CHRISTINA HOAG
Knight Ridder Newspapers

It was a serendipitous slip. When Alberto Perez forgot the music tape for an aerobics class that he was giving in his native Colombia six years ago, he had to improvise with the salsa and cumbia cassettes in his bag, rejiggering the moves to match the rhythms.

Much to his surprise, it was an instant hit.

“People loved it and asked me to do it again,” recalled Perez, 33. “The reaction was incredible from something that came out of, well, an accident.”

Perez still seems incredulous. And Zumba, the catchy moniker that he later bestowed on his Latin-dance and music-inspired aerobics routines, is turning into a fitness sensation in the United States.

“I’ve been 30 years in the fitness business, and I’ve never seen this before,” said Peter Cicale, owner of Olympia Gym in Aventura, Fla., where Perez gives jam-packed classes to about 400 people a week.

Aventura-based Zumba Productions last year sold about $20 million worth of Zumba videos via TV infomercial in seven months, leading Kellogg’s to sign him in a nationwide promotional deal to be launched in the fall.

FRANCHISES POSSIBLE

This month, Perez will train a group of 150 Zumba instructors in steps such as the “Salsa Lunge” and the arm-swinging “Machete,” with an eye toward later selling Zumba Studio franchises nationwide.

A how-to book is planned for fall release, along with new infomercials in Spanish and English, new videos for next year and a line of neon-colored, body-hugging fitness fashions dubbed Zumbawear later this year.

In the meantime, Perez keeps packing fans into the 10 South Florida gyms where he gives lively beginner and advanced sessions to about 2,000 people a week, sandwiched between promotional appearances that have taken him all over the country.

Perez already has certified a half-dozen Zumba instructors holding classes in Chicago, New York and Dallas.

At Olympia Gym, the classes are so popular that participants start arriving 20 minutes early to stake out a spot on the floor. Owner Cicale has to put up a barricade to close off access. And that’s not all.

“I bought the karate studio next door and knocked down the wall to make the space bigger — we get 150 people in here on Saturdays. I put in a wood floor for dancing. And new AC — it was like a furnace in here,” he said. “But it was worth it. Memberships have increased substantially.”

HUMBLE BEGINNING

Perez’s story starts in the slums of Cali, Colombia, when the movie musical Grease came to town and inspired him to dance. Soon he was giving street performances to earn cash to help his mother get by.

As his fame spread, he was contracted to give shows at parties, then to give classes.
“I would go by this dance academy and watch the girls dance through the windows,” recalled the soft-spoken Perez, universally known as Beto. “But they would always come over and close the curtains on me, because they thought I was a Peeping Tom. Later, that same academy called me to teach lambada classes. I told them they had to give me breakfast and lunch as well as pay me.”

TAUGHT AEROBICS

Perez studied dance for four years and worked as an aerobics instructor until the day when he forgot his exercise music tape and Zumba was born. He took his act to Bogota.

“I started getting famous, and I was asked to choreograph dance routines. I did four for Shakira,” he said. “I went on promotional tours for companies like Coca-Cola and Kool. But then I realized I had gone as far as I could in Colombia, and I wanted to come to Miami.”

A U.S. embassy employee and Zumba pupil guided Perez through the visa process when she saw him waiting in line. He had previously been rejected.

It took several trips to Miami, but Perez finally landed a job at the Williams Island Spa, which was frequented by Colombians who knew Zumba from Bogota.

NEXT CROSSOVER

A class participant hooked him up with two twentysomething Colombian entrepreneurs, Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, who immediately envisioned Zumba as the next Latin crossover sensation.

“I thought that what Latin artists are doing in the music world, we could do in the fitness world,” said Perlman, president of Zumba Productions who, spurred by Zumba’s success, has formed another company, Zeta Direct, to market Latin products.

Perlman and Aghion signed a marketing deal with Fitness Quest, a fitness equipment distributor, to sell Zumba videos via 30-minute infomercial on broadcast and cable channels such as QVC. From last June to January, when the segment was taken off the air so as not to saturate the market, sales topped 300,000 units.

Zumba videos are in the works for retail and infomercial distribution.

ABOUT CHARISMA

Those involved with Zumba say its success is as much about Perez’s charisma as about the upbeat melange of salsa, merengue, calypso, cumbia and other tropical tempos.

“He’s so engaging,” said Lia Janusis, program development director for Men’s Fitness and Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines, which sponsor Zumba at promotions and events such as March’s Miami Beach Fitness Festival. “The crowd really comes alive.”

No matter that Perez’s English is bare bones at best.

“It’s all body language,” gym owner Cicale said.