Workout zumba music tv#
“It’s becoming a music, TV and concert platform.” “I see Zumba Fitness also as an entertainment brand,” Perlman said. The company has also launched its own line of brightly colored clothing, Zumba footwear and a glossy magazine named “ZLife”, all designed in its Miami office.īut it is also focused on developing TV shows, pushing into global markets, particularly Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, and exploiting a new business opportunity: fitness concerts. Perlman said growing the instructor and student base is the firm’s top priority, with a goal of one day reaching 100 million students, more than eight times the current number. Then we settled on Zumba, it was perfect.” 12 MILLION AND COUNTING “We were getting nervous by the end, nothing sounded good - bumba, kumba. “We just went through the alphabet to see what rhymes with rumba,” Perlman said. The men sought to put a name on the exercise, first thinking of the Spanish word rumba, which loosely translates as party, but realized it was already trademarked. But after watching a class, he came up with the idea for a new fitness video he hoped could be an infomercial success. “I said I’d meet with him but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with him,” Perlman recalled. When the bubble burst, I went to have dinner at her house and she kept saying ‘Talk to Beto, maybe you guys could start a gym.’” “She would tell me about this amazing class but I never paid attention.
“My mom had been taking his classes for years,” he said. He co-founded Zumba Fitness and is now its chief executive. Then a technology entrepreneur, Perlman lost his job in the dot-com bust two years later and was struggling with what career move to make next. He struggled before eventually building up a large, adoring fan base of mostly Colombian expatriate women, including the mother of Alberto Perlman. In 1999, Perez packed up and headed to Miami, speaking no English but hoping to make a breakthrough in the Latin-flavored U.S. It proved to be a hit and he quickly developed a loyal following before he moved to Bogota, where he briefly worked as a choreographer with pop star Shakira. Instead, he put on his own merengue and salsa tapes and improvised dance moves for a workout, creating what today is known as Zumba. Months later, getting ready for a class, Perez forgot his aerobics music. He agreed - but didn’t mention he had never done aerobics and rushed out and bought a copy of Jane Fonda’s Workout Book. One day the owner of a nearby gym called and asked if Perez could stand in for an injured aerobics teacher. Perez, who is known as Beto, was eking out a living as a street performer and salsa and merengue nightclub dancer known for his boyish model looks and muscular physique. Zumba got its start by chance in the 1980s. What began as a company focused on fitness has evolved into a lifestyle and entertainment brand combining e-commerce, apparel and music, and a sought-after outlet for stars like hip-hop artists Pitbull and Wyclef Jean and reggaeton singer Don Omar who have turned to Zumba to promote their music. Started on a shoestring budget in a Miami garage nearly 11 years ago, Zumba Fitness now has more than 200 employees, and a pair of New York investment firms are betting the craze has staying power. Zumba Fitness now boasts being the largest branded fitness program in the world. Zumba, a Latin dance-inspired aerobic workout, has exploded from a Miami gym phenomenon to infomercial and DVD smash hit into a global craze with some 12 million people taking classes every week in at least 125 countries. “I’m not a businessman, but I knew this had the potential to be something special,” said Perez, who along with two Colombian associates founded the Miami-based company. Today, he stands at the center of the Zumba exercise craze, having helped transform Zumba Fitness, a private company, into a rapidly growing fitness empire with heavyweight investor backing. Alberto Perez (C), founder of Zumba Fitness, performs on stage during a meeting in Rimini, central Italy May 11, 2012.