Tuesdays With Teacher Fina  

IT WAS AN uneventful Monday. Nothing dramatic or controversial.

      The PCOS machine didn’t reject our ballots and there wasn’t vote buying or any election irregularity in a precinct in Filinvest 2, Quezon City where daughter Ghiselle and I cast our votes. 

      It took us just a couple of minutes to complete the entire process. We were done even before you could say “go out and vote!”

      But enough about the elections and uneventful Mondays. Let the losers – who feel they were cheated … losers always feel cheated in this beloved country of ours – move  on in their own time.

             Instead, let me tell you about my Tuesdays which took an interesting turn when high school friends Evie, Lydia, Mel, Ruby, and I decided to take classes in zumba at the House of Dance in BF Homes, Quezon City. The studio is owned by another high school friend, Mirella, and she welcomed the idea with a discount.

      And Thursdays, too because we had it twice each week for a month. Only Lydia, Ruby and I actually attended the lessons; Mel did for one Tuesday.

DAY ONE

         On first meeting, teacher Fina was explicit in saying that we were there to dance the zumba and it does not matter how we will interpret it. No one is going to judge every one’s moves or body English. We can dance exactly the way we want to.

     And so on that first Tuesday, I danced with abandon and I enjoyed the music, majority of which I was hearing the first time. There was one though which sounded like a Shakera song saved in my iPhone.

     Just like a beginner’s luck, that first time around was fun and it felt good to sweat not from the summer heat but from being one with the beat.[The following picture shows Lydia and I posing for posterity as we wrap up our first one-hour zumba session.]

           From then on, I knew right away that this is the physical activity for me. For the longest time, I wanted to at least swim once a week just to keep fit but I never got the chance to really hie off to a nearby clubhouse pool.

      Besides, attending a zumba class is more convenient in terms of what to wear. Look at us in the picture below taken on our last day; that’s teacher Fina in front row, middle. We didn’t really need a special wardrobe – a pair of shorts or leggings and topped with a loose shirt will do; and my pair of Chucks [in lower photo] was good enough for dancing shoes.

     The only thing you need to bring is a small towel and a water bottle. Should you forget both, it’s okay to let the sweat well up and drip from your body; and there’s a water cooler outside the dance hall. Don’t forget to bring an extra shirt though because you don’t want to go home feeling sticky and in wet clothes.

     The workout itself is fun and it’s really like a dance party. Some of the steps are entirely new to me while a few others are quite familiar.

     As a postscript, when Paula Abdul advised that we should “find fitness with fun dancing … it is fun and makes you forget the dreaded exercise,” she was, no doubt, talking about zumba.

FIRST TIME

     Teacher Fina is in her late 20s and Lydia always reminds her that she looks like dancer/actress Maja Salvador. Well, she does and she moves like a gazelle – swift but graceful. And look at her pose in our group picture below.

     Before meeting her, I was imagining our zumba teacher to be Chaka Khan-curly with a voluptuous body and has a Brazilian accent. I don’t know why Brazilian ... 

     Of course, it turned out to be inaccurate although teacher Fina is quite physically endowed and her hair is not your usual straight/rebond-ed.

     She has been a dance teacher for almost nine years but this is her first time to teach zumba. That declaration sort of pacified my tense heart. Great, we’re both in this the first time around. Never mind if she’s the boss on the floor, and I have to stare at her like a hawk to get my steps right.

     It is also my first time to listen to Latin music and I like it. You can't help but dance to it. 

     The class is composed of girls my age – that would be my high school friends Lydia and Ruby and it’s also their first time; Mel, together with Evie, have done this in their regular workouts together; but their schedules were quite hectic this summer. Of course, there are also girls of teacher Fina’s age, if not younger, including Mirella’s daughter Kim. There’s even a mother-and-daughter tandem.

WEEKSARY

     On the second week, I was beginning to get the hang of it.  I would say control over movement is improving, but to be more specific, improving slowly, at a snail’s pace. 

     I am now able to appreciate the steps and unique moves and what looks like choreography from one of those production numbers on TV. There’s hip-hop and some belly-dancing and there is some jumping and stretching and turning and hip-swaying.  Some are sexy; others fierce. 

     I don‘t know exactly which of the steps is salsa or merengue or mambo, some of the kinds of dance which Wikipedia says comprise the zumba. 

     I especially like one step wherein we make swift turns with our hands shaped in a heart and moving it forward and backward just like a heartbeat. I think the music is in Latin and one word stands out: amore.

     There is another step which proves to be very challenging for me. You walk sideways to the left and then to the right, bending your knees each time and then making swift turns in accordance with the music. 

     The challenge comes when I have to raise my arms, sway it in circles, and in time with the leg movements. My coordination goes awry but teacher Fina is always reassuring. She reminds us to slow down if we weren’t comfortable.

SIXTY MINUTES TO MAKE IT

         The class takes one hour and it is like a dance party. As soon as the time is right, teacher Fina plugs in her iPod to the sound system and starts to demonstrate the steps. She utters some instructions or words of encouragement or caution in between. We automatically follow and catch up until the music ends. That is how it goes from one music segued to the next. The steps get faster and more intense and my sweat glands have never been that agitated.

     On the first Thursday, we had teacher Roz. I cannot compare her to teacher Fina but she’s cool. She dances and tells us her instructions and we try to get the steps and catch up. 

