Hi I’m Imogen, the founder of Zumba NXG 🙂

I discovered Zumba at a time in my life when everything was feeling grey and I couldn’t imagine a time that it would ever stop feeling like that. The passion I had always had for dance (which had always been like therapy for me) had started to wane and I was miserable. I was coming to the end of 3 years of professional dance training and my body was sore, I was feeling inadequate and I was sick of the serious, critical atmosphere of professional classes and arty contemporary dance works. Where was the feeling of freedom, expression and connection which I used to love about dancing? I had to take a break from it.

When I returned to classes I vowed to only go to FUN ones which made me feel good. Zumba was one of them. I loved it: the cheesiness, cheeriness, how out of breath and sweaty it gets you from simple routines, how fun the moves are, the high of endorphins afterwards. The music reminded me of the time I spent in Central America, dancing to reggaeton in sweaty bars, drinking Cuba Libres. It was the perfect medicine.

At first teaching Zumba felt a bit like a holiday, like a break from the grey part of my soul that I wanted to escape from.

But I soon realised I how wonderful sharing dance with others was: helping them to find a spark of joy in themselves and seeing that rapture of moving your body to a beat. Teaching has shone a light in my heart that is so bright that it has created a new dream: a desire to bring a joy of moving and feeling the music to as many people as possible. Now my soul isn’t grey and I don’t need to escape it anymore. I’ve let go of one dream and discovered a bigger, better, shinier one.

Helping other people to find their fire again is my biggest driver for doing what I do. I want to people become happier and healthier in body, mind and soul. I KNOW that moving to music has the power to do this. The longer I am in the industry for, the more I am learning about this power and the more I love learning about it.

My classes aren’t about being the best dancer or getting the moves right. They’re about letting loose, freedom, feeling the beat, sweating, the rush of endorphins, laughing with your friends, flying with the energy of the group, being silly, feeling sexy, empowering women and above all: FUN.