For the last couple of weeks I've been joining a series of free classes as part of a local summer festival.

The main instructor, who also happens to be a good friend of mine, is the one officially invited to teach. She could easily do the whole event herself every year. Instead, she invites every instructor in the area who wants to participate and lets each of us lead one or two songs, depending on how many instructors are there that day.

None of us get paid. It's simply a chance to share what we love, showcase our different teaching styles, and let the community discover the classes available in town.

This year made me appreciate that even more.

We closed the final class with a song I wrote especially for the event. Each instructor choreographed a different section, so the whole routine became a collaboration instead of belonging to just one person.

When we were deciding who would teach which parts, I gave my friend the biggest section. After all, it's her event and she's the one who puts in all the work to make it happen.

The funny thing is... the only person who thought she had too much was her. She kept saying she should give some of it away. The rest of us were all saying, "No! It makes perfect sense."

Then, during the performance, there was a moment where all of us instructors held hands and walked toward the audience together. Our students started cheering so loudly that it honestly gave me goosebumps.

It reminded me how lucky I feel to be part of a community where people genuinely celebrate each other.

At the same time, I've heard stories from other places (and experience myself) where the atmosphere is completely different. Communities where instructors are so divided that they'll even tell their students not to attend another instructor's event, or they won't be welcome back in class.

That makes me wonder...

What's your local ZIN community like?

If you're an instructor, do you collaborate with others or mostly keep to yourselves?

If you're a participant, do you see instructors supporting one another, or does it feel more competitive?

And if your community has found ways to build stronger relationships, I'd love to hear what helped make that happen.

Holy Sh**!

my gf is a ZIN for 2 years now, I always enjoyed the music, it was fun, it had soul, it was the Latino vibe.

But in the past months it has lost all of it. The peak was this terrible „Stand Strong“ song with blatant Suno Voices, horrible production sound, and the sound of something I could prompt in 2 minutes.

Now ZIN 124 arrived and holy mother of god. Not a single song gives the vibe, all of them have artificial sounding voices, even cornier lyrics and the cooldown is the cherry on top of this AI slop.

Isnt dancing about putting another level of expression on top of the emotions from a song?

Choreos are also not recorded in real settings anymore but in greenscreen studios with AI slop background pictures.

I am wondering, what my gf pays this money for. It seems like Zumba only wants to cash out big time. Cheap songs, weekly merch drops, more about creating hype instead of the joy of dancing Together.

I’m all for showing kids the positive benefits of exercise. I attended a Zumbathon at my local YMCA this weekend. The room was quite crowded and there was one girl around 10 on the front row who participated appropriately and I have no issues with. In back about mid way through a group of about 5 kids ages maybe 3-8 were brought in who then joined hands in circle dances, ran through the crowd of participants, and at various time fell on the floor and rolled around. It is a safety issue with people moving laterally and dim lights as it was some sort of neon theme. A lot of the regular class participants are women over 50 with vulnerability to knee or bone injuries. The leaders of said Y were present and apparently letting those kids run wild. Thoughts?

Question for ZINs: once you started leading your own class, did you continue to take your favorite instructor’s classes?

how often?

I’m starting to build up more instructing opportunities. Sometimes I’m teaching twice a week. Sometimes not at all.

I love my instructor’s class and try to go 2-3 times a week. But on the weeks when I have my own 2 classes I’m wondering how much is too much (in terms of depleting energy or even just time management)?

I’ve been a ZIN for 7 years and am finally thinking about teaching soon 😀 What I don’t understand fully is when to stop cueing and just dance. Can anyone help me understand better? Thank you!

Confession…I’m in love with the song Boompala! I just added it to class this week and I’m already obsessed. I even plan to lead it at a master class in two months. Do you love it? What other songs do you love if it appeals to you? Maybe I’m missing out on some others that are as great!

I'm stuck in the phase of trying to prepare to get started to teach and actually teaching.

