URI students recently gathered to break it down and break a sweat on the Quad in an open-air zumba class. Photo by Greg Clark.
In honor of his second anniversary as a certified Zumba instructor, Pat Laprade hosted a one-hour Zumba session on the Quad on March 27.
Going into this event, I was really excited. I’ve participated in Zumba classes at the University of Rhode Island before, but I’d never taken a class with Pat. Now, I will be working his Zumba classes into my weekly schedule.
First of all, it could not have been a more perfect day in Kingston, Rhode Island. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze and the campus was alive. It was refreshing to see students hanging out on the Quad, driving with their windows down and cheering on the Rhody football team in their first home game of the season.
The University put back the 6-feet-apart circles on the Quad’s grass, giving everyone their own socially-distant bubble to dance in. Laprade did a great job of keeping the energy up in the group and keeping everyone motivated.
I will say, this class was a little more challenging than other Zumba classes I had taken. Laprade’s dance routines include more footwork than what I am used to, which was a little hard to get the hang of, but I eventually was able to figure it out.
The music choice in this class was immaculate. Between recent hits like “Sweet But Psycho” by Ava Max and “No Excuses” by Meghan Trainor and various Latin bops like “Gasolina” by Daddy Yankee, I never stopped lip-syncing under my mask.
Almost all of the routines included body rolls, steps and hip rolling, which was so fun to do even though I’m sure I looked absolutely ridiculous doing them. I’m not the most coordinated dancer in the world, but that’s not what Zumba is about. It’s about having fun and getting a workout in.
I cannot talk about this class without talking about the routine to “Mambo No. 5” by Lou Bega. The dance perfectly captured the energy that song gives off. It included steps, spins and kicks, and left me smiling for the rest of the day.
Something that was a little hard to wrap my head around was that, since we were in the middle of the Quad, there were lots of people watching us. Prospective students and their families on campus tours, current students skateboarding through and people picnicking in the middle of the Quad all being able to see us made it a little daunting.
I was a competitive cheerleader for nine years, and if I’ve learned one thing from that experience, it’s to fake it till you make it. So, I was able to look past all the eyes on me and just have fun, pretending like I knew what I was doing so it would be believable to those passing by.
I can say that I was struggling towards the end to keep up. An hour-long Zumba session was more than I’m used to, and I was definitely feeling the burn. However, it was a really great workout.
The best way that I can describe Zumba to those who have never tried it is that it’s exactly like playing “Just Dance” on your Wii in 2011, except instead of following a computer-generated person, you just follow a real person.
If you’re looking to get into Zumba, I definitely recommend taking classes. It’s so much fun being able to dance and move your body, that you forget you’re even working out.