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The first Zumba class I took was on a Princess ship and I found it really fun and accessible. When Princess asked me to get certified to teach Zumba before I joined, I jumped on the chance. I really liked the idea of having my workout be part of my work day (I thought it was a bonus, but it turns out that my fellow Cruise Staff were not jealous of me. Zumba is a lot more physically exerting than conflicting morning activities. In other words, they could stay out later at night and still function in the morning while I had to be prepared to jump around while looking enthusiastic for 45 minutes. Though I enjoyed the rest and the extra social time on the weeks I didn’t teach Zumba, eventually I missed the built in exercise). I’d been teaching the same routine for my two contracts (since we had 3000 new people every week they didn’t get bored), and I had recently conceded that it was unrealistic for me to learn a new routine while I was on vacation or while I was working. Therefore, I was super honored and excited when I found out that Princess would be sending me to the Zumba Instructor Network Convention (ZIN CON) over the summer. I was excited to review the basics, get Zumba Gold Certified (that’s the more accessible version of Zumba for people who are older or can’t move around as easily) and to learn some new dance styles. I picked classes to take during the convention without doing much research and then made my way through the second half of my contract. When I extended my contract until the weekend before the convention, Princess surprisingly and generously said they would ‘transship’ me to the convention. That meant that they covered my transportation, food and hotel stay from the ship to the convention four days later. I felt blessed. I slept through those days in the hotel in Orlando, waking up only for meals and to mail home a box (to make more room in my suitcase in case I bought anything at the convention). Semi-rested, still end-of-contract exhausted, but still relatively in ‘ship-shape,’ I arrived at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Orlando, checked in to my hotel room, and then stood in the long registration line at the adjoining convention Center.
In the lobby, I could already tell that this was a different crowd than the guests on Princess Cruises I was used to.
There was a DJ setting the vibe for people as they came in. I took a moment to be grateful that I didn’t have to convince anyone to dance.
The first night everyone’s flights were delayed so I went to dinner with Nicole from head office. I took the opportunity to pick her brain– what was this all about? I learned that between Princess and Zumba, they covered the trip and the convention. I thought that was really cool. They used to sponsor eight Cruise Staff, but now they just sponsor four. This was the third year Princess had been coming. Song would be my roommate. She was from South Korea and had been with Princess for seven years. I had worked with Sujung from South Korea my first contract and she had told me lots of stories about Song and her jokes. My friend Matt (the Cruise Director) had also worked with Song and he loved her. She sounded like a good roommate. Nat was coming from Brazil. He had been with the company for 10 years and had worked with another cruise line before Princess. Fab was Swiss Mexican. He was coming from Switzerland and got stuck in Amsterdam when his flight to Miami was cancelled. I think he was also with Princess for at least 10 years. Both Fab and Nat had been selected to go to a previous ZIN CON, but this was the first year they made it. Nat arrived just as I was heading to bed, and then Song came in right after I’d turned out the light but before I fell asleep.
Thursday morning we were told to meet in the Lobby at 7am. That seemed like a very early meeting time for the 9am Kick Off Session. We gathered in the Lobby where I met Nat and Anna, our Zumba Contact, as well as Nicole and Song. Fab was still trying to get to Orlando from Amsterdam.
We were whisked away to a back entrance, led through the back stage area to the front of the Convention hall to our reserved seats.
They played clips from Zumba videos that had been released earlier in the year.
This was so cool. I didn’t realize that we were VIPs!
Finally they opened the doors. I had to take pictures of the VIP people taking pictures of the regular people as they flooded in.
The Kickoff Session was like a concert with speakers interspersed.
After the Kick Off Session, we broke out into our individual sessions. I signed up for a Master Class with Nick. I’m pretty sure I picked him because he looked attractive in his picture. Now this was a real Zumba class. I had been teaching modified Zumba because it’s more accessible to the people who cruise. I was having a hard time keeping up. At one point I realized that I’ve been leading dances for nine months and this was the first time I was trying to follow someone else. Was I struggling because it was too hard or because I was out of shape or because I didn’t know the choreography or a combination of those? Hold on. I wasn’t expected to know the dance! I’m here to have fun. My own word came flooding back to me. Before I start my class, I tell the guests that Zumba is exercise in disguise and we are here to have fun. If you find that you’re not having fun, you have a little talk with yourself and do what you need to do to have fun. Whatever that means. So I had a little talk with myself, and chose to relax, have fun and follow along as well as I could while trying not to judge myself.
That afternoon I had African Beat Culture, which Nat had also signed up for. The teacher was from South Africa. He showed us some videos of the original moves and then broke down the moves he had isolated for the songs he would teach us. My favorite one was a move where we stuck out our elbows behind us and jutted our chins out like a chicken while doing a Michael Jackson Moonwalk with our feet. I don’t think I’m cool enough to incorporate this move into my class, but I really enjoyed learning authentic dances from the other side of the world.
