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Celebrity fitness trainer, "Beto" Perez,
stumbled upon the concept of Latin inspired fitness in his native
country of Colombia (South America) in the mid 1990's. One day, he
walked into his class and realized that he had forgotten his
aerobics music, and his only option was to grab whatever tapes he
had in his car. Beto’s tapes were comprised of the songs that he
loved, the traditional Latin salsa and merengue music with which he
had been raised. But it was a challenge to improvise a whole class
on the spot using non-traditional aerobics music. Beto rose to the
challenge and from this last-minute improvisation was born a
revolutionary fitness program – Zumba! The class soon became the
most popular class at his fitness facility.
In 1999, after his success in Colombia, Beto brought the class to
the United States, where he was approached by entrepreneurs Alberto
Perlman and Alberto Aghion to create a global company based on the
Zumba fitness philosophy. The three young entrepreneurs then set a
goal to offer Zumba classes all over the world.
In 2004, Zumba launched a successful infomercial campaign in Spanish
for the US Hispanic market and Latin America, increasing sales to
more than 2.5 million DVD’s in over 30 countries.
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