Family gets others moving in quarantine through daily Zumba class

ATLANTA - One retired military family in Atlanta is taking their social distancing dancing, to the streets.

Tina Ross is a Zumba Instructor who is now hosting a Zumba class every morning at 10 a.m. Joining her, are her daughters, 6-year-old Ariah and 7-year-old Miah, falling in step every bit of the way.

Neighbors join the family in their cul-de-sac to dance while keeping six feet away from each other. And even more, people join them through their Facebook Live.

Maurice Ross, Tina’s husband, says his wife inspired him. “Even though we’re going through this pandemic, she has found a way to still reach out to people, reach out to the community, reach out to the neighborhood and keep us all safe and healthy,” he says.

So, what inspires Tina? She says she has a passion for dancing. Tina says whenever she was deployed, before retiring, she would always teach people. And even though Georgia’s shelter in place order has now expired, she doesn’t plan to stop. “As long as I’m home, I’m going to continue to teach the classes,” she says.

But despite the shelter in place order being lifted, many are still working from home. “We’ve had a couple of people that run down for their 10 o’clock break to do as much of the class as they can, and then they have to run back for a meeting,” says Maurice.

And her supporters couldn’t be happier. “If we don’t go on there, we get text messages or [Facebook] messenger messages that say ‘hey, no class today?’ And I’ll say, ‘Oh my goodness. There’s bad weather,’ or ‘I wasn’t feeling well.’ So, I didn’t realize how many people were watching,” says Tina.

But she’s not alone. Once a week, she invites a guest instructor to join her and teach. Tina says it’s one way to help give them exposure, especially while they don’t have jobs since many gyms and fitness centers are still closed.

Some might say though, Miah and Ariah are the stars of the class. Tina says people “love watching the girls because they say if the 6 and 7-year-old can do it, that they can do it too.”

Tina and Maurice say they enjoy being home and being able to spend time with their families. “Kids are resilient. As long as the parents have some type of positivity, the kids are going to grab on to that and we should really be thanking our kids for keeping us sane, even though they can be that one that makes you a little crazy,” says Tina.

While dad isn’t always joining the class, he says he believes what his wife and daughters are doing is inspiring. “I’m sitting in the house doing work for the medical community, but I can hear the music. Every once in awhile I go outside and I look and I’m like ‘wow, I’m inspired’ by what Tina is doing and what the girls are doing and keeping everybody in the community moving,” says Maurice.

The couple’s daughters say Ellen DeGeneres inspires them. “They were like ‘mom this is great! We can be like Ellen and give back to the community,” says Tina.

Here’s a message from the young girls:

You can join their class on Facebook, or watch videos on Youtube.