In the evening I attended Art of Choreography, which was one of the most useful classes I took. The teacher’s name was Roland and he was from Germany. He stressed using the basic Zumba steps, keeping it simple and using variations for variety. He suggested to have one signature move per song that you don’t use in any other song. This way students feel good because they can follow the steps but it still feels creative because of that one signature move. My expression of choreography is copying my favorite things that other people do and occasionally adding my own self expression. This class gave me more structure to work with as I start to build new routines.
Finally by the end of the night, everyone had arrived, so Nicole took us all to dinner. I really enjoyed getting to know my fellow Cruise Staff throughout the weekend. Whenever we had a break between classes, we met up to hang out. The others would go out for drinks after midnight, but I needed at least six hours of sleep in order to do two week’s worth of Zumba each day. It was a unique experience to hang out with other people who had my job without working with them– it was totally a social relationship that didn’t have a reference to working together. The more I got to know them and heard their stories the more I admired them and felt honored to be part of this group.
The next morning we woke up early for the optional 7am Yoga class. The stretching felt so good. Song was still adjusting for the time difference coming from Korea so she was already awake. Fab had excess energy to burn so he was excited to move after being on a plane the previous day.
The second day of the convention every muscle in my body hurt. I was used to running around on the ship all day but I wasn’t used to six hours of intense dance classes! I was so glad we would be spending the day getting certified for Zumba Gold. Before I started teaching I had done enough Zumba classes on Princess that I had an idea of what I needed to modify for the ship compared to the material I was getting from Zumba. I got a Zumba Gold DVD to see if that would help, but the Gold songs seemed to be at half time and it didn’t seem necessary to go that slow. It seemed like Princess level was half way between regular Zumba and Zumba Gold. I was also getting conflicting advice about how to teach– real Zumba was supposed to be like a party without giving verbal cues. I felt like there were a lot of guests who benefited from verbal cues as well as visual cues (telling people what’s happening next either visually by indicating with my body or verbally– literally talking through the song). I compromised by doing my first class with a microphone and the next classes without one. At the Gold training, they affirmed that it was helpful for students to have the verbal cues for this demographic. The Gold training was reaffirming and gave me confidence to teach the way I thought was best.
That evening was the Fitness Concert. I don’t know what I expected from a Fitness Concert, but that’s exactly what it was! There were big screens above the stage.
The lights went out and a spotlight fell on a stage. A drum set rose with a kid playing the drums. Beto came out and started dancing. Suddenly the stage was covered with dancers doing a step touch routine. This was a warmup! This was a class! It was a class with live music, videos and hand picked dancers to lead us. Suddenly the words ‘Fitness Concert’ made perfect sense. Beto likes kids, so there were a bunch of kids up there who had better moves than I will ever have. I was dazzled. A lot of people danced along, and unfortunately, most people chose to experience the concert through their phone cameras.
The next morning we met with Anna, our Zumba contact and I learned what all of the acronyms that were being thrown around stood for– the ZES: Zumba Education Specialists among others. She asked about the Gold training.
That day the other Cruise Staff had each signed up for more certifications– Song was doing Aqua Zumba (Zumba in the water),
Fab was doing Strong (the fitness version of Zumba that focuses on strength training) and Nat was getting certified in Basic Level 2 which covered other styles of dance that Basic Level 1 just dabbles in. We’re all certified Basic Level 1. I was the only one who took Nicoles advice and signed up for a bunch of random classes. Although, after talking to Nat later in the day I want to find a Basic 2 training sometime while I’m on vacation.
I started with a Master Class with Ricardo. He was great. He started by commiserating with us about how exhausted we all are. He said, I don’t know how I’m going to do this class– it took me half an hour to get up the 10 stairs to the stage! I’m not sure where he was from, but he had a lot of dances inspired from Africa. His steps were simple and fun and accessible. I felt much more comfortable than I did in the first Master Class that I took. His whole message was that anyone can do Zumba. He called people up on to the stage like all of the other presenters had done. Then he called up a girl from the front row who had downs syndrome. Apparently she was his number one fan and followed him everywhere. She danced with abandon and everyone cheered. He did a few more songs and then called out to a lady sitting in the back with a white T Shirt. He brought her up on stage and then called up the five guys in the room. She was carrying a lot of extra weight and had been taking a break. He celebrated how well she could move and encouraged the guys to dance up on her. Toward the end, he called up the security guard to come dance on stage. She didn’t dance as well as the others but you could see her getting outside of her comfort zone and having fun. Zumba is all about exercise in disguise: making fitness fun and accessible. The words say Zumba is for everyone. But it’s still hard not to show up without judging yourself and comparing yourself to others. As I tell this story I imagine myself listening to it and feeling my skepticism rise. I’ve seen people do this before and it’s very symbolic but it rarely rings true. The message is acknowledged but not absorbed. But being in that room was different. Ricardo embodied such honest joy and genuine fun and respect for every human in the room that I was inspired and understood the message before I saw the structure of what he was doing. Most of the super Zumba Instructors that present and are on the videos seem to have lots of muscle and no fat. I don’t think the message would have come across as well from one of them. I loved that this convention of Zumba instructors had lots of different kinds of people. I was expecting to feel fat in comparison but I was just a dot on the spectrum. Ricardo had more of a belly than a six pack, but that didn’t get in the way of his physical expression. What I’m getting at is that it helped that this message of love and celebration for all humans and especially for ourselves wasn’t coming from someone who looked like a magazine model, and that helped, but I think, more so, it came through because he genuinely believed the message. He wasn’t just preaching it because it was the right thing to say and it’s a good idea.
