Zumba Instructor Convention 2014!

Home sweet home after another amazing year at the ZUMBA Instructor Convention in Orlando, FL. 

I shared the past four days with over 6,000 members of my Zumba family. We learned new choreo for our classes, snapped selfies with our fave Zumba celebs, and danced (A LOT)! It's impossible to express how much this trip means to me or how much I learn each year, but I wanted to share my top takeaways from 2014... 

1. I learned that our Zumba Fitness classes are the best medicine for a bad day. In our opening session, we had the opportunity to listen to Harvard's most popular professor, Tal Ben-Shahar. His expertise? HAPPINESS! And guess what he told us - there is scientific proof that dancing (like we do in our Zumba Fitness classes) improves our mood and makes us HAPPIER! 

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 16 million adults in the U.S. had at least one episode of depression in 2012. Healthline shares that one in ten Americans will be affected by depression in their lifetime. Yet a powerful antidote is found in dance and movement! Some studies show dance and movement to be as effective as prescription medications! Zumba is particularly good at this because the moves are simple, repetitive, and allow students to be successful! Learn more about happiness from Tal Ben-Shahar. 

ZES Donna Giffen

2. I saw my end goal. During Convention, I has the opportunity to participate in a number of master classes with some of the best Zumba instructors around. Seeing instructors like Steve Boedt, Donna Giffen, and Pepper Von gives me a glimpse of how good we can really be! But these instructors are not amazing because of their dance ability (although they are great dancers!). They are amazing because of their ability to teach, lead, perform, and allow their students to succeed! It's not about what THEY are doing on the stage, but what they are enabling YOU to do on the floor! 

Seeing them in action inspires me to keep working and improving my own skills, so I did something very scary... I signed up for a personalized feedback session and taught a song in front of 30 Zumba Instructors and two ZES (Zumba Education Specialists), Donna Giffen and Daniela Cesnekova. End result? The group was super supportive and I walked away with practical things I can do to improve my teaching (like closing my fingers to add power to my Beto Shuffle)! Bye Bye frog hands!

ZES Pepper Von

3. I joined a movement to change the world. I've said this before, but I truly believe that Zumba Fitness is an incredible force for the greater good. During my Saturday morning master class, Pepper Von closed the session with a simple but powerful challenge - to put out one positive thought each day. Imagine if all 6,000 Convention attendees commit to it, and then encourage their students to do the same? Zumba Fitness has no geographic boundaries, and our influence can be worldwide. I'm taking the challenge. Will you? 

But it didn't stop there. We've all been seeing videos of our friends and family dumping ice water on their heads (and perhaps praying we don't get called out to do the same) as part of the #icebucketchallenge to raise awareness and funds for the ALS Association! While I was in Orlando, I was tagged and had 24 hours to either donate or dump ice water on my head! What else could I do, but grab our hotel ice bucket and head to the Hyatt's outdoor fountain (Watch the video)! And as part of our closing ceremony, some our our Zumba faves - CEO and co-founder Alberto Perlman, celebrity instructors Gina Grant and Kass Martin, and the man himself Beto Perez - took the challenge on stage! Zumba love in action!

It was another amazing year at #zincon2014! Can't wait to put my new knowledge and inspiration to use in the coming year! August 12-15, 2015 is already on my calendar (and if you are an instructor and didn't make it this year, put it in on your calendar, too! I want you there with me!). 

#zincon2014 #icebucketchallenge #strikeoutals #zumbalove #teamperry