Zumba and a zeal for learning
Zumba is an exercise style that has swept the world of female fitness of late. Based on Latin American dance, its rhythms and routines use steps from salsa, merengue, samba, mambo, bachata, and more. Women like Zumba because it is good exercise, it is social and it is fun – it is marketed as an addictive party atmosphere: but there is yet more to it. Some women of a certain age have found in it a new kind of women’s liberation.
Women of all ages, and including those grown maybe a little bit staid as we get older, are embracing the chance to loosen up, to let go in a very physical sense. In a safe setting and the company of other women we are encouraged to ‘shake your booty’ and dance with abandon. Whereas younger women hardly need encouraging, it does some of us – those a little stuck in our ways perhaps – a power of good to be encouraged to throw ourselves into something in a wholehearted way.
So what relevance does this have for education you might ask? My question is rather what effect would it have on our teaching and learning if we applied a little Zumba liberation? Try a new move; dare to do something a little different; throw everything around a bit and trim the unnecessary bits; work together to create some new routines… If only learners were as enthusiastic about their learning activities as these exercise class participants; if learning together were regarded a bit more enjoyably (perhaps not quite a party but definitely not boring!); if learners came out of their sessions every time refreshed and inspired…
Could your lectures or your online activities be as addictive as Zumba? (Having recently spent some time in a Science block next to the lecture theatre where we regularly heard students clapping and cheering in their lecture, perhaps the answer is Yes!)