alberto bought Zumba to America and was approached by businessmen Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, they together decided upon the brand name Zumba Fitness and trademarked the name Zumba. In the following years Zumba's potential as a workout and fitness program really came into its own. DVD's were launched and with the Zumba Fitness Party brand really becoming widely known saw the first academy set up to train new instructors to teach this new dance inspired fitness phenomena. In 2008 the widely successful Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System DVD was realised featuring Alberto Perez himself along with new Zumba Fitness stars Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant. More recently for all the video game enthusiasts (myself included) a Zumba Fitness game was launched on all the major game consoles, the Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

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Original article

The Origins and the History of Belly Dance

Belly Dance is a Western term for a type of dance that originated in North Africa and the Middle East, involving the forceful and sustained movement of the hips and other parts of the body. It might also be referred to as Middle Eastern or Arabic dance, or by the Greco-Turkish name ciftetelli.

Interestingly, the belly doesn't actually play a major part in the performance of the dance. It is the movement of the hips, the lower waist and the upper body that compels the belly to thrust violently, but the shape and size of the dancer's belly is generally not important.

Belly dance is most typically performed by a lone female as a form of entertainment in restaurants and at specific functions such as weddings and parties. Sometimes though it is performed as a group, and in some instances by men.

The dance has its origins in ancient Arab tribal cultures and made its way across Western Europe during the Romantic period of the 18th and 19th centuries. Its essentially spontaneous nature has led it to be hailed as a possible forerunner of modern dancing.

It was not however universally welcomed in Europe or in the USA, where it was viewed in some quarters as immodest and provocative. This was particularly so in the repressive environment of Victorian England. And yet in spite of this Middle Eastern and North African dancers entertained at all the major World Trade Fairs during this period, fully dressed but still displaying the movements that remained so frowned upon in sections of society at that time.

Nevertheless the essence of the Trade Fairs was for the Great Powers to parade the allure and exotica of their respective empires, and there was nothing which more epitomised the spirit and "feel" of North Africa and of the Arab world than the belly dancer.

In today's more relaxed environment the art of belly dancing is popular everywhere around the world. The style of dance is not identical from one place to the next and different variants have emerged. Today one might find a Russian belly dancer performing a local routine, or somebody else performing conspicuously Arabic dance movements.

What unites them all is the wonderful exotic costumes that they invariably wear, and which brighten up any function at which they are in evidence.

Belly dancers are much in demand at weddings, corporate events, celebrations and parties and are usually regarded as a safe form of family-friendly entertainment. Westerners are themselves able to learn belly dancing at classes that operate from school halls and local community centres.

Mark Richards is a professional writer working for The Middle Man, a business promotion service using its experience and expert knowledge of marketing strategy to generate important new business for its clients at a surprisingly low cost.

Original article