December was: Zumba, Zumba, Zumba and a little bit of Christmas

I apoligise for not writing in months... I can honestly tell you, that I've been busy.

I went to a lot of friends' and family birthdays in November, but of course I also found time for my Zumba and salsa.

December was spent with Zumba, Zumba, Zumba and.... Oh yeah... That thing called Christmas.

December 1st. I went with my friend to see a Kenyan dance show called "Out of Africa." I realy enjoyed it. It was a show about the evelopment of Kenya since day one. I was thrilled to find out that we could buy the show on dvd during the break. So since I got the tickets for free, from my work, I decided I would spend some money on the DVD cause I thought it was a great show. The music, the singing and the dancing. It was very emotional!

 

December 8th., my friends from "Team Betty Denmark" had a fundraising show, to collect money for Susan G. Komen, breast cancer organisation. I was among the performers as my Zumba class made a show team that voulenteered to do Zumba for an audience. I also made cupcakes with one of the other girls, that was sold at the event. The event took place at a small theater in town and it was my first time to stand in real theater lighting and boy was that hot. The sweat was dripping off like never before and you could not see anything due to a bright white light blinding you. But hey, we did it for a good cause and we all had fun.

 

The next day, December 9th., my old Zumba instructor came back and we had the pleassure of his top professionel Zumba with a dash of Axé, Zouk and Salsa, just the way we like it. He was only in town for a couple of weeks, so we did what we always do when he's in town. Get together and have some intensive training 2 hours a day. Wednesdays were my "salsa days" so the other days of the week was occupied by Zumba. In total I ended up with having 17 classes in 10 days. Yes, it was crazy. I'm glad that I managed to have most of my Christmas shopping done in November, cause otherwise I probably would've been too stressed to find the time for that much Zumba. But it was awesome as always.

 

December 19th. I went to Copenhagen for a couple of days and that was the beginning of my "Zumba Break." Because I had been so busy in the beginning of the month, I allowed myself to take some time off and be with friend and family and enjoy Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of the year, but I must say. This year, I've been too busy to enjoy. I did have a nice time in Copenhagen and went to see a Christmas Fair at Tivoli, that was realy awesome.

somehow managed to catch something that could've been the cold flu virus. I never got sick, but suffered from coughing for 3-4 weeks during Christmas. Never the less, I had a lovely Christmas with my family. Celebrated Christmas eve with my parents, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, my twi grandmas and my cousin and his wife. December 25th. is my brother's birthday, so he and his girlfriend invited everyone for brunch the next morning.

And as always when my young cousin spends Christmas with us, Santa stopped by.

December 29th. me and my friend Tina had a visit from the Dutch girl we went to see in the Netherlands in Spring. She came to celebrate New Years Eve with us, so we spend a couple of days together before she went back home and I started working again.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!



 

My first impression of Zumba Sentao

October 6th. was my first time to try Zumba Sentao, when ZES Donna Giffen was doing a master class at the Zumbathon.

20 local instructors were on stage to do the warm up, before everyone grabbed a red chair and lined up for Zumba Sentao. I didn't know what to expect and as Donna showed us the routines, I found it more and more to be "Feminess" - a chair based dance routine to make women feel more feminine. Local gyms have offered this type of dance before. But ok, I saw the Zumba dance styles.. However, dancing merengue around an empty chair, just does nothing for me. I say, put a guy in the chair and dance around him, now that sounds more inspiring to me. The chair was moving, so I realy think there should be some sort of weight put on to the chair, if you have to dance around it. When Donna Giffen finaly made us sit in the chair, I finaly saw it. It's harder than you would think, to lift your legs up, when sitting on a chair. I see how Zumba Sentao could benefit people working in an office all day. But when you work like me, standing and walking all day... Regular Zumba is fine. I prefer to dance!

 

 

 

 

In the picture above, you see the three local Zins with Zes Donna Giffen, handing two women from the Danish Cancer Orginazasiton a cheque with the value 20.225 DKR collected at the Zumbathon for the Brest Cancer Campaign. I'm proud to say I have been at all 3 Zumbathons for this campaign!

 

Tomorrow I'll join the master class with Steve Boedt. He was so much fun the last time, so I'm predicting I'll have a lot of fun! Will try to take pictures, but it's hard to take good pictures in big rooms that are have a lot of lamps. I will try to catch the feeling on camera if it's possible.

It's Pink Saturday!!

The national "Pink Saturday" or "Lyserød Lørdag" as we call it here in Denmark, has arived!

I'm on my way to the Zumbathon that is being held to raise money for the Danish "Pink Party" cause. It's the 3rd. time I join the Zumbathon for this cause. The 1st. time was in October 2010 when I had only been going to Zumba for a couple of months. My Brasilian instructor was guest indtructor that time and I thought it was a good cause, so I joined!!

My mom survived Breast Cancer, so I always want to join these zumbathons in honor of her.

I brought my camera, so I hope to take some nice pictures to post here!