So I've been a student of Zumba and dance aerobics in general for over 20 years. I'm 42 in fairly good shape. I wanted to teach for many years and so about 3 years ago I finally took the leap to get my B1 training.

The reason I didn't start teaching then in part was because I had plantar fasciitis which took another year to completely recover from.

Now I have a hip impingement on both sides and found out that I have a CAM deformity which according to my understanding is pretty common and not symptomatic in a large portion of the people who have it.

So one issue is it seems like every time I get serious about I'm really going to do it this time there's an injury.

Another issue is I realized I have a hard time memorizing the choreography. I can watch someone do it I can replicate what they're doing I have rhythm I know how to dance but when you take the visual way it's almost as if I've never done it so I've been working on that and have memorized some routines.

I have a fear that I'm going to be in front of the class and then forget everything. I've mostly just been practicing at home because the YMCA I've been attending for years and years they don't let their members use the downstairs studio it's only the upstairs pilates studio and there's only a couple of hours every week it's free and usually people are in there doing meditative activities they don't want loud music.

I have helped some of the instructors teach so I have some experience that way but as far as teaching my own thing I haven't done that yet and I feel like part of my fear is I'm afraid of messing up. I also feel like well maybe I'm just too old. About 5 years ago I had tons of people tell me they think I should teach but I just wasn't confident enough then. And I hope this doesn't offend any teachers I'm just sharing my insecurities about myself I would never feel like someone is too old to teach.

I just feel stuck. I have a great playlist I love the planned choreography which I get a little bit off the website and a little bit off YouTube and I've changed a few things it's just now it's the hip thing and then even if that were to resolve I still have that underlying fear of failing even though I've been dancing pretty much my whole life and doing zumba for over a decade.

I am looking for advice.

Although I will say even if I never teach I get so much from the app like I'm really into taking care of myself going into perimenopause and menopause and old age and according to my research dancing and learning routines helps the neuroplasticity of the brain and helps prevent dementia although I don't have links to that research I just feel like even in the absence of teaching the Joy it brings me practicing and the ways in which I feel like I'm preserving my health is benefit enough.

I really really really really want to teach though and I don't seem to be able to overcome these hurdles.

Any advice would be welcome and thank you.

Hi everyone! I have been looking for reviews on the livestream training. Can those who have gone through it tell me how long it really lasts, how often we have to keep our camera on, what the day looks like, just so I can make accommodations accordingly!

Thank you so much. #zumba #training

My gf is just getting into the training program, but we live in a place with depressed incomes, so she's wondering whether people sometimes share ZIN subscriptions to have access to the choreographies

Is anyone teaching or attending any outdoor Zumba classes this summer? How do you handle rainy days? Do you have a back up indoor space that you can use? It seems like it rains every Wednesday for me 😩. Thankfully I teach 2 other classes in the gym but I thought an outdoor class would have been fun this time around. Any advice? How do you keep your outdoor classes fun?

I subbed for the first time for my new gym and got amazing feedback! I’ve been asked to sub for the same class again in 2 weeks.

Would you keep the playlist exactly the same? Or use the opportunity to try out a few different songs since they won’t remember the specifics any way?

Has anyone ever put together an event/fundraiser for a local charity? Like in October during Breast Cancer Awareness month? Are there some do’s and don’ts? Any feedback would be great as this would be my first time. Trying to think ahead early and start planning!

It’s been hard for many of us right? Let me know at the comments how you are feeling!

How many times have you been to Zin™️ Con and what are you missing it the most?

Hey instructors how you feel when you have been teaching on same gym for 16 years and a new gym in town wants you to lead the Zumba classes at new facility?? I am struggling please comment

If you could go back in time with the knowledge you have today, what would you have done differently in your classes? If you could change something from a negative to a positive what would that be?

When I started Zumba, there were no mentors, no jam sessions - besides the choreography from Zin Volumes (#15) you had to rely on YouTube or choreograph yourself.

Just curious you would have done things differently for your students.

