Senior Caroline Loeser moves her hips to the pulsating music in a local Zumba dance class, not following an instructor’s directions, but leading the class herself.
Loeser teaches Zumba classes at Anytime Fitness in Forest Hill, Maryland. “I felt like it was a good job for me. It involved dance and the scheduling worked for me. It worked around my busy dance life. It’s a crazy, crazy life,” Loeser said.
Loeser’s dance life includes taking classes in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, tap, acrobatics, ballroom, and hip-hop. She took her first dance class when she was two years old and her mother put her in her first ballet class.
“I chose ballet over soccer. I was seven and I had to choose because I was going into the next level of dance, the competition team, and my mom was like ‘You have to choose one’ and I chose dance.” Loeser said.
Becoming a Zumba instructor added to Loeser’s dance repertoire. “My mom was researching zumba.com and she was like ‘Oh they’re coming to the Bel Air Athletic Club. You should get your Zumba instructor’s license. I was like ‘Okay, it’s a job, I need money, I’m broke.’ I hadn’t been able to get a job because I’m dancing all the time, but it’s really flexible. I work three times a week, three one hour sessions.”
Loeser got her Zumba instructor’s license on Oct. 2 at the Bel Air Athletic Club. “It was an all-day class from 9:00am-6:00pm. They talked about the four main types of Zumba: salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and merengue. It was all in one day, and in order to teach you had to get your certificate,” Loeser said.
As an instructor, Loeser can choose the music and exercises she teaches in her classes. “I teach more pop songs. I still have to have a certain amount of Zumba songs. I do a lot of Pitbull because he’s a fusion of both. I choose the songs and come up with everything myself.” Loeser said.
As of now, none of the people in her class have complained about her teaching at a young age. “Some people are kind of like ‘Whoa, you’re really young.’ People just treat it like class. It’s fun,” Loeser said.
Currently, Loeser teaches at Anytime Fitness on Wednesday from 4:00-5:00, Friday 4:30-5:30, and Sunday 11:00-12:00. JC students can receive a discount on Loeser’s Zumba class. “Anyone from John Carroll can take a class for $6 compared to a $10 class for non-John Carroll students. They just have to let me know that they are coming.”
Zumba may be taking up her work schedule right now, but in the future, Loeser wants to pursue dancing as a career. “I want to be a commercial dancer, like being in music videos, movies, and being a back-up dancer. I also want to do Broadway. And I think I want to get into acting too. I want to be the first ginger dancer-actress.”
Maggie Cassidy is the Print Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.