Summer ended Fall is here with more Zumba

So, I never did do a catch up by the end of July... August has past, too and September has just started.
With September being here, it also means that a new season has started. That includes more zumba and hopefuly salsa as well.
I guess I should tell you, that I had my first actual zumba performance on my birthday this year. The city hosted a cyckling race and we did some cheering zumba as warm up for the event. Another girl from my zumba class also joined at the performance. The fun thing was... I'm exactly twice her age, which kinda make me feel bad, but also cool at the same time... Cause I might be older than some, but I can still shake my booty... and some of the women are a lot older than me, so it brings me joy, knowing that because of zumba, women all ages, are now having the time of their lives :)
We were 20 people on a small mobile (truck) stage... and let me tell you, it was shaking a lot, but we kept doing our rutines and it was a lot of fun.
I have to exchange my Monday work out at the gym, latin mix and dance fit, with Zumba, as the dance instructor moved to another city. That means I could end up with a schedule looking like this:
Monday: Zumba
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Zumba for a couple of weeks - Salsa Freestyle, starting September 19th.
Thursday: Zumba
Friday: Zumba
Saturday:
Sunday: 2 x Zumba
With my busy schedule, I also allow myself to skip zumba if I feel like it.. Luckily I feel like it most of the time... Cause it's my lifestyle and it keeps me happy! I saw a sign in town yesterday. It made me stop and think..." Hey, that's me!"


The shops were open for an "open by night" event and the library also had a sale of old books and look what I found laying on the shelf, waiting for me!


The Dvd was missing, but that's ok. I'm so happy to finaly own the book. I've been thinking of buying it several times :D
I bought my ticket to the next Steve Boedt Masterclass in town, which will be October 22nd. I'm also gonna join the national "Pink Saturday" Zumba Marathon October 6th. The Zes Donna Giffen will be there and I'm curious to see what Zumba Sentao is all about. "Pink Saturday" is the day we collect money for the Danish Komen society (Breast Cancer organisation).
I will try to take pictures at both of these events, cause I regret not having any pictures from the last time Steve Boedt was around.
My salsa instructor is finaly back in Denmark and he will have his usualy Salsa Freestyle classes starting September 19th. This time I realy hope enough people sign up, so they won't cancel the class.
Will try to update more in the future. This summer I've been hanging out at my balcony tanning, whenever I had the chance. Fall is here now, so with the cooler temperature and the darkness aproaching earlier in the evening, I'm sure there will be more time to post!
I had a wonderful summer!

Been busy, busy, busy

I have been awful busy lately... In April and May, I was traveling a lot... May, June and some of July have been super busy as well, with awesome zumba with my favorite instructor!!! Sadly he only has a couple more classes before he leave for holiday and a new life, working in Norway! I'm gonna miss him and his zumba so much. I'm not afraid to say, that he is my inspiration. Because of him, I now know so many varieties of music genres.. Because of him, I can bust out a new move, surprising and teaching my friends haha.

A couple of days ago,we had a small zumba-summer-garden party. We started his Zumba classes 2 years ago and because he inspired us all, we managed to get to know one another pretty good. He said we have been one of the best group of people to teach, cause we also inspire him! He then said we should think about going in small trips abroad, together as a group, for zumba events, cause he can tell, that we have a good chemistry, all of us together! I'm the zumba freak of the group, he said... Well, it's true.. I do look up events and try to make other people sign up and go with me, but I've never actualy done zumba abroad. It'll be fun to see it happen some day! I created a group on facebook, which is where we try to keep in touch, as we all go to different gyms now.

I'm on my way to Samba Fit and Zumba now.. My ankles are a bit sore, from being at a music festival for three days, but I hope it won't affect my samba/ zumba too much.

Since I've been busy, I realize I have loads to catch up on... I can't promise when, but I will do it. Possibly by the end of July, when I have a week off from work, with no plans.

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Zumba Carnival 2012

I know I still have a lot of catching up to do... But like I said. I've been super busy.

Last weekend was the Carnival here in my home town. I joined up with a small group of people from my zumba class. We met for breakfast in town and went from there, to where we had to team up and get in line for the parade. Our carnival is for everyone, which means everyone can join the parade in whatever costume they like. A lot of people dress up every year. To most people, it's an opportunity to get drunk and have fun! This year the weather was so great. Best carnival weather in a long time. We brought a long a huge ghetto blaster to play our zumba music, but as soon as we hit the play button, it was clear to us, that we were not gonna be able to hear the music when the other dance group brought mobile discos with huge speakers... But to our luck, the dance troup ahead of us was playing music that we already new from zumba, so we just "borrowed" the music from them. Phew!
The theme of the carnival was "Turning around the world" or as we say it in Danish "the world on the head" - so although we were only gonna dress in zumba clothes with bright colors, I decided to add some flags to my hair and a small globe.

After the parade, we found a place in the shadow and had something to drink. We brought our drinks on the carnival vagon that I made for us.

After drinking most of what we had brought a long, we went to the park that hostet the big carnival party. We found a place in the little shadow we could find that day.

I noticed a spot on my top... Let's face it. You can't join a carnival and expect to walk away spot free. I showed it to one of the other girls and she suggested I used vanish and it would disapear. Little did she know, that I was already testing vanish. So I told her that I had been trying it out and was definitely going to give this spot a try, too.

This is my result:

BEFORE

AFTER

The spot is definitely gone... The color difference is only on the picture.. Guess I used flash in one of the pictures.

So my carnival ended spot free and one to remember! It was the first time I was in an actual dance troup in the carnival and it was a lot of fun. Will definitely think about joining the parade this way next year as well. After the dance troups, the regular people walk around in their costumes, drunk and having fun. The hole city participates, but I think it's more fun to be sober and dance, to get drunk and walk around.

Having a blast...

I know I haven't posted much lately... I've simply been having soooo much fun!

Martin Del Villar Master Class, 3 weeks of traveling and concerts with my friends... And now my favorite instructor from Brazil has returned for a couple of months and I, of course, signed up for all of his classes :D
Saturday my city celebrates the anual Carnival. My new Zumba instructor asked if we wanted to participate in the parade, so now a bunch of us will join the parade as a "dance troup." I've only been home for a week, so these days I'm busy preparing.

I will write more about everything I've done when I have more time!

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