Community Highlights: Meet Ayo & Omari Wilson of TwinZIN Fitness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ayo & Omari Wilson.

Ayo & Omari, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We stumbled upon Zumba and group fitness back in 2011 after being invited by a friend.

At first, it was a fun way to unwind after a long day of work, but it quickly became a family atmosphere with great music, fun dancing, and friendly people enjoying fitness together. Our instructors noticed us in class, and soon it became pretty common for them to designate songs for us and request we join them on stage to help lead.

After a few years, we caught the teaching bug and became licensed to teach Zumba ourselves. We still partner with our former teachers and our Zumba instructors in the area for classes and special events. We also perform in music festivals, benefits, and for environmental and climate justice conferences and summits.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve had a lot of fun along the way. Zumba is a fun activity with lots of great people, but as men, we stand out. The majority of Zumba instructors, and even more Zumba students, are women. Zumba was created and developed by three men, but there are many talented, gifted women who make it go on a daily basis.

We are members of a small community of male instructors and Zumba class goers, and we can reasonably assume that may discourage some folks from attending our classes while others may be more interested to see how different we might be as male instructors. We’ve found that most people don’t care as long as we bring them fun dance moves that provide a great workout without being too difficult.

Finding affordable class space is a regular challenge, but our biggest obstacle to date has been the coronavirus pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, we saw a drastic decrease in class attendance. After several weeks, we found it necessary to cancel in-person classes which were disappointing after having worked for several prior months building the class attendance. Invitations to teach at environmental and climate justice conferences and summits virtually inspired us to begin conducting virtual classes, which was a blessing.

From that, we now have regular students that join us from around the US, and we’ve even had a student or two from overseas. We even co-taught a virtual Zumba class with a fellow instructor from Colorado. As the pandemic has eased a bit and people are beginning to enjoy some activities again, we are back teaching in-person classes, and we also offer a virtual option so we can dance with students from wherever they are.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
TwinZIN conducts and leads group fitness classes in a spirit of solidarity, unity, and inclusiveness with a focus on cultural movement.

We teach Zumba, which is based on traditional, cultural dance and creative movement from cultures of people of color. We also focus on justice, awareness, advocacy, and action with regard to societal injustices that disproportionately affect people, oftentimes low wealth people, people of color, and children.

We welcome all skill levels, genders, and ethnicities to join us in person and virtually. We’ve taught classes from Durham, NC to Houston, TX and we are always exploring ways to reach more people in the spirit of culture, solidarity, justice, and unity.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
From the beginning, the energy in classes we attended was electrifying and inviting. We have to thank and acknowledge our first Zumba instructor Leann Oakley for introducing us to Zumba, and our second Zumba instructor Kendra Jones for giving us opportunities to lead. Fellow instructors Jenny Keegan, Jessica Mazyck, and Tracy Brewer gave us room to develop our teaching skills and connect with students. Fellow instructors PJ Rimmer, Lisa Lundy, and Kyra Timberlake have been there to collaborate, co-teach, and bring extra energy to our classes.

Anne Moorefield, Lisa Barrows, Emily Barrows, and Ashley Barrows have been friends of ours since childhood. Although they live in different states than us, they never fail to show up and support us virtually and regularly, especially throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.

We’d also like to thank Karina Azuara of 55 Nutrition Stop, Aubrey Griffith-Zill of Living Arts Collective, Murielle Elizeon, and Tommy Noonan of the Culture Mill for the physical space to share our work with the community. NC Climate Justice Collective and WE ACT for Environmental Justice deserve credit for giving us the stage to make the connection between cultural work and physical movement to the climate and environmental justice movements.

Our parents, Omega and Brenda Wilson, and our older brother, Kojo Wilson, have always been there to believe in our dreams and push us towards success. Kojo’s wife Tia is a multitalented teacher, author, chef, and entrepreneur who printed our first TwinZIN shirts seen in the pictures. And as always, we thank our students for being there and believing in what we do. The door is always open for more to join us!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @twin_zin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TWINZINZumba

Image Credits
Ayo & Omari Wilson, Kyra Timberlake, Jessica Mazyck, and Shawnta Wright