Dancing the Weight Away! While reading about the new mainstream in America, I learned that multiculturalism is dominant over social homogeneity. In fact, different cultures have begun assimilating …

If you read my Jam posts, you may recall that one week post-Jam I was struggling with a few things. It was making me downright cranky actually. So, it's been almost exactly a month since I wrote my second Jam post and things are...better. By quite a bit. So, where am I at exactly? 1) The salsaton - I can't use the salsaton at all unfortunately because I can't get a clean (un-remixed) version from Amazon MP3. I don't know if iTunes even has one, since I don't have an account. This is where being a Windows Phone/Zune user gets tricky sometimes. It's too bad too, because I like the choreography for it. As it turns out, there actually IS a clean and un-remixed version of the salsaton on iTunes! Jae checked and told me so. Darn it Amazon! Just...darn it all. Knowing this doesn't help me though because I still can't get it. Even if I opened an account and bought it, I don't have a device that will play it. Sigh. Not mention that even if I -did- manage to get my hands on a copy, it's been over a month since I've heard the song, much less done the choreography. I don't remember it well any more. 2) The cumbia - This one isn't smooth at all. I can at least get through it...kinda... My timing is way off on the machete part (which in turn throws me off for other parts) and this just drives me nuts because the Jammer made a special point to tell us what to be listening for in the music as the cue for us to start that part. The worst thing is that I actually can hear it, I'm just hesitating because I second guess myself, and then I miss it. Grr. I'm my own worst enemy sometimes, and I need to stop over-thinking it. I'm still not getting the machete. Well, I am in theory...in practice though... It's funny how "dancing" in your car at stoplight (car-eography!) works differently than dancing for real. I really need to work on this one more but it's taken a backseat to the other three songs. I'll say this though, that much at least has paid off. 3) Moviendo Caderas by Yandel (feat. Daddy Yankee) - I'm not precisely sure what style this one classifies as. It's the one I remember the best. I've got this one head and shoulders above the others. When I realized that last night, I flipped it and started working on it leading with my left side. I've got a couple transitions to smooth out and I need to work out how I'm going to cue it, but it's nearly good to go. Which is way more than I can say for any of the others. Moviendo Caderas is still the one I know the best, left -and- right. It's just about class-ready and I've got this debate going on in my head as to whether or not I'll introduce it to my class in the six weeks I have left, or just save it for September. 4) The reggaeton - Probably the simplest one of the five, it only has three varying parts and they repeat in the same order each time. Easy-peasy right? My timing is off on this one too, but I know it's because I'm practically tripping over my feet. This song has a sassy little walk up (forward travel), and the feet crossing over were messing me up and then I was backing up leading with the wrong foot which messed up the next part. This one will come. I have a feeling that the next time I work on this one, I'll have it back to where I had it at the Jam last week. I was right about the reggaeton. The next time I practiced it, I got it back, sassy walk and all. With this one, it helped to enlist a second set of eyes...well feet maybe is more accurate... I did this one with Jae because I wanted her opinion. She had it down in about five minutes. No...I'm not -that- good a teacher. She's just -that- good. But talking it through with someone really helped and listening to the voice of experience did too. And hey, I stopped tripping over my own feet! Jae had told me, when I asked her, that she would probably teach it facing away from the class. We both agreed that people would likely catch on to the sassy walk much easier that way. The next time I practiced it though, I tried reversing the whole thing and leading with the left just because there are parts of that song that I think need to be taught leading left so that my class can see me. After three times through attempts, it just was not working. So I stopped and reevaluated, and instead of spiraling down into one of my freak-outs (be proud of me!), I decided to try something different. I started on the left and when I got to the part where the sassy walk starts, I turned around and lead with the right. When the chorus started again, I flipped back to leading with the left. Best of both, and it worked! The transition is just long enough. I ran through it that way twice and that's definitely how I'm going to teach it when the time comes. And the debate goes on... Do I introduce this to my class before the summer, or not? Hrmm... 5) The tropipop - Holy smokes, this one kicked my butt all over the place. If anyone had seen me down in my basement working on this one last night, they would have probably thought I'd never done the song before. It's not just an issue of timing either, it's me reading the notes and going, "Wait...what?" There's one piece I know I forgot completely, that spot is blank so I did the move right before it extra long. I restarted the song three times, and each time I had to pause and redo chunks of it here and there. I never actually did get all the way through it because I was starting to get pretty frustrated with myself. As for the last song... It's fixed (mostly), but I'll admit to having had help. First though, I eventually figured out why this one, above any of the others, was such a source of great frustration for me. About a week prior to the Jam, the Jammer sent out a song survey by email inquiring about the songs on Mega Mixes 38 and 39 (and a few extra songs that weren't on either CD). She wanted to know the following: Which ones were we already using, which ones did we love, and which ones did we hate. When I answered the questions, I voted -for- this one, hoping we would do it, because I really liked the song itself. ***Side Note: I also voted for Moviendo Caderas. The other three songs that made it to the list were ones I didn't vote for at all because I was good either way.*** So the bottom line was this: After 3.75 hours of essentially mainlining Zumba, I couldn't actually do one of the two songs that I had specifically voted for. Frustrating? Yes indeedy! So what's a girl to do? Vent to someone who understands. Expressing my growing irritation with this song to Jae, she tells me: "Don't worry. It'll come." Okay, if she believes that, then I will too. Plus, hearing that diffused the freak out I was having. What also helped me get this song under control was that by this point, Rae had introduced it to her own class. Which meant I could ask Jae questions like: "What's the little piece in the middle of the calypso part? I'm totally blanking on it." And she could answer with: "It's arms like Say Na only smaller." Boom! Memory jogged. Coincidentally...are there such things? I really really wonder sometimes... "Coincidentally", circumstances, like my church cancelling my own class for that one week, worked out so that I actually got to go to Rae's class. Handy that, because I got to see what the tropipop song looked like all over again, -and- what it looked like put through the "Rae filter". After two times with her in her class, suddenly practicing it on my own didn't seem quite so scary. And this week? I got it. I. Got. It. Not only did I get all the way through that song from start to finish several times, I even flipped that sucker to the left! I was so happy. There's one transition in the middle that isn't smooth yet, but I kicked this song's butt this week. Jae was right all along, it did come...well, with a little help from my friends. Best advice: "Don't worry. It'll come." Repeat as necessary!

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You don't need to be a rocking dancer to get a great workout with Zumba. Filled with Latin-inspired dance moves, it's easy to follow and fun! And now you can do our full-body Zumba toning workout in the comfort of your living room. Led by instructor Laura Micklich, who calls it "exercise in disguise," the workout clocks in at just over 10 minutes, and time flies when you're shaking your hips. Go to Zumba.com to find a Zumba Toning class in your area.