What makes a great zumba instructor

Because I love fabulous music and fitness, Zumba will always be a passion of mine….. I am a new instructor myself and hope I can be inspiring and continue to be dedicated for years.

I got certified in zumba like 2 weeks ago. Like next year in January. What website could you find Zumba playlist at. Sincerely Gregory Horne!

They look so good at it, I look like kid trying to make it make sense. My choreo is from ZIN, but it looks terrible and I forget a lot. Is there a class for teachers to get much better at teaching?

I already took B1 and Aqua. Pro Skills is a great one to take if your goal is to be a better instructor! You learn how to cue, the balance between performing and instructing, how to let your personality shine through. Pretty great training! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.

Learn how your comment data is processed. Join my newsletter to get your free day meal and fitness cheat sheet! Email Address Please enter a valid email address. Sign me up! Now check your email to confirm your subscription — thanks! Hi friends! What are you up to tonight? Sorry no blog last night, but very important things were happening. She knows me so well] Ok, not at all, but it ended up being a very chill and relaxing night. Here are some of the things that have helped me: [Also applicable to other dance fitness classes] 1.

Know your music and choreography. Make a playlist, but be ready to change it. Focus on your own personal strengths. Dress the part. When you take a dance fitness class, what makes or breaks it for you? You might also like:. Everyone was always so lost and trying to keep up while the instructor was off in her own world dancing all by herself.

There will of course be parts where cueing is a bit difficult, but at least try to cue whenever you can. It starts becoming a problem if you end up constantly forgetting and making up your own moves class after class. When I first started teaching, I would forget a couple of steps and so I would just add something on the spot and my class was none the wiser. Keeping your moves consistent shows that you care enough to actually learn the choreography and be professional enough to perform them correctly.

What makes you stand out? The beauty of life is that even though there are over 7 billion people on the planet, we all possess our own individuality that makes us unique. We all have different ways of dancing and expressing ourselves and the way we portray that to our students is what sets us apart. My advice for this section is to be as authentic as you can. In the end, every student is different and has different preferences, but these are the seven things I came up with that really set apart a great instructor from an average one.

What do you guys think? Any other helpful tips? Like Liked by 1 person. Like Like. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email.

Skip to content Home About Contact. Facebook Instagram WordPress. Search for:. Let me just place this disclaimer here: I am by no means saying that I am a pro at knowing what makes a great Zumba instructor, this list is just my opinion of what instructors can do to improve their classes and get their students to keep coming back. There are comics , fine art , photographs , videos , and infographics - to name just a little bit of what's out there.

Sometimes, the most effective way to get a message across isn't through literally shouting what you want people to learn or do at them -- it's by showing, demonstrating, or visualizing those concepts in a way that makes the entire experience feel more organic, less lecture-y, and more fun. Video: Zumba Education Specialist Kass Martin, on the right, demonstrates how fun and effective visual cueing can be when done correctly.

I cannot tell you how many of my friends and family refuse to attend a Zumba class. Nothing is more frustrating than hearing those excuses, especially when I know -- from having stood at the front of classes for 2 years, looking out on rooms filled with every different kind of student -- that none of those things are true. I've had students who could dance circles around me, and students who couldn't take two steps forward without falling flat on their faces. I've taught kids, senior citizens, and every age group in between.

So, you can only imagine how much I loved it when I got to start an impromptu Zumba class in the middle of my own wedding reception. Suddenly, all of these friends and family members were realizing that -- lo and behold -- this "Zumba" thing that I kept talking about was actually pretty fun. And really, they could all do most of the moves that I was demonstrating just fine. Even in their suits, dresses, and heels. They certainly didn't come to my wedding expecting to take a fitness class.

By sneaking some of my routines onto them when they least expected it, I got at least a few of them to realize that their preconceived notions were not entirely accurate. I got some of them to realize that they might enjoy this activity that they thought they would hate after all. Now, I'm not suggesting that you schedule a scientific symposium session for the middle of your own wedding. But what I am saying is that there is definitely some value to "sneaking" scientific discussions or interesting new research findings through to people when they aren't feeling defensive or like they have to be in "school mode" in order to engage with it.

