Zumba on The Quad allows students to get outside, exercise and release adrenaline. PHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Charron
An small group gathered on The Quad on Saturday morning for an intimate zumba class taught by fifth-year student Pat Laprade for the University of Rhode Island’s Alumni & Family Weekend
Laprade said the dancing in the class is very diverse and features a range of different high energy dances from reggaeton to salsa. The dances are used for cardio exercises and losing weight.
“It’s like runner’s high,” he said. “When you’re going in you feed off the adrenaline of yourself and the adrenaline of others”
Laprade said he started doing zumba his freshman year of college and two years ago, he got his license as a zumba trainer.
He teaches three classes a week in different locations on campus, such as the Anna Fascitelli Center, and typically has around 50 people attend a week throughout the multiple classes.
“We were dancing along with the beat, which is basically cardio,” attendee Richard Scott said.
Scott came down over the celebratory weekend from New Hampshire to spend time with his girlfriend, fifth-year student Jackie Birkenstock. He and Jackie have also been taking classes with, and later, taught by Laprade over the last four years and called him a great dancer.
He said what they enjoy about it is that it allows them to stay physically active, as fitness is something important to both of them.
“Doing cardio through dancing in a group, it’s a lot more fun to do so with different moves, changing it up and definitely with the alternative pacing to it, it definitely gives you a better cardio exercise,” said Scott, who is also a runner.
Scott comes down to the University once a month and plans to continue to come to Laprade’s courses when he is in the area.
Birkenstock has been dancing since she was 12 and doing zumba on-and-off during her time at URI and said she enjoys dancing and had been looking for a more casual place to do it.
“Zumba is something that is good for a little bit of exercise and a way to have some fun,” Birkenstock said
She said she likes to go all out in zumba, since it gives her an opportunity to do so without anyone calling her out.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she attended classes with Laprade, but has been instructed by him since the beginning of the semester when he started leading classes.
Laprade said the thing he loves most about zumba is the fact that he had never danced in his life prior to taking the zumba courses.
“Now, knowing I can dance and work out at the same time and spread that positive energy to others, it’s what keeps [me] going everyday,” he said.
He does encourage students to try it, as he says he had no coordination and rhythm four years ago, but got so much better to the point where he can teach it.
And if you can not make a class on any given day, he said it is not a problem.
“I tell my members never to apologize not to come” he said. “We’re here all week, every week”.