FITNESS FRONT by Karen Robiscoe Ms Robiscoe is a certified fitness trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and conventionally published author of short fictions, essays, and poetry. Her chapbook: Word Mosaics, is available online at Fowlpox Press. E mail Karen at chickenscratch@cox.net, or visit http://charronschatter.com
The Power of Zumba
Instructor Josette Tkacik relaxes after leading a rhythmic Zumba class at the Carrillo Rec Center in Santa Barbara
“Leave your inhibitions at the door and just have a good time,” advises Zumba leader and former professional ballet dancer Josette Tkacik as she leads her class through the steps
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he tempo of the Latin-based music is catchy; the sweat rolling down exuberant faces is tactile, and the positive energy pervading the Zumba class at the Carrillo Rec Center is as palpable as electricity. Touted as one of the largest of its kind by the home office of the Zumba Corporation, more than a hundred students gather at the Carrillo Ballroom on a Tuesday evening (as they do every weekday evening), as ready to shake their respective booties as instructor Josette Tkacik is to show them how. ”I’m not a fitness person,” Josette says as she and I settle in for a little talk. She confesses that although she’d bought numerous gym memberships over the years, she’d never actually set foot in the club. “But when I got certified in 2011 to teach Zumba,” she explains, “it resonated with me because it was dance-based. With Zumba, I remembered why I loved to dance in the first place.” A student of the art since the tender age of three, the Carpinteria resident studied classical ballet with such notable companies as New York’s Joffrey Ballet and The Metropolitan Ballet of St. Louis, ultimately becoming a company dancer for the latter. A veteran teacher of technique and ballet, the native New Yorker and one-time board member for the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance also spent a summer at New York’s prestigious performing arts conservatory Juilliard, learning the fundamentals of jazz, hip-hop, tap dancing, and musical theater. An impressive foundation she weaves 1 – 8 June 2017
into every class. Josette says one of the things she likes best about teaching dance is the freedom it offers, the ability to make what she knows accessible to everyone. “My oldest student is eightynine years old,” she boasts, “and my youngest is twelve, so the reach, the ability to enable so many different people to experience that... that’s the freedom.” She passionately believes Zumba is something she had been waiting for her whole life. It’s a passion she communicates to her devoted following. Throughout the hourlong class that intersperses squats and high knees, lunges and twerking with dance moves from Merengue, HipHop, Salsa, Cumbia, and Reggaeton, the smiles creasing among faces in the crowd are contagious. “I like this class because I don’t feel self-conscious at all, and that makes me enjoy it a lot more,” Ekta Prashiani, a Ph.D. student at UCSB, says. “I just smile at everyone I see, and they smile back. Everybody is very friendly.” “The power of the group makes it special,” Lisa Star adds. “So many people doing something together; it makes me feel like a teenager again... I think people rise to [Josette’s] energy level, too. It brings out their best. For me, I love being surrounded by women... a massive crowd of women doing what we do best.” She points out that there are “a handful of men in every class,” but the class attracts mostly women. “I’m here three times a week, and I feel twenty years younger,” Lisa adds.
I speak with some of the “handful of men” Lisa mentions, and discover the enthusiasm for the class crosses all gender barriers. “It’s been more than four years since I started coming,” local construction worker Mauricio Castaneda says. “Everything about this class is fun. Josette is the best teacher.” He then reveals that he’s lost 40 pounds since he began attending. “I wish I could come more often than once a week,” DJ Wetmore told me. “Josette has a way of making everyone feel welcome. The focus isn’t on making sure you do it right, the focus is on being out there, dancing and having a great time. Everyone is smiling; you feel like a million bucks during the class.”
Not Always So Healthy Josette’s success is especially remarkable when you consider the life-changing medical diagnosis she was dealt in 2011, just a month after earning her Zumba certification. As candid about her medical woes as she is about more light-hearted topics, her story is inspiring. She was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis in 2011. “It hit me pretty bad in my knees and my ankles,” she recounts. “It was so debilitating, I literally had to use a walker to get around. And painful. I would give birth five times over rather than have this disease.” Rheumatoid arthritis is a progres-
sive autoimmune affliction that systematically breaks down the joints. “The doctors prescribed all kinds of drugs, of course, including steroids and chemotherapy,” she says, “but they couldn’t tell me what was causing it, and I just couldn’t accept that.” Her son, she says, was the reason she resisted the diagnosis and fought so hard to overcome the disease. “I knew he was counting on me,” she says, “and these drugs weren’t going to solve anything, [they] just put a Band-Aid on things. I wanted to be able to play with him, take him to the park, and that desire led me to finding a cure, a way out.” She changed to a raw and vegan diet, did some internal shifting, examined her thought patterns, and re-evaluated her lifestyle choices. Josette is both pensive and grateful as she concludes recounting her unlikely physical comeback. “The power of positive thinking became the catalyst that shifted everything. I’m convinced of it,” she says. “I could eat vegan and raw and do all that, but if I hadn’t changed the way I was thinking, I don’t think I would have been able to beat [it].” She says she knew within a year that it was gone, or at least in remission, and in 2016, Dr. Kathryn Brewer, of the Santa Ynez tribal clinic, confirmed it. “She ran a slew of blood tests,” Josette reports, “and every single test came back negative.” Perhaps gratitude for her recovery is what makes the teacher so generous in volunteering her time to local causes and non-profit institutions. Voted a community hero by the Santa Barbara Independent in 2015, Josette’s outreach includes the Santa Barbara Dance Institute, Santa Barbara Dance Works, the American Heart Association, the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara, and the United Way. Whether fundraising, instructing, or dancing, Josette is a big presence for all these charities. Hers is a presence that can’t be captured in words. Check out her class yourself and experience the magic. Held weekdays at 5:30 pm, and Saturdays at 11:15 am, Josette recommends you “leave your inhibitions at the door and just have a good time.” I guarantee you will. For more information, visit: www.josettetkacik. com. •MJ
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