Zumba Convention- Full Recap!

Whoop whoop!  I am back from the Zumba Convention 2012!  It was such a great trip, and I cannot wait to tell you all about it!  Early last Thursday morning, a group of Instructor friends and I met at the airport and headed down to Orlando, Florida for four days of dancing, walking, laughter, and learning.

I have been wanting to go to the Zumba Convention for a couple years, so it was a very exciting trip!  For those who are thinking about going next year, hopefully this post will be helpful for you as you make your plans.  The convention is held at 2 hotels and at the Orlando Convention Center.  The main hotel is the Peabody, but our group opted to stay at the Hilton. Luckily, the three locations are conn ected by a long walkway, which one of our instructors dubbed “The White Mile.”  (It actually IS a full mile.)

This meant that we walked somewhere around 4-6 miles per day, which sounds like a lot, but it wasn’t as bad as you might think.  It was all in the shade and some of it was indoors.  :)

I was able to participate in lots of Master classes and workshops, such as Flamenco, African, Caribbean, Hip Hop, Latin Pop, and even a workshop on warm-ups and cool-downs. 

My two favorite classes were Hip Hop, taught by these two AMAZING instructors…

… and Caribbean!  I got so many ideas for new choreography. 

I can’t wait to have some time to work on some new songs.

My last class of the weekend was Warm-Ups and Cool-Downs.  I originally signed up for this workshop because it was being taught by a mega-famous instructor, Tanya Beardsley.  However, she was not able to be at Convention.  I wasn’t really looking forward to the session, but we got a nice surprise!

Beto Perez, the creator of Zumba stopped by our session and helped lead it.  It was exciting to have a session led by Beto.  He did a warm up to one of my favorite songs of all time, “All Night Long,” by Lionel Ritchie.  Beto’s enthusiasm really is inspiring. 

The Zumba Convention also included some fun nightlife as well.  One night we were able to attend a Fitness Concert.  (This is really the biggest Zumba class ever. 

Can you believe we had a surprise visit from Vanilla Ice?  Yes, he came out and we were able to dance to “Ice Ice Baby” as he performed it LIVE!

There was also a “Dancing Through the Decades” theme party one night and a concert by Daddy Yankee! 

All in all, it was an amazing (albeit tiring) weekend.  Zumba really does know how to put on a great weekend for Instructors.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to go this year.  Now I can’t wait to go again next year!