Zumba with Aunt Kyla

With the beginning of the New Year came some resolutions. One of which was to work out. Original, I know. Luckily my Christmas gift from Don went hand-in-hand with it: a membership to the Bountiful Rec Center for a year. A few weeks ago I went to my first official Zumba class.

"What's Zumba?" my mother asked after I began telling her about my experience.
"Zumba is a mix of Latin Dancing and Aerobics."
"It sounds carnal."
"It is."

Maybe too carnal to me. I find myself willing that small 1/8th part of Filipino to show itself during the classes. It's the closest thing I have to Latina blood. Maybe it is considered Latina. But if it's even trying to come out, it's being crushed by that dang 7/8ths of Caucasian. I don't know if my hips work like that. I try, oh do I ever try. I used to dance in high school, but they didn't teach us anything like that. Maybe I took all the wrong classes. But I'm pretty sure that Richfield High didn't even have hip-hop. Nope. Now that I think about it, my dance instructor was stuck in the 80's. Even her car and bangs were 80's. She had the closest thing to the 80's claw that I had seen in at least a decade. So a lot of good all my dancing does me now. That and I'm rusty. I feel like the girl on Dirty Dancing, the part where she's just barely beginning to dance and can't get her feet and legs to get in sync. That's me. It's a nice contrast from my Zumba instructor who's tied ribbons to the back of her pants to accentuate how well she can move her hips. Show off.
In my agony I look over and see a woman who seems to have figured it out. I look harder, and stop. It's my Aunt Kyla! And she's better than me! No wonder all of her daughters can dance. Not that that seems to make a difference, as a lot of the steps we're doing in our class my mother seems to have done naturally all of her life. The pony, for example, is one that's practically my mother's trademark, and it's taken me these twenty-something years to master. So, on that note, I'll end with a plea: Dear Mom, please come with me to Zumba so you can teach me how to do it. But, please refrain from joining forces with Aunt Kyla and showing me up. The sooner the better. Thank you.