Getting Zumba-fied: Miss D Goes Back to Zumba School
NEIRAD enilno edition
Most students know Jenna D’Agostino as the teacher of many math classes on the first floor of the B building. Some even know her as the school’s dance team adviser. But what the majority of the student body doesn’t know is that she’s just recently become a certified Zumba instructor.
Zumba is basically a fitness program that fuses Latin rhythms and easy to follow movements into a super easy, super fun workout for people of all ages. It’s different from traditional exercise, which can get pretty boring on a day-to-day basis. Instead of repeating the same steps over and over again, Zumba incorporates dance moves straight from the nation of Columbia where the exercise craze began.
I sat down with Miss D’Agostino and asked her about how she got involved in the whole process.
NEIRAD: What is your dance background? How long have you been dancing?
Miss D'Agostino: I have been dancing since I was three years old. I did all styles of dance including hip-hop, tap, jazz and ballet. I took formal classes until I was about 16 but had to stop because of the demand of high school course loads. In my sophomore year in college, (Sacred Heart University) I joined the dance ensemble and was a member of the dance group until I graduated. I haven't been back to formal dance lessons since college, but I became one of the advisers of the dance team during my first year teaching at DHS and I love helping the girls.
NEIRAD: How did you hear about Zumba?
Miss D: I initially heard about Zumba from a friend from college. After we graduated she became very involved in Zumba and opened her own Zumba studio. Once I heard this about my friend, I became interested in learning more about what Zumba actually is. My gym began offering Zumba and I took as many classes as my schedule would allow. I grew up dancing so I absolutely loved Zumba classes and took them for about a year. I tried to find different classes around the area with different instructors because every instructor has a different style and, to be honest, some instructors are better than others. A few months ago, my old dance teacher went and got certified and began teaching classes at my old dance studio. After talking to her, she convinced me to get certified and I did.
N: What was the process like in order to become "Zumba-fied"
Miss D: The thing about Zumba is that anyone can get certified even if you don't have any formal dance or aerobic training. All you have to do is sign up and attend a certification class and then you are certified. That is why you have to be very careful when you join a class because the Zumba instructor may not have the dance training you are looking for. The certification class was very grueling. The class began at 9:00a in the morning and did not finish until 6:00p at night, so you are basically dancing for nine hours. The day started off with an hour-long Zumba class taught by one of the master instructors of Zumba. It was unlike any Zumba class I have every taken. It was fun and exhausting all at the same time. The rest of the day was spent learning four basic dances (meringue, salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton). We learned the basic steps of each style, how to modify the steps to make them more challenging and how to add fitness elements since the point of Zumba is to get in shape while having fun dancing. We learned how to instruct a class because it is all based on nonverbal cues while the music is playing instead of stopping the music and explaining how to do the dance. And we also learned how to put together a full zumba class. After all that we ended the day with another zumba class putting together all the steps we learned throughout the day. Nine hours later, I left the class certified to teach Zumba.
N: Have you started teaching yet?
Miss D: I was just certified in November so I have not begun teaching a class yet. My first goal is choose songs and come up with dances that will fill an hour class. As of right now I have about seven or eight dances choreographed. Once I have enough routines, I need to make sure I have them memorized so I do not mess up while teaching. The worst is going into a Zumba class where the instructor does not know the dances. You do not get a good workout when that happens. Once I feel ready, I am going to begin looking around for a place to teach.
