By Joel B. Belinan
Zumba Dance which took the fitness industry by storm some 16 years ago the world over seems to be invading the political arena both at the national and local levels. This is very evident with major parties and candidates in the City of Baguio taking turns conducting free Zumba dance workouts since the election fever started. This started through the generosity of the group of Zumba instructors who on March 20 conducted a Free Zumba Dance at Burnham Park for Atty. Mauricio G. Domogan, now leading in the race for the Baguio City mayorship. Domogan who is now aged 76 gamely joined the dance workout to the delight of the participants numbering a couple of hundreds, proving that indeed he remains healthy and strong.
And through social media, this event attracted a massive attention from the public or specifically the fitness buffs knowing that Zumba dance fitness is one of the more wholesome kind of workout. It is one of the easier types of workouts for almost all ages. It is done through various dance steps that had been making Burnham Park and other parks lively during the early hours of the day. After the March 20 event, Domogan received a couple of invitations from barangay-based early morning Zumba dance workout groups, particularly those of barangays Hillside and Aurora Hill which he happily attended. It was the kind of event for Domogan to show the people that his critics’ attacks on his age are wrong.
Other political groups saw this gimmick and immediately followed suit. The Magalong group on March 27 performed their own Zumba fitness workout just before they held their proclamation rally at the Melvin Jones football field. After which other candidates followed the example by sponsoring their own Zumba events, particularly vice mayoralty candidate Joel Alangsab and candidate for councilor Ryan Mang-usan. Then came the biggest Zumba event which again was organized by Zumba instructors supporting the mayoralty bid of former mayor and congressman Mauricio Domogan on April 2. This time though, Domogan brought all the other candidates in his team. As in any campaign sorty, Team Domogan had a heyday dancing together with more than 1200 participants. Again during the Team Domogan proclamation rally at the Melvin Jones football field last April 9 (Saturday), a pre-rally Zumba was held with at least 400 participants.
With these events flooding social media, the Zumba fever continues to heat up. To the delight of the Zumba instructors, they kept on receiving requests from candidates to sponsor free Zumba dance workouts.
At the national level, Inday Sara who is leading the vice presidential race sponsored a free Zumba workout last Tuesday at Burnham Park, of course, through her coordinators in the city. Browsing my favorite social media platform, the vice-presidential candidacy team of Senate President Tito Sotto has been sponsoring Free Zumba workouts in various parks in Metro Manila with celebrities leading these. A couple of other national candidates too had been doing the same.
The question is whether Zumba dance workouts in political activities is good. For me it is very good. It is in the sense that Zumba dance workouts have been proven to be a very good form of exercise and those politicians sponsoring massive Zumba events would benefit many people. Furthermore, it will surely enhance the consciousness of people on the importance of regular exercise, and hopefully, the majority of those that participated in those Zumba events would sustain their workouts. On the part of the instructors, in one way or another, they are getting bigger collections from their daily Zumba workouts at the parks as their participants have been increasing. Unfortunately, while I was the coordinator of the two Zumba dance workouts conducted for the Team Domogan, and the one for Inday Sara, I could not join in the actual dance. I may have been born with two left feet, or is it two right feet? Thus I was contented just watching them do their various dance moves.
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