LAUREN CARR
ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
If you are looking to burn away all of your holiday weight next semester, a new fitness class called Kazaxe may be the one for you.
The class is a much more intense form of Zumba and is a nonstop hour of focusing on your core and toning zones. While Zumba is known for more for its choreographed songs that can be repetitive, Kazaxe offers a wider variety of songs and moves that will leave people wanting to try them again.
“There are certain songs that are branded by Zumba, and we do not use those,” Quadrangle Production Editor and Kazaxe Instructor Luke Hartman said. “Any Kazaxe song that is considered a top 40 song, it is always sped up. We make the song faster so we can really maximize the moves.”
If the term Kazaxe does not sound at all familiar to you, it’s because it’s only in Springfield, Virginia where Hartman is from. A woman named Azuka Bom was involved with the Zumba organization. She was one of the original Zumba instructors and was in the early DVDs.
One day she decided to try her own choreography, and then after that she decided to try a different class on her own. She began to teach classes in her basement that simply grew by word of mouth, and then more and more people started showing up. She moved into gyms and hundreds of people began showing up. The movement grew rapidly, and with that Kazaxe was born.
Hartman took the classes at home and wanted someone to share his new discovery with. Enter Michelle Beltron, who Hartman met during a Zumba class last semester. As the two began talking, Beltron told him she was a Zumba instructor and Hartman told her about Kazaxe.
“We tried one day of dance together, and it was amazing,” Beltron said. “We absolutely loved it.”
After that day the two decided to start a class together. What is hard about Kazaxe is that it is nonstop. The instructor is constantly moving and they can wear themself out.
“If you have two instructors doing it you can play off each other’s energy, give each other breaks, and learn different styles of how other people do it,” Hartman said.
Michelle focuses more on Latino and Hispanic movements, while Hartman is more ‘Island’. The two are able to offer their class in a good mix of new and different styles, which always leaves their students on their toes.
Next semester Kazaxe will be losing one of their instructors as Hartman is studying abroad. Beltron is hoping to expand the class, and add new and exciting music for her students while Hartman is away.
If you want to try and burn away your finals anxiety early, Kazaxe will have their last class of the semester tonight (December 3) in the mini gym in Alumni Hall at 9:15 p.m.