Antonio Garreton always seems to be smiling and exuding some kind of energy. He even maintains bright eyes when he recalls a “rough childhood” in his native Peru.

“My parents wanted the best for me, but we didn’t have much money,” he recalled recently.

Fast forward to 2009. Garreton has established himself in Mid-coast Maine as the gregarious face of a certain Latin exercise/dance sensation, and he’s planning to boogie for 90 minutes during a June 20 fundraiser for the Bath-based Children’s Schoolhouse.

Dancing is known to be a great workout, but trying to remember all the different steps can be tough. We continue our Fit at Five series with a dance workout where it's not about being perfect, but more about letting loose and having fun.

With his 15 Fiestas (parties) a week, Latin Native Antonio (Tony) Garreton is the talk of the Midcoast. For one hour, Garreton wants his students to forget everything going on around them and enjoy themselves.

He plays the stereo, and once the Latin rhythms begin, Antonio starts to swivel across the exercise room taking him back to his Latin roots. His knees swing side-to-side and his hips back and forth, salsa-style. With eyes flashing, his hands fly into the air, as if to say "Ay que rico!"

Zumba.

Even the name is a kick. Which is appropriate, given how much fun I had at Thursday night's class.

The Latin-dance inspired workout was imported from Colombia in 1999, the innovation of fitness trainer Beto Perez, who'd forgotten his workout tapes for class. In a pinch, he grabbed some tapes from his car and improvised.

The result is an energizing cardio workout that combines choreography with camaraderie. How obvious is the camaraderie? Women were hooting, clapping and sending Latin trills to one another throughout the entire class.

BATH – “Are you ready for Shakira?” Antonio Garreton called out to the crew of women lined along the dance floor before him.

The response was silence, and Garreton – sporting a black muscle shirt that read “Born to Zumba” – hit play on the stereo and took his initially unsure students through a routine that blended dancing with a vigorous aerobic workout. His enthusiasm was soon met with smiles.

Sure, they were ready.

Peru-born Garreton, who has spent half his 40 years in the U.S. and now his third year in Maine, is one of four Zumba ME! instructors around the state who are bringing the dance’s mix of Latin and international music and fitness system to dancers and non-dancers of all ages, men and women alike.

SALEM - Deb Gillooly led two dozen women through a lively regimen of slide steps, arm pumps, knee bends, pelvic thrusts, and shoulder shrugs, all to the pulsing beat of songs such as Zona Prieta's "Nena Bonita" and Wisin Y Yandel's "Llame Pa' Verte."

"Use your abs!" exhorted Gillooly, though it was hard to identify any muscle group not in use during the nearly nonstop 45-minute workout at Gold's Gym. The smiles - and beads of sweat - on the women's faces spoke for themselves.

"It's just more fun than other workouts I've done," said Barbara Rafuse, 52, after the session had ended. "At my age, there's less stress on the joints than with something like cardio kickboxing. The music really gets you going, too."

MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- For those who love to dance but aren't big fans of exercise, McChord's Fitness Center has the perfect solution -- Zumba class. Zumba offers people the chance to
learn basic salsa dance moves while getting a good cardiovascular workout, said Charlotte Smith, one of the
instructors.

"It's mostly upbeat, energetic Latin dance aerobics," Ms. Smith said. "The Cha-Cha, the Mambo, the Samba
and salsa ... we're going to do a variety of dances and you don't even need a partner."

The class combines Salsa music, reggae tone and Latin hip hop styles of music with a variety of basic Latin
dance moves.

DAYTON, Ohio — The security guards at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base were more than a little curious. A package-delivery truck sitting on the edge of a base parking lot was shaking violently. Warily approaching, the MPs found 35-year-old driver Doug Jones inside _ shirtless, sweating and exercising to Latin music pulsing through the vehicle. Jones, on his lunch hour, was practicing Zumba _ a brassy, high-octane, Colombian-born dance-aerobics workout that he teaches.

"It's a party," Jones said in trying to describe Zumba (pronounced ZOOM-buh), which is Colombian slang for "fast." "It emulates being in a nightclub without the drinking, the smoking, the bad pickup lines."

The exercise gained a toehold in Miami in 1999 and has spread its international rhythms and flamenco footwork around the country. Studios devoted to the craze are now opening.

Take salsa, cha cha, samba, tango, merengue, and hints of flamenco, calypso, hip-hop and belly dancing, put in a workout routine and you have Zumba! The name means to move fast and have fun, and there's no doubt that describes today's hottest fitness phenomenon to a Z! Adding to the appeal: The total-body workout burns up to 500 calories per hour-long class. "Plus, it makes you feel sexy!" says Meg Jordan, Ph.D., R.N., author of The Fitness Instinct.

This dance-sculpting-combo class set to Latin, African, Arabic, and Hindu music is steaming things up at all the major health-club chains. so I had to see if it was worth an hour of my workout time. It wasn't quite the "time of my life" promised by instructor Amber Susa at Crunch LA. But the fun, high-energy tunes and all that booty-shaking definitely put Zumba among the most ent.ertaining classes I've ever taken.

Even with my two left feet, I found the salsa steps pretty easy. though I got a little lost as the Latin music sped up and we started mo\-ing our arms up and down. disco-style. The high-rep ab-and-stretch session at the end of class was more familiar territory: We did traditional mat moves like crunches and bicycles. Overall, I dug the double dose of calorie-burning and body-sculpting. but it'll probably take two or three more classes for me to get comfortable with all the dance moves.