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The Zumba storm blasts through Bakersfield!

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With the winds whipping up dust clouds and the promise of rain overhead, Armando Guillen’s feet, arms and hips, with the help of a stereo blasting a mixture Meringue and sassy Salsa tunes, were whipping up a storm all their own inside a northeast Bakersfield exercise studio on a recent Wednesday evening.
And about 25 sets of feet, arms and hips were doing their earnest best to follow his lead and learn the newest fitness craze to hit Bakersfield — Zumba.
Zumba is a relatively new, high-energy aerobic class that pairs a number of Latin dance styles to traditional body sculpting exercises played out against a backdrop of loud, pulsating Latin music.
The Zumba storm hit Bakersfield months ago, with classes popping up at a number of the larger health clubs such as 24 Hour Fitness and Body Xchange Health Clubs as well as smaller fitness and dance studios.
According to Guillen, Zumba was created in Colombia in the 1990s by Beto Perez, a famous fitness trainer.
“A lot of the dance moves come from traditional folk dancing and the dance moves of today,” said Guillen, 26, a local Latino Zumba instructor, who has been dancing and teaching with Ballet Folkloric for a number of years and also dances for Civic Dance Center. “Zumba is a style all its own.
“It’s like a party,” he said. “You don’t even realize you are working out.”
The party atmosphere was evident this particular night at the usually low-key Mind-Body Exercise Studio tucked into a quiet Alta Vista neighborhood. About 6:20 p.m., the small studio began to fill up with folks of all ages and sizes jockeying for position in front of the long mirror. With the shyer attendees crowding the back, a few brave souls took positions in front alongside Guillen.
While a recording of Olga Tañón lambasting men and their lies with her rendition of “Es Mentiroso” blazing from the speakers, Guillen’s feet and hips caught the heavy downbeat of the music and he began the quick, rhythmic Latin dance steps — there is no warming up with this particular fitness craze — and after a few tentative steps, his Zumba estudiantes began to follow.
And the party began.
Calling out positions or pointing in the direction he wanted the group to move and yelling “good job” after every number, Guillen, who also teaches Zumba at 24 Hour Fitness, kept the group moving for about 40 minutes. There are no breaks between songs and routines — only a drink of water and a quick brow rub with a nearby towel.
The smile never breaks from Guillen’s face — and neither does it falter in most of his students, even the ones huffing and puffing and struggling to stay on the beat. The Zumba steps and music make it hard for a bystander to not want to jump in the fray and join the party.
One of the few men in the class — there were four on this particular evening — and one who bravely took a position at the front of the class was Robert Sanchez. And like most of the Zumba “partiers,” Sanchez was sweating after the first song.
The 27-year-old started taking the class to support his friend Guillen — they’ve been friends since their high school days at Foothill High — but after several months, he continues to show up every Wednesday because he’s addicted.
“It’s different; it’s not like your regular step class,” he said. “This is my main exercise for the week.”
Daisy Diaz, a local Latina who is an operations assistant for the Bank of Sierra in east Bakersfield, is so enthralled with the class she is studying to become an instructor herself.
“I’ve been taking Zumba classes in Bakersfield for two months, but before then I took them for about six months in Santa Cruz,” said Diaz, a native of Santa Cruz.
Diaz, 23, believes Zumba is becoming more and more popular in Bakersfield because it’s easy and it’s fun.
“The music is great and for most of us Latinos — we have the salsa and cumbia rhythm in our blood, so it’s not hard to keep up … ,” she said.
Diaz says there is no other fitness programs quite like Zumba.
“It’s a unique form of using what we know and what we, as Latinos, grow up dancing too at family parties,” she said.
And Diaz likes the people who seem to gravitate to the class.
“I’ve met some of the funniest and free-spirited people at Zumba class,” she said. “I look forward to going four days a week and working out with them.”