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Business & Tech

Great Escape: Zumba

Z Place for Fitness brings fun and tropical flavor to exercise.

I don’t know about you but I’ve about had it with gray skies, mounds of filthy snow and insults to my dignity as I slip and slide across icy patches in my driveway.

Lately my thoughts turn longingly to palm trees, the sun and cool ocean breezes caressing my skin. I’m sipping something tall and cool and somewhere in the background a samba tune plays.

Well, we all know that in Connecticut that’s just a pipe dream — except I’ve found a place right here in Newtown that brings a little of that tropical flavor home.

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Z Place for Fitness is a local studio that offers Zumba, a dance fitness program set to high-energy music with a Latin and international flavor.

The lime green, hot pink and lavender walls of the airy studio delivered an energizing jolt to my eyes, jaded from all the dull gray and mud brown that is Connecticut in February.

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Z Place for Fitness offers several morning and evening classes Monday through Friday as well as three morning classes on Saturday.

Zumba is “fun and you don’t feel like you’re exercising,” said studio owner Tammy DeMarche. “Zumba is easy to learn because it’s repetitive.”

DeMarche said she's got nearly 100 people signed up for monthly memberships and Monday's 6 p.m. class boasted a diverse mix of around 30 zumbaphiles ranging in age from high schoolers to mature moms, and also included one intrepid male student.

As class instructor Loren Levy cued up music for the class, she welcomed requests from students and even remembered some of their musical favorites from previous classes.

A month of unlimited classes will run you $59, or you can drop in and try out a class for $10.

As I tapped my foot to an African-influenced tune with a throbbing bass beat, I felt somehow lighter, and yes happier. And best of all, spring didn’t feel so far away.

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