With the New Year upon us, Pace students hit the gym to pursue their various New Year resolutions. However, some students may find themselves bored with the same routine of treadmills and weights. To those students for whom the Fitness Room is not cutting it, or who have Tuesday’s afternoons free, Zumba in the Goldstein Fitness Center’s Aerobic Room is perfect.

For students who worry about dancing skills or lack thereof, the class is not too challenging.

Zumba instructor Joann Hamilton, who faces students while students face one of the mirrors in the room, demonstrates all dances. If Hamilton notices any confused looks, she occasionally pauses the song to demonstrate the specific move until everyone feels comfortable or faces the same direction as students for easier mimicking of the move.

Additionally, students may even find some dances humorous as they dance side to side while slapping their thighs to Meghan Trainor’s “Lips are Movin.”

As opposed to many paid gyms that offer various levels of Zumba, Pace’s level stays quite consistent. The hour-long sessions begin with two or three warm up songs, followed by 30 minutes or so of upbeat and quick songs to make students sweat, and then ends with a cool down song.

“It was a harder work out than I expected,” freshman nursing major Aliya Harris said, but found that the steps were fairly easy to follow thanks to Hamilton’s demos.

The Aerobics Room has been quite packed with more than 15 students at the sessions since class began two weeks ago; however, the class tends to slim down mid-semester for anyone looking for a more intimate experience. Freshman nursing major Kirstin Capasso, who took Zumba previously outside Pace, explained that she found her first Pace Zumba class extremely fun and would encourage her “squad to come next time.”

Zumba is an exercise-dance style created by Alberto ‘Beto’ Perez in the 1990s, according to the Women’s Fitness Clubs of Canada (WFCC). The classes were brought over from Colombia to Miami, FL in 2001, where it spread across the country. Around the globe, over 180 countries offer Zumba classes with more than 15 million participants, according to the official Zumba website.

The main dance styles are merengue, salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton, wrote New York instructor Jennifer Lauren in her Dec. 2015 post to the official Zumba blog, Zlife.

Pace’s Zumba class is no exception.

Students find themselves dancing the cha-cha for one song and then squatting with the next. The dance routines’ music varies from Latin pop like Enrique Iglesias to old school rock and roll like Elvis Presley to keep the routines different and fresh.

Hamilton began teaching Zumba over five years ago as a change from kickboxing, which she has taught for 17 years.

“Zumba is my new baby,” Hamilton said.

She brings in new routines from various sources, including the Zumba classes that she participates in outside of Pace.

Anyone interested in taking a Zumba class can go to the classes on Tuesdays from 5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. in the Aerobics Room, or check out the Goldstein Fitness Center’s home page on Paceuathletics.com