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Exercising To The Zumba Beat

Carl Orth/SUNCOAST NEWS

YMCA staffer Wendy Cassetta leads the fast-paced Zumba workout class at the Gills Family YMCA in Trinity.

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: September 3, 2008

TRINITY - Who says exercise has to be dull?

Not any of the people in the Zumba fitness classes at Gills Family YMCA, in Trinity, and the NPR SunTrust YMCA, in New Port Richey.

A party atmosphere pervades the uptempo classes, which have attracted dozens of participants.

Wendy Cassetta's hair whips around as the YMCA staff member leads the class set to music with a dance-style beat and a heavy infusion of Latin rhythms.

Participants dash to grab a quick drink of water between songs.

Cassetta took the training to become a certified Zumba instructor. Zumba has more than 20,000 trained instructors in 35 countries.

Celebrity fitness trainer "Beto" Perez stumbled upon the concept in his native country of Colombia in the mid 1990's when he forgot the music for his aerobics class and substituted the traditional Latin salsa and merengue music he had grown up with. By 1999, the dance fitness phenomenon spread to the United States.

About 50 people take part in the Monday class at the Gills YMCA in Trinity, plus another 30 at the NPR SunTrust branch Tuesdays and Thursdays, Cassetta said.

"It is the biggest craze right now," Cassetta says, lending her own infectious enthusiasm for the high-tempo workouts.

As one of the Zumba Web sites says, "Ditch the workout and join the party."

See all 6 photos in the PEOPLE photo gallery at this link: http://snap.tbo.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=3300....

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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