Daughter takes on Zumba® to get herself, mother healthier

TAHLEQUAH – It’s 5:15 p.m. and Angie Cone, Cherokee, is alone at the front of the room. Dressed in an intense shade of red-orange, her workout clothes are color coordinated all the way down to her socks and sneakers. She’s standing at the stereo, shuffling through her playlist and warming up with some stretches.

Women make their way into the cardio room at Markoma, the gym owned and operated by the Cherokee Nation. A few are walking into Cone’s Zumba class for the first time.

As she steps in front of the group, she asks, “Anyone here new to Zumba®?” and a few hands tentatively go up.

The room is brightly lit and flanked by floor-to-ceiling mirrors at both ends. Class regulars claim their spots, creating ordered ranks for the newcomers to insinuate themselves into a spot of their own.

Cone assures everyone that it’s normal to feel awkward at first – especially when confronted by the huge mirrors and learning something new. She tells them it takes at least two to three classes to feel like you know what you’re doing.

“Just ask Cheryl,” she says, pointing to woman stationed front and center who’s wearing a headband and a big smile. “Cheryl is the class president,” Cone jokes.

“I’ve heard people say my class is hard,” she adds. “Just do what you can do. My mom is back there in the back row. Just do what she does. She lasts the whole hour.”

Cone’s mother, Debra Johnston is in the back corner furthest away from the door. She’s strategically positioned in front of the room’s single wall mounted fan. It’s not her first rodeo.

It’s all business once the music starts and Cheryl is the only one still smiling. A warm-up routine gradually accelerates until most in the room are breathing a little heavy and have a worked up a light sweat. Then come the squats, jumping jacks and crunches.

The routines are a blend of dance and calisthenics performed to Cone’s personal blend of catchy popular tunes from artists like J-Lo, Jay-Z and Meghan Trainor. She’s also mixed in some Christian rap and A Tribe Called Red’s ‘Electric Powwow’.

Cone calls out the moves two beats ahead and gestures directional prompts, helping everyone keep up. Every set is done in counts of two, four or eight.

During a particularly challenging squat-filled routine, she yells out, “Your legs should be on fire!” Many nod as they grimace through the song blaring over the speakers. Cheryl smiles and squats a little lower.

At the end of the hour, the women wipe their brows, grab their water bottles and promise to see each other next time.

Azar Rahmani, a front-row regular, owns Azar’s Mediterranean Kitchen in Tahlequah’s “North End” near the Northeastern State University campus and helps out in another restaurant owned by her husband.

“I stand on my feet all day. It makes me feel good to move,” she said. “It makes me stronger.”

One woman in class said since she’s been doing Zumba®, she can eat whatever she likes.

It’s all the calories you burn. According to Harvard Health Publications, you can burn 360 to 532 calories an hour of just dancing fast. Cone’s heart rate monitor and calorie tracker puts her hour-long total consistently between 900-1,000 calories.

“With Zumba® , you burn a lot of extra calories compared to a steady-state exercise like jogging,” stated Dr. John P. Porcari, Ph.D., the American Council on Exercise.

For Cone, Zumba® was a way to bust through a diet plateau and do something empowering for herself.

“I’ve always been kind of fitness minded and then you’d hit a plateau and just nothing works anymore. I saw it [Zumba®] advertised on TV and said to her [Johnston], we should do that but she didn’t want to do it,” she said.

“We would go to the gym and I’d use the elliptical machine and the treadmill and a little bit of weights and stuff. But I could never get out of that plateau.”

Not to be deterred, Cone pitched in with some co-workers to buy the Zumba® DVD set to exercise to at work. But it just wasn’t the same as being in a live class.

“I thought they looked like they were having fun and they weren’t in agony,” Cone said.

Zumba® is marketed as “exercise in disguise” for a reason.

“This is the first thing that I’ve done that you’re getting a total body workout and you don’t even realize it,” she said.

Cone started out taking classes herself at Markoma with instructor Tonya Wapskineh, who currently leads classes Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 p.m. on the gym floor.

“At first it’s intimidating.  We [she and her mother] were out there on the floor thinking ‘this is embarrassing, I don’t think I can do it,’” Cone said. However, she said, “once everything starts, you just forget and you just do it.”

From this experience, she knows what it’s like as a beginner and trying to fit in.

“When we first started, it was brutal, because everybody had their own spot to stand. We’d get there like 45 to 30 minutes early. We’d get in a little workout beforehand but we’d make sure we were up there in that room in our spot ready to go when class started,” Cone said with a laugh. “If you got our spot, we’d just look at you like, ‘I don’t know, you’re going to have to move…’” she shook her head ruefully and laughed.

Respecting each other’s ‘spot’ is unspoken Zumba® etiquette.

“It’s like at church, you know. These people are really nice until you get in their pew,” Johnston said. “Then they’re not that nice!”

“I was one of those people. That was my spot. Every time I made sure I got that spot. If for some reason somebody beat me there, which was very rare, I would be so frustrated the whole time. I’d show up ready and in the groove and somebody would be in my spot and they’re not going to move and if I say something I’m going to come across rude, but I want my spot!” Cone said.

The “Zumba® Spot” may be something the pair laughs about, but Johnston’s diabetes was not. Cone decided she had to get her mom to exercise more - even if it meant teaching a class herself.

“I started out just substituting for Tonya,” she said.

However, to teach a Zumba® class, the company requires instructors to be trained and certified through them. Cone did the all-day training and said students are taught not only how to perform the basic steps and develop a class, but also how to make teaching Zumba® a business.

“I didn’t want to make it a business. But I knew what it did for me and I saw how it changed other people’s lives so maybe I could do that. Maybe if I taught, my mom would want to come.”

And her mom did come. She needed to exercise more, or at least differently. She was struggling to manage her diabetes.

“My numbers got better right after I first started. I started losing weight and getting toned. I’ve lost 40 pounds, or something like that, so far,” Johnston said.

Through teaching Zumba®, Cone has helped not only her mother but countless other women in the Cherokee Nation get more fit and have fun doing it.

“At least within a month, I can see a difference in them. They’re standing up taller, they’re happy to be there, they want to be there, they can feel a difference. They’re telling me after class that now they can do this or they’ve done that,” she said.

Her mother is her biggest fan.

“It’s just fun. You feel like you’re just dancing. Remember your clubbing days? That’s what you’re doing out there. You’re just shaking and twisting and it’s fun,” Johnston said.

Cone said she tries to make it fun.

“I try to keep it pretty simple,” she said. “I feel that if I can’t do it, that I can’t teach you anything. My main focus is that you are moving and having fun - because if you’re not having fun, you’re not coming back,” she said.

Just stay out of Johnston’s spot.


– Markoma Gym is located at 1501 Graham Ave., Tahlequah. To join the class, you must have a Markoma Gym membership or pay a $5 one day gym pass.

– In addition to teaching two classes at Markoma, Cone leads a class at Surefire Fitness in Stilwell once a week. Surefire is at 106 West Division, Stilwell. For more information, email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you aren’t in the Tahlequah or Stilwell area, find a Zumba® class near you by visiting www.zumba.com.