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Join The Zumba Party

staff/Jay Nolan

Patty Sanchez takes to stage during a Zumba exercise class at Planteen Recreation Center in Plant City. Zumba is a cardiovascular dancing exercise that utilizes beats from Latin music.

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By RAY REYES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2007

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PLANT CITY - A barrage of Latin beats blasts through the stereo speakers, and Patty Sanchez takes center stage, her body shimmying with what seems like a hundred dance moves.

For the next hour, Sanchez hardly pauses for breath. She bounces and boogies around so much her feet barely touch the floor.

'She's a dynamo,' said Debby Ragland, a fan, a friend and a student of Sanchez. 'It's fun to watch Patty.'

It is Sanchez's haven from the stress of the outside world. It is her bliss. It is her life.

It is Zumba.

Think Jazzercise spiced with Latin flavor.

It is a high-energy aerobic workout program that fuses elements of salsa, merengue, rumba, cumbia, flamenco, calypso, reggae and hip-hop rhythms and moves.

It is exercise, but people do not realize the hard work they put into it, said Sanchez, who teaches a Zumba class Wednesday nights at the Planteen Recreation Center, 301 N. Dort St.

Zumba feels more like dancing, said Edith Vasquez, another of Sanchez's students. Vasquez said no gym membership or walking session makes her sweat more than Zumba.

'It changes your life,' said Sanchez, 41. 'It changes you.'

Sanchez's transformation began last year. The homemaker and mother of two was taking classes to improve her English. She weighed nearly 200 pounds and wanted to lose weight. Throughout her adult life, Sanchez said she tried different fitness programs but none was successful.

Sanchez saw a commercial for Zumba on television and ordered the workouts on DVD because she has loved listening and dancing to Latin and international music since she was a girl growing up in Costa Rica, she said.

She then enrolled in a Zumba class at the Plant City Family YMCA. Zumba was starting to become a lifestyle, she said. Her high blood pressure was gone. She woke up every morning filled with an energy and alertness she had not felt in years.

Nine months later, Zumba had slimmed and toned Sanchez's figure. She had lost 60 pounds. Her former matronly appearance had evaporated. Sanchez looked - and felt - like a Zumba queen.

Zumba has 'absolutely changed my life,' Sanchez said, 'in my body and in my mind.'

A white-hot Zumba fever had gripped Sanchez and she wanted it to infect others. She traveled to Zumba Fitness headquarters in Miami, the birthplace of Zumba, to earn her certification as an instructor.

Her classes at the Planteen began in September, and her gregariousness and perky personality quickly won her a loyal group of students.

Vasquez calls Sanchez her hero. 'In nine months,' Vasquez said, 'I'll look just like her.'

At a recent Zumba class, novice and experienced students mirrored Sanchez's moves. A song that meshed salsa rhythms with hip-hop beats thumped through the speakers. Sanchez effortlessly segued from one step to the next, blending the ballroom bombast of salsa, the sultriness of flamenco and the head-bobbing breakdowns of contemporary hip-hop dance into a seamless routine.

One move featured Sanchez and her students fanning their hands in front of their faces as if to say, 'Muy caliente,' Spanish for very hot. It was appropriate, because halfway through the first song, everybody was drenched in sweat.

'One hour can burn 800 calories, depending on how much you move,' Sanchez said.

Amid the flourishes, Sanchez would exclaim a random 'Woo!' A chorus of 'Zumba! Zumba!' peppered the half-sung, half-rapped lyrics of the music. Sanchez's smile never wavered. The motto emblazoned on the front of her tank top said it all: 'Join the Party!'

The only break afforded to the students is between songs, when they have just enough time to take a gulp of water and catch their breath.

'It's awesome,' said Edith Miller of Lakeland, who participated in Sanchez's class for the first time recently. 'I'm out of breath. But you're having fun and releasing all the stress, too.'

A new song comes on. Break over.

A flail of the arms pointed to Colombia and the cumbia, a dance typified by short, gliding steps. A clapping of the hands and a stomping of the feet planted the class in Spain, where flamenco originated. A shake of the hips followed by a rapid crossing of the feet put the rumba in Zumba and evoked the culture of Cuba.

Miller did her best to keep up. 'I was lost for a moment.'

A chant crescendos in the middle of the song. 'Fiesta, fiesta, no termina!'

Loose translation: Don't stop the party.

Sanchez would not dare.

'It's a part of my life,' Sanchez said of Zumba.

She cues up another song. This time, it is Shakira's hit single, 'Hips Don't Lie.' The lyrics resound through the hall.

'I never really knew she could dance like this . . . and I'm on tonight, you know my hips don't lie and I'm starting to feel it's right.'

Sanchez begins to move and here, in her small slice of Zumba heaven, her hips speak nothing but the truth.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Zumba for ages 13 and older with instructor Patty Sanchez

WHEN: 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays

WHERE: Planteen Recreation Center, 301 N. Dort St., Plant City

HOW MUCH: $5 per class

INFORMATION: Call Patty Sanchez at (813) 516-4731 or Chris Washburn at the city's recreation and parks department at (813) 659-4256.

ON THE WEB: www.zumba .com and www.plantcity gov.com/rec

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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