Beto Perez Leads Zumba to Become the World's Largest Fitness Brand
By Danielle Lagow for DietsInReview.com
Ever wondered who in the world came up with the fitness program Zumba and how? That would be Alberto (Beto) Perez from Cali, Columbia in South America. Perez began his career as a fitness instructor, trainer and choreographer and has even choreographed for celebrities such as Shakira. Since bringing Zumba to the US, the brand has grown to be the world's largest fitness brand with workout DVDs, video games, clothing, and classes available in more than 125 countries.
While still living in Columbia, Perez one day forgot his normal music for the aerobics class he was supposed to teach. Since he had no other option but to improvise, he whipped out the Latin music he had in his bag and began choreographing a dance workout routine on the spot. Everyone in the class loved it so much that it became a new tradition that would soon spread across the world.
In 1999, Perez decided to bring Zumba to the United States. After selling all of his belongings he moved to Miami, Florida where he didn't have as much luck as he had hoped for. Things were quite rough for him in the beginning because he spoke no English, therefore no one would give him a chance to show what he had to offer.
After several months, he finally got the attention of the manager of a prestigious health club who said "Teach me." So right there in the middle of the gym during an empty afternoon, Perez began his first Zumba class in the United States. After a few minutes in, someone walked by the room the two were dancing in and decided to join. After a few more minutes, another member joined the group. It wasn't long before Perez had 15 people dancing along with him. Apparently everyone thought it was a new group fitness class being offered and they all wanted to sign up for it because it looked like so much fun. The manager gave Perez a job right there on the spot as the new Saturday morning group fitness instructor.
In 2001, Perez was approached by entrepreneurs Alberto Aghion and Alberto Perlman. The three decided to come together and create Zumba Fitness. Zumba is now known as one of the largest fitness programs in the world with more than 3.5 million DVDs sold, more than 5 million Zumba class attendees per week, and about 30,000 trained Zumba fitness instructors on six different continents.
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