High-energy exercise 'Zumba' created by Colombian is an international phenom

High-energy exercise 'Zumba' created by Colombian is an international phenom
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

High-energy exercise, rooted in South Florida, is an international phenom

By Nick Sortal

Sun Sentinel

February 3, 2009

At age 7, he mimicked John Travolta and led his playmates in Colombia through Grease routines.

At 18, he taught dance classes for children, and won a national lambada championship.

Now, at 38, Alberto "Beto" Perez -- the face of Zumba -- has the whole world dancing with him.

"You know that scene in Forrest Gump, where he starts running and then everyone joins in?" says Beto, who has a business office in Hollywood. "I feel kind of like Forrest Gump."

Drive a couple of miles in any direction and you'll hit a Zumba class. About 250 South Florida gyms, community centers and others offer classes. Some as many as 10 times a week.

Zumba is an aerobic workout combining salsa, merengue, samba, reggaeton and other Latin dance moves and music. Beto's simple goal: Make it fun. Make it playful. Make people dance.

And they do.

"I'll be standing in line at Publix and hear music and just start dancing," says Eileen Harmon of Tamarac, who takes a Zumba "Gold" class for seniors. "And people just look at me."

A few twists of fate

It all started because of Beto. And good businessmen and good timing.

"I came to the United States with no money," he says. "But I believed in the American dream. Work hard and persevere."

Beto grew up in Cali. He worked at an ice-cream store as a teenager.

"On my way to work, I'd walk past this dance studio, and I'd always stop and stare inside," he says. "Finally, they closed the blinds on me. But I kept practicing and I guess you can say that I had a God-given talent."

It got noticed. Beto competed in a Colombian TV station's contest in 1989 and took top honors in the dance of the era, the lambada. After that, the studio that once closed its blinds hired him, and he began taking classes from other teachers.

In the meantime, he also taught aerobics at another gym. Zumba legend has it that Beto forgot his aerobics music one day, and had only the salsa and merengue tapes in his car. With class ready to start, he decided to bring them in and wing it. There was no going back.

He made four trips to the United States to pitch what he called Rumbacize before moving here in 1999.

"I couldn't speak English very well, but I knew what I wanted to do in a class," he says.

Finally, an Aventura gym gave him one class. For a month. That soon grew to 22 classes a week in gyms across South Florida.

"I was working like crazy, but it was a happy crazy," he says. "I just kept persevering."

Getting to business

Meanwhile, by 2001, 25-year-old Alberto Perlman was riding the end of the dot-com boom.

"My mom says, 'There's this guy at my gym who's amazing; maybe you could do something with him,'ƒ|" Perlman says.

The name Rumbacize had copyright issues, so they ran through the alphabet and came up with "zumba," Colombian slang for buzzing like a bee or moving quickly.

They launched an infomercial in 2002 via a partnership with a video company.

"My idea was to sell Zumba tapes, then go on to the next thing," Perlman says. "But people kept calling asking how to get licensed to teach it. So the model changed."

Now, along with a third partner, Alberto Aghion, they run Zumba Fitness LLC, a 28-employee business near Sheridan Street and Interstate 95 that includes Zumba clothes, instruction manuals and equipment such as weighted toning sticks that rattle like maracas when you work out.

Teacher licensing began in 2003. Instructors can buy a one-year license for about $250, or pay $360 to join a network that helps them with marketing and provides Zumba routines from Beto.

Today, about 4 million people a year in 40 countries take Zumba, Perlman says, and 20,000 instructors are licensed to teach it. An instructor convention in Orlando last October sold out at 1,000.

The partners admit to good timing: As TV viewers have gravitated to Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance? and similar shows, Americans' interest in dancing has soared.

Former pro wrestling personality Stacy Keibler, who competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2006, dances with Beto in a Zumba infomercial.

"We've had some luck," Perlman says. "There's, like, a hundred new fitness products a year and maybe one makes it. We're fortunate that we did."

Always a party

But that's the business part.

"I'm what they call 'the talent,'ƒ|" says Beto, who lives in an apartment on Brickell Avenue in Miami. "I have no idea how much money I have. My accountant handles that. I'm not into the materiality."

Adds Perlman: "Beto is totally right-brained."

Beto now teaches one class a week, at Equinox Fitness Clubs in the Aventura Mall.

On a recent Wednesday, he pumps up the music. But Beto doesn't yell out directions. This isn't boot camp.

Instead, he whistles. And the 34 women look up. Then he points to his eyes. Follow me ...

The Latin beat takes over, and Beto is like a child playing in the sun.

When a new student struggles, he grabs her and merengues. When another woman takes an unscheduled water break, he fake-pouts and points to an imaginary wristwatch.

Liz Becker, 36, of Aventura, straps on two knee braces before the music plays, but whirls, twirls and shimmies with the best of them once Beto exhorts her.

"The time goes by so quickly, it's like not even exercising," Becker says.

That's the idea, Beto says. Make exercise a party. Make it fun.

He unconsciously rubs a scar on his forehead, earned while break dancing as a child in his backyard. "I love to make people smile," he says. "That's the best thing."

Nick Sortal can be reached at nsortal at sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4725.

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