Sweat and tears for Franco

When you walk into Virgin Active Ballito and follow the Latin American beat, it will take you to a class filled with glowing ladies following the stimulating moves of “the guy in the green shorts”.

Franco Human is the man with the addictive enthusiasm for Zumba.

“I just do Zumba for fun – it is my little passion,” said Human, who is actually the campus dean and COO of the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA) in Durban.

“I used to be fat. One day, while sitting in my backyard (which was in Cape Town at the time), drinking cosmos and smoking, I realised I could not continue like this.”

He started to eat better, went to the gym, read everything he could find about being healthy and lost about 30 kilograms.

“Knowing that I needed to burn more calories in a day than I put in made me realise cardio was the solution. I did a morning session at 5am and a second session after work. Everyday.”

Treadmills soon bored the energetic, driven former dancer and a friend suggested he try a Zumba class.

“I hated it! The instructor did all of these belly dance moves, which I could not do and I did not break a sweat, which is not a workout!”

He signed up for a V-dance class at another gym. As it was about to start, the instructor announced that it was being changed to a Zumba class.

“The only other guy in the class ran out the door, but I was stuck right in the corner and had to go through with it. I stayed, I sweated and I loved it,”

Addicted from that moment on, Human went on to train and qualify in just about every type of Zumba from aqua to wheelchair and has been an inspiring instructor for the past seven years.

Not long after he started working as a Zumba instructor, he was invited to show off his skills at the Expresso Show on SABC3 and became known as “the guy in the green shorts” in 2011.

“The first person to greet me at the Expresso set was Dr Michael Mol. I melted when he shook my hand.

“On one particular show, Dr Mol linked out of a debt insert we were doing with “if Franco could get himself out of debt, maybe he could buy himself another pair of shorts and not wear just the same green shorts all the time.” After that, “the guy in the green shorts” stuck and that became my brand.”

Human, who has lived on the Dolphin Coast since 2013, is moving back to Cape Town and held a two-hour Zumbathon farewell raising money for the North Coast Courier Orphan Fund.

“I chose the Orphan Fund, because the North Coast has been so good to me and I have always had a soft spot for orphans. I am still waiting for the last EFT’s to come through, but so far we have raised about R3000 from the Zumbathon.”

>>> Meet the top players in the North Coast property industry. See our Property People feature.

>>> Looking for a church? Check out our Churches on the North Coast feature. 

Do you want to receive news alerts via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 061 718 4438.

Please read our WhatsApp broadcast list disclaimer.
Join us on BBM at 59015786
Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram