Zumba Creator Beto Perez

Alberto Beto Perez is the creator of Zumba and Zumba fitness. Beto a native of Colombia (South America) is the founder of Zumba and director of the national Zumba Master trainer team. He is also a professional dancer and a celebrity choreographer.

Having choreographed for Shakira and other celebrities. By the way in Colombia the word Zumba is slang for having fun and moving fast. Zumba dance his aerobics workout that uses Latin inspired dance steps such as Salsa, Merengue, Flamenco and Samba. Recently hip hop and other exciting dances have been added to the Zumba dance mix.

Beto Perez created Zumba quite by accident, as the story goes one day as he rushed out of this house to teach his aerobics class he forgot his regular music tapes. As soon as he realized this he grabbed some Latin music tapes that were in his car and began teaching the class to this music. The class exploded and became the most popular class in Colombia. He named this class "Rumbacize."

By 1999 Beto had arrived in the United States, more specifically Miami Florida. There he met two young Colombian entrepreneurs who convinced him to change the name for Zumba and to begin marketing his fitness philosophy throughout the world. By 2008 Zumba had well over 20,000 certified instructors and DVD sales in the millions.

(Recently Zumba has begun adding onto its Latin roots by introducing a little bit of country music, funk rock 'n roll and many other exciting beats.)

Recently Zumba has aligned itself with Mark Burnett productions (of "Survivor" fame) and Emilio Estefan (husband of Gloria Estefan) to begin marketing the Zumba products in the Hispanic market through television. But Mr. Burnett is not the only one in Hollywood to have noticed the Zumba popularity. Many famous A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Ricky Martin, Eva LaRue (“C.S.I. Miami”), Vivica A. Fox (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Stacy Kiebler (“Dancing with the Stars”), Hunter Tylo (“The Bold & the Beautiful”), and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres have “ditched the workout and joined the party” with ZUMBA.

So what are yuo waiting for … join the party here: Zumba Classes in New Jersey