My next class was Tropical Urban. I picked these classes months ago, and was trying to remember my strategy– why did I pick a Caribbean style dance class when I was so sick of being in the Caribbean. I think at the time I felt doomed to be stuck there. At one point my Cruise Director had asked me if I had a Caribbean Zumba class. I said I didn’t but I could probably come up with one (way easier said than done). That never came to pass, but this class looked like it could help with that unfulfilled task. The class was taught by a married couple, Armando and Heidy. They were teaching us dance styles from the Dominican Republic. It was fun that I had been there (though exclusively in tourist areas where I hadn’t come across any street dancers doing these moves). We did a little warm up, then they broke down the signature moves, and then spent a long time on two different songs, going over them over and over. This was great! I might actually learn a couple of new songs that I’ll be able to teach! Then they brought out a dance troupe, we did another mini class that included the songs. Finally we split into two groups and had dance offs of the two songs to really bury them into our memories. Luckily, I had taken a moment to video the two songs. After I got home, I realized this would be the only way I can learn a dance without completely making it up myself. Of the songs I didn’t video, I can’t remember enough of the steps to teach those songs. Now I know.
My afternoon class was Keep It Simple and Safe, or the KISS method. The instructors were very bubbly and fun, and when they explained what the class was about, I thought, ‘Score! This is what I need! How to adapt the hard Zumba choreography to something the Princess passengers can do!’ We did a mini class, and then they gave an example of choreography that was too hard, showy and difficult to follow. So we were told what we needed to do to adapt, but not how to do it. Since I’d already been modifying for over a year (including making line dances excruciatingly simple yet entertaining), I can’t say I had any take-aways. There seemed to be a theme that streamed through my classes– make sure that you’re teaching to your student’s level, not your level. I guess I know what I’m doing then.
We ended the night with the Theme Party. Months ago, Nicole had prepped us that it was a hero’s and villains themed party. Did we want to coordinate outfits? I didn’t have any creativity or time or places to shop for costume pieces much less space in my suitcase to spare. So I wasn’t much help. Song suggested we go as Men in Black– Black suits, white shirts and sunglasses. I had all those things! Nicole was disappointed. We were creative people and could have gone all out instead of being lazy. But when we walked around as a group we were a huge hit.
Apparently there is a new Men in Black movie that I don’t know about.
I have to say my favorite part of the night was when the wobble came on. The group of us had been bonding throughout the weekend. We had lots of experiences in common– we had all taught Zumba which we did alone, and we had worked as cruise staff doing lots of line dances throughout the years, but we had never worked together. When the song came on, we all danced and it was like our four separate worlds came together with this thing we had in common. The crowds parted and even people we didn’t know were videoing us.
The last day, I rolled out of bed for Yoga, stretching out my muscles. This time my friends didn’t make it. But we did gather for breakfast afterward.
Song had also signed up for Dancing Through the Decades, which was led by Cass Martin, one of my favorite choreographers. This class was great. She did a little mini class, and then broke down choreography for “It’s Raining Men,” Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Turn the Beat Around” (for which I understood some of the lyrics correctly for the first time), and a song I know from an old movie I used to watch in high school, but I don’t think guests will enjoy as much as I do. We went over the steps so many times, but because I didn’t catch a video, I only remember the signature moves, but not quite how they fit together. I’ll work on it. Apparently we were all physically exhausted, because Cass would stop and chat with us about teaching to catch her breath. She was honest and endearing. When she shared her struggles, it seemed more possible that getting to her level would be attainable.
Finally, we all gathered for the Closing Session before we would break up and go our separate ways. The days were packed at yet they flew by so quickly. I was finally starting my vacation, Song was heading to Vancouver to start her next contract on the Royal Princess in Alaska. Nat was staying in Orlando for a couple of days to go to Disney. Fab had a couple more weeks before going back to the Regal Princess in the Baltic. And Nicole had to go back to work in the office the next day. Our group chat has teetered off as we will all eventually be back to work on our various ships, but I treasure the friendships I’ve made. It was a blessing to experience the “Zumba Love Fest,” as Nicole calls it, and I’m inspired by the different kinds of dance from around the world that I was exposed to. Now we’ll see how many new songs I can put together during this vacation!
