Zumba in London

I’ve been living in London for about 6 months now and have only made it to one Zumba class…  I am hitting the usual roadblocks of all the classes being at gyms. With my long working hours and regular travel, the cost of gym membership didn’t seem worth it. While I’ve been entertaining myself by playing a lot of Just. Dance, I was missing the fun of a live class so I decided to check out Frame.

They offer a huge variety of movement classes – from pilates to something involving mini trampolines.  Drop-ins are welcome, though you should probably sign up a day or two in advance as the studios are small.

The highlight has been the 80s Aerobics, which was essentially this:

(but with fewer leotards, thankfully).  It was a genuine aerobics class, with all the classic moves including lots of pelvic thrusts, legs lifts, jumping jacks, etc. – set to a soundtrack of Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Madonna, and more. It was genuinely hard, and a lot of fun. The entire class was basically singing along (when we weren’t panting to catch our breath).

I also went to a Dance Cardio class, which as the name implies was Zumba-esque. While it was a great workout and much dancier than the aerobics class, the acoustics made it impossible to understand the instructor’s verbal cues. Also, the room got so sweaty that the floor was pretty slippery. I enjoyed it, but it also left me pining for a proper Zumba class with a large space and non-verbal cues.

Frame also offers something called Music Video, where they spend an hour teaching you a piece of choreography from an actual video.  When the instructor announced today’s class was from Dream Girls, I wasn’t exactly thrilled… I am not a fan of musicals and was hoping for something more contemporary. To my surprise, the song was actually a bit disco-y, and the choreo was a mix of Bob Fosse with bits of Beyonce-fierceness, both of which I love.

Plus, the instructor was really into the drama of it all… he kept motivating us by saying things like “pretend like your arms are draped in diamonds!” or “whip your head around like you’ve got Beyonce’s long weave”. Obviously, I adored him.  While it wasn’t a high impact workout, it was definitely a lot of fun and I enjoyed throwing myself into the dramatics.

Upcoming classes there include: Beyonce Dance Workshop, Spice Girls Cardio, and Kylie (Minogue) Butt Lift. Even if the classes aren’t perfect, I love having these kinds of options (and it’s only a 5 min walk from my house)!