The story of how Zumba started is a product of sheer chance. It all started when Alberto “Beto” Perez, a celebrity fitness instructor, was on his way to his aerobic class when he realized that he forgot his audio tapes. Instead of cancelling the class, he used whatever tapes he had in his backpack. Most of them were Latin music like salsa and meringue.
Treating the situation as a challenge, Beto improvised his aerobic class on the spot with the use of Latin music. And that’s when the Zumba Fitness Parly really began. Soon enough, his Zumba class has become the favorite of the fitness facility.
After his successful launching of Zumba in Colombia, Beto went to the United States in 1999 and brought Zumba Fitness with him. After two years, he was approached by Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, a pair of entrepreneurs who would become the key to making Zumba a popular trend. The two helped Perez to create a company based on his fitness philosophy. They trademarked Zumba and went out to spread the word about this dance craze.
Zumba Fitness
In 2002, Perlman and Aghion were able to secure a deal with a large infomercial company. This move led to the successful launch of Zumba and has resulted into a huge sale of Zumba fitness videos. The increasing demand for Zumba has paved the way for the company to come up with a program geared towards individuals who wanted to teach Zumba. The Zumba instructors program has become such a hit that four years after, there are thousands of Zumba instructors worldwide.
A year after the launch of Zumba in the US, Zumba Fitness teamed up with Kellogg. The two companies came up with a fitness program for the Hispanic market. The campaign was such a success that Kellogg expanded the campaign to five more countries. The program has even been featured in boxes of
Kellogg’s cereals.
Zumba Academy
The rising number of Zumba instructors has paved way for the creation of Zumba Academy, an educational division of Zumba Fitness thats aims to provide a high quality fitness program. This new division of the company is being managed by a topnotch team of professional choreographers, fitness experts, and education specialists. Both Zumba Fitness and Zumba Academy work hand-in-hand with the AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America), ACE (American Council on Exercise), IDEA (the world’s largest group for professionals in the fitness industry), and other national and international fitness associations.
In 2007, the Zumba Fitness program was launched internationally and is now expanding throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. A year later, the company released its 3rd DVD collection with accessories and bonuses like the Zumba toning sticks and Zumba LIVE! Workout.