     Both styles of teaching are okay with me. They are like charismatic speakers as they verbalize their instructions or the Pied Piper as they demonstrate the steps and we follow – short of being mesmerized – no matter what. They are not monotonous or boring. And they are both a sight to behold, showing me exactly what a zumba dancer should be.

     I watch them do their thing and I am impressed. I take a quick glance at myself in the mirror and I see something’s not right. Unlike them, I certainly look un-elegant or un-graceful … but I smile at the thought.

     As teacher Fina has told us since Day One, nobody here is out to judge anybody, and that means we ourselves can’t judge ourselves. Just dance and sweat in sixty minutes and that’s it, mission accomplished!

FEEDBACK

      The ride back home is something like a spoof of the SWOT Analysis. My high school friends and I always have a good laugh after each session as we wipe the perspiration, catch our breath and wait for our body to normalize. 

     We tease ourselves as we lightly deliberate on how awkward we look with the twists and turns and jumps and lunges. We mock each other for getting into this activity but it has proven to be a learning curve for golden girls like us.

     Our strength is definitely our will to complete the sessions. Our weakness is quite obvious but the opportunities are plenty – to keep fit, to be energized, to do something physical, even to have an excuse to get together. 

         Finally, the threat would be feelings of soreness or whatever. But Lydia says that pain in her knee has decreased and Ruby declares upon completion of the summer sessions that she actually gained a few pounds but she looked the least worried.

     At the MOD office, I told my colleagues that I’m into zumba and they say “aha …” nonchalantly. I never thought I would use this word to describe anybody’s reaction. But that is exactly how managing editor Emma and editorial assistant Jackie reacted – nonchalantly. 

     Well, maybe they’re more interested in how soon I could beat their deadlines. And not the twists and hip-swaying and working out that have been highlighting my early nights. They, however, asked me to show them a few zumba steps which I obliged, giving some comic relief on a deadline-tensed afternoon. 

  

      But I may still be able to catch Yeba!  as the launch has been rescheduled.

LEARNINGS

      The title of this post is inspired by that bestseller of a book by Mitch Albom and then turned into a movie entitled Tuesdays With Morrie. I no longer remember whether it was Camille or Ferdie, both call center friends, who lent me the book but, while it was different from the usual fare I read, it turned out to be an eye-opener for me and there were a few tears in between turning the pages. 

      Tuesdays are the days the author Mitch meets up with his retired college professor, Morrie, who was dying of a lingering illness. Their conversations on a variety of topics gave Mitch significant lessons in life – as illustrated in the book’s cover, “an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson.”

     My Tuesdays – and Thursdays – weren’t really heavy drama and clever conversations. I didn’t learn life’s greatest lesson from teacher Fina but she sure did dish out some useful one-liners for my every day.

     Smile. This one word says it all. In zumba, when the steps get more challenging and you can’t keep up, smile. Teacher Fina would yell this powerful word in between the intense steps and somehow when we do smile, it becomes more fun doing them.

     We know this holds true in real life - when things get really all worked up or it gets blindingly fast, a smile lightens, eases, comforts … 

     Puwedeng isigaw ‘yan! … Ilabas niyo ‘yan … When the steps get really fast and furious, teacher Fina shouts these words. Indeed, when the moves level up to a faster rate or there are more jumps and quick turns than we could take, exhaling with conviction or shouting one-syllable words really help.

     Compared to real life, it is common knowledge that pent-up emotions are a no-no and hiding inside yourself is not emotionally and psychologically healthy.

  

      Enjoy the music. Teacher Roz said these words once too many. In one of the dance routines, she was telling this to us with eyes closed. I wanted to imitate her because I’m sure it would feel better if the eyes were closed – as in kissing – but I might miss a beat or a step if I do so and end up like Humpty-Dumpty.

     Now these learnings are not new but it was interesting that they should be highlighted in a dance exercise like zumba. Besides, sometimes we need reminding that they are not mere clichés and they actually work.  

 

HOORAY FOR THURSDAY

         Hooray for Thursday and it’s our last session for the entire summer. I say hooray not because it’s over but because we survived it! Well, at least for me and Lydia and Ruby. Evie and Mel would have survived it, too – or ended it in flying colors – had their schedules permitted them to attend the sessions.

The last music we danced to was entitled “I’m Sexy & I Know It” and I had an LSS (last song syndrome) of it for the next couple of days. 

     Those eight sessions didn’t transform me back to my 23-inch waistline of yesterday but I like the way teacher Fina insinuated that we should own the song – that we’re sexy and we know it. Never mind if this feeling of sexiness is – well, I’m speaking for myself here – the fact that I’m comfortable with my no-longer-Coca-Cola body. As long as I can shake my hips, turn around, and, you know, do the moves – that’s the new sexy for me.

     As you can see in our poses below -- we took a couple of photos on our last day -- we really and sexy and we know it!

     The best thing about zumba is that you don’t have to get it right the first time. You can get better in the next session, find the precise turn, the appropriate movement, even the comfortable pace  … 

     Ruby tells me after the eighth session: “One item checked in my bucket list. Next – hiphop!!!”

 

     Well, I like to say that the zumba lessons made us bolder to try new activities. Golden girls as hip-hoppers … why not?