Just have fun with it: Counter-normative instructor strategies in Zumba fitness classes

• In Event: 4154 - Gender Relations in Contemporary Sport

Abstract

Adding to the scholarly discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of women’s participation in group fitness, this paper examines instructor practices in Zumba, a dance-fitness program. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of technologies of the self and prior research documenting participants’ positive experiences of Zumba, we consider Zumba instructors’ counter-normative techniques as potential practices of freedom. We find that the strategies address the perceived shortcomings of exercise, making for a more positive experience of the activity and providing a genuine sense of joy among participants. However, the strategies were not accompanied by critical analysis on the part of either participants or instructors and do not challenge or transform broader power relations.

Authors

• Tanya A. Nieri, University of CA, Riverside

• Elizabeth Hughes