Zumba dancers banned from community center for being 'too fat'

Members of a fitness class have hit back after being kicked out of a community center because some of them are ‘too fat’. Those attending the Zumba lessons at the Addison Center in Kempston on a Monday night have been told they can no longer have them because of damage to the floor. But Rosa Cristini, who has been running the classes for up to 130 people for the last nine months, said she hasn’t had any concrete evidence to say it was caused by her Zumba classes.

She said: “I got a phone call from a member of the committee who runs the center on March 14 to say that I couldn’t run the class that evening. Apparently the floor has shifted and they said they had experts in although they haven’t given me a copy of the report.” Zumba – a Latin inspired dance/fitness program has become popular recently with people who want to keep fit and tone up. On Monday, she met with three members of the committee and claims one of them said that the reason for the floor moving was because some individuals were ‘overweight’.

She added: “There’s probably only a handful of people who are overweight and the thing is some people come to lose a bit of weight. I did say to the committee that it’s for a dance/fitness class.” Kathryn Martin-Harris, 34, from Kempston, has been going for around a month to try to lose a bit of baby weight after having two children.

She said: “We were told it was because we were too fat. I could do with losing a bit of weight but I’m not obese. That’s why I was going to Zumba in the first place, though. I’m probably about a size 16 but there are women bigger and smaller and even some children there. Everyone was so shocked and unhappy about it. I cannot believe that a community center could come up with something like that.”