A mixture of Latin and international dances, “zumba” is said to be a great workout that is also fun, and now it’s a class offered at Porterville’s In-Shape City gym.

“Zumba right now is the hottest class around the world,” Group X team manager and class instructor Rossie Ballard said.

The class started July 2, and is offered at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday.

Ballard said the dance/workout class was brought to Porterville because they want to promote more aerobics in the community. Other aerobics classes, such as Yoga, are offered from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

According to In-Shape sales manager Michelle Bohman, this is the first time the gym has had a class like this.

“We have so much demand that we’ll defiantly have more,” Bohman said.

Ballard said that the first class brought in about 75 people, because it was open to the public, including non-members. Now the class brings about 50 to 60 people, on average, she said. 

The class was originally supposed to run for six weeks, until Aug. 5. Now, because of the success of the class, Ballard said, the class will continued after the six week period — for as long as the class still has several participants.

Teresa Sorensen, GX instructor from Visalia and co-instructor for Porterville, said that she really loves being an instructor for the zumba class.

“It’s so fun and you burn so many calories having a good time,” Sorensen said. “People always like the music. Some of the people come up to us and ask us where we got that song.”

Sorensen said when the class was only offered in Visalia, some gym members from Porterville would drive all the way to Visalia just so they could participate.

Lorena Torres, 27, has been attending the class for several weeks, and she said she will continue every week as long as they have it.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “I’m in love with it.”

It was 29-year-old Rebecca Garzon’s first time attending the Zumba class. She said she had a lot of fun and that she would definitely recommend the class to someone else.

“It makes exercise like, so much easier.” Garzon said. “Hopefully they keep the classes, because I definitely want to come back.

(See video of Zumba workout in column to the left)