Dancing for pure pleasure

While we attend one of his classes, we run along his story marked by triumph.

 

7:25 in the morning. The class doesn’t start yet. They’re just some dudes who use the machines room at the gym. Mrs. Cruz “Cucha” Castillo begins to putt he steps waiting for the pupils (more female, actually) of every morning. The sound equipment is tuned on a local station broadcasting some music and news while the Sun strains through the windows. It’s Rosmy Gym, in Jardin, West Sullana City, Peru, and everybody is waiting for Cristian reyes, the aerobics trainer who is going to give his first class of the day.

 

The life between his birthday, an August 29^th, 1984, in Sullana City (Peru), and just after he turned 14 years old was like another boy else’s. That day, a gym’s trainer saw him to dance and left surprised. The offer was direct: “Are you interested to dance in my gym?” Cristian tells he responded affirmatively. Since then, all has been different. He engaged to the world of gyms and perfectionated his talent. He presented in many events and he ever got the first places.

 

Cristian has come in. Everybody comes into the aerobics room of the gym. The music starts to play. He says it’s mixed right for the classes. It starts breathing – gotta begin puffing up the lungs because this is all about. What few realizes is the music beat is synchronized to the same rhythm of heart beats.

 

The aerobic looksfor improving the blood stream and the breathing. Also, it allows to eliminate fat and toxins effectively if it’s done constantly and sustainibily. Cristian begins a basic in front of the step. Till here, the stuff is pretty simple – just go up, go down, and eventually flex. The idea is doing it at the music rhythm.

 

The big opportunity came in his 20 years old. Cristian was delegate to a national dance contest and he didn’t deceived. He faced contenders from around the nation and came back to Sullana with the title in his hand. In that moment, he wasn’t only working out in dance but he was involved in aerobics. Some of his female pupils got fascinating for evident achievements: wweight control, agility.

 

“You feel Good whehn the people begins to mention the things you wan, what you work in,” he comments. The speaker drowns Cristian’s voice while he tries to explain us what the next move to be. Matter of coordination. The aerobics test our synapses purposed to match taking the right step in the right time, and over all keeping harmony with the rest of the group. Collective work, too.

 

The music has the cadence of the techno sequencer but it’s heard crossovers suddenly with pop, rock, latin pop, merengue, elegant huayno, and even saya. “It’s the new trend – it’s about full-body,” hhe will explain us later. It’s the hald of the class and the effects begin to feel including the loading sweat, some tireness and thirst, but gotta hold on. At least the ones in the first row of steps seem not to spend too bad.

 

It’s not a casuality that Sullana gets achievements. “It’s a level better inclusive than Piura [City],” Cristian states. He’s not a pioneer on the issue but he’s one of the more enthusiastic, actually. That’s why he tries not to lose a chance to dance, or like he does now, teaching others to do it.

 

He has got many recognizements for having to train children, mainly, from different schools in Sullana. “What we need is supporting,” he says. “It’s not like other countries where that support is actually given.” And although he recognizes there are more professionals on the field everytime else, he feels the opportunities are not easy where the hand to reach.

 

50 minutes since the class started have already passed. One another has deserted. We breathe again, stretch. Five minutes of that. Cristian claps addressing the pupils (more females than males, we agree) of that day, marking the class is over. Some still will stay to work out waist. If it’s Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, Cristian will continue a machines routine.

 

The day just began. He has many things to do, and still coming back to the gym for the class with the afternoon group. Possibly, there would be a presentation on weekend, or he will spend with his family for good.

 

The day that Jardin Urbanization’s Association of Young Residents in sullana held a seminar with students of the last year of high-school at INIF 48 School, Cristian was there. His mission was getting about 150 girls move to the batuca rhythm, with the help of some guys of the association. Everybody moved… well, almost everybody, because the school’s principal and some teachers only looked at in the background.

 

Other talent this boy has hidden is a good voice for singing. “But he only sings for me in special occasions,” Mrs. Castillo kids. No way, the guy is quite shy although the stage is not an unknown land to him. Anyway, he is a winner, and who wins something ever expects something much greater. And for the record, when somebody asks him why he does all this, he only has one answer: “Because I like.”