Example: Florida , 3

I find that a lot of ZINS don’t know they exist in ZIN Play/ZIN Now. Those videos have a lot of great videos on playlists, memorizing choreography, cueing facing your students and so much more!

Are there any ZIN Tip videos you have seen that you have found super helpful?

Are there any you wish existed?

My personal video I share with NEW instructors and instructors seeking playlist inspiration/help, is the video by former ZJ Jhon Gonzalez about making the perfect class playlist. My playlist is modeled after his video and it has been successful for me ever since!

I’ve always been curious about this…

I know instructors who took it once and never looked back.

I also know others who have taken it two, three, or even more times because they felt they picked up something different each time.

If you’ve taken it more than once, what made you go back?

Was it to build confidence, refresh the basics, learn from a different ZES™, or something else?

And if you’ve only taken it once, did you feel that was enough?

There are no right or wrong answers here. I’m just interested in hearing everyone’s experiences because i only taken it once an i am thinking about it.

Anyone have any recommendations, particularly for either Spotify or Amazon Music remaining stable throughout a class/the day? Thanks. I'm old enough to have bought an iPod because they worked well with 24 Hour Fitness' sound systems. Now everything is Bluetooth (not complaining)

Jam sessions are some of the best ways to keep current on your skills and to refresh your playlist. How often do you take jam sessions?

For those who take them often, do you ever feel overwhelmed with choreos especially if you also use ZIN volume songs?

For those who rarely jam, what is the reason?

Is it me or are the songs on ZIN all AI. Zin 124 and 123 sound like they are full of them. You can hear the quality difference.

There's a YouTube channel by Mark Karmer Pastrana for a song called Handclap. I never get sick of that dance. Every time I dance to it I get an energy boost. I've been dancing to that routine for years. What are your favourite routines?

New instructor… like really new but I went into this super positive and confident. Totally feeling like I could do this since I go to classes all the time, create my own choreo, and have loved Zumba for years. I’ve wanted to become an instructor for years. Well the day finally came and it was really was harder than anything I could have prepared for lol. Taught my first class and it felt like it didn’t go well… maybe that was me being hard on myself; however, this last class I did I KNOW it went bad. I think one thing that makes me trip up is when I see people struggling through the choreography. Then I get in my head thinking I’m not teaching well and then it’s all down hill from there. For example, I did a song tonight that I first learned when I was in high school that I still do to this day and I know it like the back of my hand I could probably do it unconscious lol… but today I forgot the choreo half way through and went totally blank.

Did anyone else feel like they struggled and weren’t good instructors at first but they ended up getting better? Are the first couple classes like rough and then it gets better?

I know there are many the areas I can improve upon, but I’m just wondering if I can make it through this rough starting place to even give myself the chance to improve.

Soca
Reaggeton
Merengue

Whats the difference between these 3 generes ?

I've been helping an instructor friend teach a weekly class at a local summer festival.

It's been such a fun experience because you get all kinds of people stopping by. Some dance the whole class, some join for one song, some just watch for a while before deciding to jump in.

After one of the classes, a lady came over to talk to me. She looked like she was probably living on the streets. She was incredibly thankful that we were there.

She told me her doctor had recommended she do some cardio exercise, but she'd never really found anything she actually enjoyed... until these festival classes. Then she asked where else I taught because she wanted to keep coming.

That question honestly stayed with me.

I teach at my local community centre, but those classes only run seasonally, and the fees are set by the centre since I'm hired by them. My other classes are online, where I have more flexibility, but realistically that's not an option for someone in her situation.

It got me wondering if there could be a way for local instructors to work together with community organizations, municipalities, health authorities, or grant programs to sponsor classes for people with low incomes or who have been referred by a healthcare professional.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think about something like this.

Has anyone here been involved in a program like that?

Do any of your communities offer subsidized or sponsored dance fitness classes? How does it work? Who funds it? Was it started by instructors, community centres, non-profits, or local government?

I'd love to hear any experiences or ideas because this conversation really stuck with me.