LOCAL creative Melessa Payne and some of her buddies in the entertainment world found that they missed dancing together when the pandemic started in Guyana and social distancing became the new norm. So deciding to come together and dance just for the fun of it, the friends came up with another brilliant idea.
Payne, 35, has been a dance instructor for the past eight years, teaching all types, and specializing in contemporary dance moves.

With dancing activities coming to a halt due to the pandemic, Meleesa told Buzz this week that life became hard for her and the rest of creatives in her circle. “The pandemic took away our livelihoods and so we would from time to time check up on each other. And Kelton (a friend) said we should just meet and dance. So I thought, why not include other people and have some fitness done?”

And that’s when Meleesa got Zumba Areobics and Brukwhine (ZAB) started, along with other creatives and fitness specialists Kelton Jennings, Fiano Spencer and Tristana Roberts. “We all worked at separate gyms and they were closed at the time so we thought we can put people in open spaces and help them take care of themselves,” Meleesa explained.

“Brukwhine is a Caribbean term for waistline; the way we dance and move to exercise the lower abdomen and legs, etc.,” she added when explaining why such a business name was chosen.
She and her friends have decided to use ZAB as a way to re-introduce dance. So while they are helping people to care for their physical health through exercise, they also incorporate dance into the sessions.
And this is in keeping with the slogan for their business, which is, “A happier, healthier you.” The dance instructors meet at the D’Urban Park stage in Georgetown, from Wednesday to Saturday of each week and carry out their sessions from 5 to 6:30 pm.

“Zumba is a group of dances to help people work out and keep them active. We do formulation, choreography and synchronization which are movements to help persons to remember what they have to do,” Meleesa explained.
Helping others in this way, at a minimal fee for each session, allows her and the rest of her friends to dance. “So we used ZAB to bring back dance because we missed it over the past year. We get to add a few dance moves to the exercises, so we’re having a good time with it.”

The team aims to provide a well-rounded service to participants as Spencer is the Brukwhine instructor, Meleesa is the aerobics instructor and also a nutritionist, Kelton does motivational talks and is also one of the Zumba instructors, and Roberts is a Latin Zumba instructor and does talks on mental health.
The team chooses to work with just 12 persons for a session as they want to comply with COVID restrictions. Anyone, Meleesa said, can turn up and enjoy a workout with the team.

With everything shutting down due to COVID-19, Meleesa could not carry out her usual productions, but she was still able to do some choreography for Carnival, Soca Monarch and other productions for Theatre Guild and the National Cultural Center.
She first started at the National School of Dance and then went on to other dance schools, even winning awards for her work in the arts and touring the Caribbean and USA.

Meleesa said the intention is to launch a dance company under the ZAB. “Once the pandemic is over, we can always get back to dancing. We’re never going to abandon dance,” she expressed.