Take Facebook, for example. I've used Facebook to share interesting articles on new research findings, relate funny stories pertaining to concepts that I taught in Intro Social Psych, and spark discussions about current scientific debates among friends and family members who would never otherwise be participating in those conversations I shared a number of examples of this happening in this presentation that I gave last year on using social media for science communication -- see slides In the screenshot on the left here, snipped from a larger thread about the pros and cons of personal genomics services like 23 and Me, I shared information about behavioral genetics research with friends and family members -- information that I myself didn't know about or have access to until several years into my own graduate education.

And in this screenshot on the right, you can see my step-sister-in-law talking about how even though she doesn't typically like reading about science, she likes reading what I post on Facebook -- because she finds my posts and the subsequent discussions funny, easy-to-understand, and interesting. We're used to thinking about science communication happening in certain expected, pre-sanctioned forums.

We expect to see it happening at scientific conferences, in newspaper editorials But just like the people who refuse to set foot in a Zumba class because of what they assume it must be like, we might be missing out on a huge potential audience by limiting our communication efforts to the "expected" spheres.

Try sneaking your lessons into new, fun, and unexpected places -- you may be surprised at how many people suddenly take an interest in what you have to say. Video: Footage of my impromptu wedding Zumba class -- starting with my performance of a routine I'd been doing in class for months, and then being put on the spot to "teach a class" to a song I'd never choreographed or done in class before in my life.

Believe it or not, we're probably already sick of it. Think about it. In order to teach a routine, you have to know the song well enough to know the exact progression of moves and where your class is supposed to switch from one sequence of moves into another. In fact, not only do you have to know which moves go with which sections, you have to know the song well enough to be able to anticipate each verse change at least 4 counts ahead of time, so you can cue the next sequence of moves.

Anyone who has suffered the misfortune of being in a car with me at some point in the past 2 years knows -- I am constantly listening to my Zumba playlist. It's basically playing on loop as the background music for my life.

I have my playlist on when I'm driving to work. When I'm showering. When I'm unloading the dishwasher. As my alarm in the morning. I need to know those songs backwards and forwards, and the only way to do that is to listen to them. Over and over.

And over. So yes, by the time I finally debut a song in class I'm already halfway over it. And after we've done it maybe times? Haven't we done this a million times?! No, actually. We haven't. We've done it times. And usually, that's how many times it takes for most students to even START to remember the moves on their own. That's about the point when they're finally feeling like they know the dance, and are excited to hear the song start playing because they actually know what to do.

It took me a really long time to realize that I had to stop projecting my own boredom with certain songs onto my students -- because it was so easy to forget that I was only sick of my playlist because I had been listening to it nonstop for several weeks before any of my students had even heard it once.

If you constantly switch up your playlist, your students will get frustrated because they will always feel like beginners. No one wants a playlist to stay the same for years and years -- but as it turns out, no one wants you to swap out all of your songs every other week, either.

It's far too easy for this projection to sneak into our brains as science communicators as well -- especially for those of us who have certain "beats" or "specialties" in what we cover, which keeps us constantly immersed in a very small, very specific field. It's old. It's done already. Does anyone even want to read about this anymore? Far too often, by the time I'm done reading about something, it feels like it's "old news. Will anyone be interested?

Doesn't everyone know this by now? As it turns out, people stay interested in things for far longer than I expect them to. By January 4th, I'm convinced no one would still be interested in reading a New Years Resolution post -- except that when I ask them, they are.

That big protest happened 3 weeks ago. Would an article on it even still be relevant? Well, technically, maybe it wouldn't be -- but as it turns out, people still want to read it anyway.

Don't underestimate the interest level of your audience. Don't assume people are bored with what you have to say, or that they have moved on to caring about other topics. You really might be surprised by how long people will stay interested in something that you tired out on a while ago.