On Tuesday, April 5, 2022, The Black Student Board (BSB) hosted a Soul and Salsa Zumba event as a way to celebrate Pan-Af Week. In my opinion, I would say the event was a success. This was the perfect event to blow off some steam from all of your stresses from this semester while participating in physical activity which is always a good thing.
Based on the atmosphere in the room, you can tell that everyone there had a great time! Prior to this, I had never participated in a Zumba event. So, I went into it nervous and not sure what to expect. I had a fear that this was going to be something that would be hard for me to participate in. Once the event officially began, it was easy to get each routine down, and the thought quickly left my mind. Imani Bynum, a junior Psychology major here at NC State, commented on her experience, stating “well I guess I thought it’d be pretty hard and not fun, but it turned out to be really fun. You didn’t really have to master all of the moves. As long as you were moving that was good enough, which made the environment really relaxing.”
Almost every genre of music was covered from Soca to Afrobeats to LatinX/Salsa music, there was a song for everyone to enjoy. There was a wide variety of people who attended. Attendees were taught step by step what to do as they followed along with Jordan, the instructor.
This was an inclusive event for everyone to participate in. Generally, depending on where one is in their life with their confidence level and acceptance of their disability, people with disabilities can have a hard time going to and participating in certain tasks or events. There is a fear of being discriminated against by others because of having a disability and a fear of failure while performing activities. Disabilities make people feel excluded from the beginning. So, if one does not have enough confidence to explain and show their disability to others, then it can be a lot to overcome both physically and emotionally. According to WebMD, “Zumba is an interval workout. The classes move between high- and low-intensity dance moves designed to get your heart rate up and boost cardio endurance.” Those with disabilities can have difficulties with these types of activities because they may have to overcompensate one part of their body to make up for the lack.
The BSB’s Soul and Salsa Zumba event was easy to participate in as opposed to others, where one may feel incapable and ostracized.
With this event, people were able to choose where they wanted to stand and participate. So, for those who were not as confident in showcasing themselves dancing, it was perfectly fine to stand in the back and dance. You could take a break whenever you wanted or felt that it was necessary and no one would mind. I do believe everyone in attendance was focused on trying to nail the dance routine step by step instead of focusing on how others were doing. Some had trouble along the way with keeping up with some of the more challenging parts of the routine but a common theme that I witnessed was that people just laughed through it and kept going.
Even those who struggled were able to get back into the swing of things again and feel like they didn’t miss a beat. This event was a nice event to attend to build your confidence up, work on dance skills, and get in a nice workout.
I definitely left the event feeling a little tired but was proud to be in attendance and mainly just complete the event to the best of my ability. Looking back on it, I was definitely sore the next couple of days but glad to say that I had a great time and participated in something that I never thought that I would. In the future, I may even start to go to more Zumba events because I had such a good experience.
Next time the BSB hosts an event like this, be sure to pop out and have a good time! Shoutout to the Black Student Board and the instructor Jordan for putting on a successful Soul and Salsa Zumba event!
