Briefcase: Dance Your Way To Fitness With Zumba

Fitness is an important aspect of our lives, and Zumba is an interesting fitness program. Let’s meet Vineetha Brijesh, a Zumba Instructor from this field.

In this series, Briefcase, we will be meeting women at work in different fields, in different roles, to gain insight into their lives and work. With more women joining (or aspiring to) join the paid workforce, we live in exciting times, and this is an attempt to chronicle those times, one life at a time.

Vineetha Brijesh, though a science graduate found her calling in the fitness industry after becoming a mother and completed various levels of certification and is now enjoying her stint at Heeatz Fitness Center in Gurgaon as a Zumba instructor.

How would you describe yourself?

I am Vineetha Brijesh and I am a certified Zumba instructor for the past two years, and I love every part of my job. If I could describe myself in three words, it would be friendly, loving, and cheerful.

Why did you choose this field?

Dance has been my passion ever since I was 4 years of age. I am a trained classical dancer specializing in both Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi. After motherhood, I took the Reebok Certified Trainer Program in Mumbai and that was a wonderful fitness program. And that made me pursue a certification in Zumba, which I completed in the year of 2011. Zumba was the perfect blend of my choices – dance and fitness.

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Describe your role so that it is understandable to someone who knows nothing about your industry.

Zumba is a Latin-inspired dance-fitness program that incorporates Latin and international music and dance movements. It combines fast and slow rhythm that tones the body using aerobic movements, and helps in achieving a blend of cardio and muscle toning fitness. Cardio-based dance movements are easy to follow, and it helps in body sculpting, toning legs, arms, core and abdominal. And it helps in controlling the most important organ, heart. In a nutshell, Zumba could be classified as an exercise in disguise.

What is the most exciting part of your role and your field? 

I am able to help others be fit and healthy in a real fun and enjoyable manner. My clients are happy being fit, both physically and emotionally. Once, a client of mine who considered herself to be an introvert said that she has become more open and a bit of extrovert because of the class. And that was a truly a moment of happiness for me. Such moments that make me happy and encourage me to do more.

What is the most challenging aspect of your role?

Both, the fun and challenging part of my role rely on making every class of mine more exciting and fun than the previous one. The class has to be unique and I work hard on selecting each song and choreograph each step ensuring that it is easy to follow and fun to do. There must be a feel-good factor attached to the song and the movements.

What is a common misconception about your field?

There is a popular misconception that one can perform Zumba only if the person has a dance background, which is completely untrue. Zumba is for anyone and of any age because it is quite easy to follow. For instance, Zumba gold is for elderly people and we also have a program called Zumba kids. Another popular misconception is that Zumba is only for women and not practiced by men; well, I would like to state here that the founder of Zumba is Beto Perez, a male!

If you had to change anything about your field what would it be?

I don’t think there is any, probably because I have a sweet spot in Zumba. It has made not only me, but many people happier, fitter and more confident.

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