Shizuka Jacobo

Shizuka Jacobo has been dancing since she was 4 when she began studying ballet in Tokyo Japan, where she was born. She moved to the United States when she was 5 where she continued to study ballet and modern dance until she was 18. Shizuka credits this time with developing her deeply engrained knowledge of the mind/body connection and the healing power of movement and fitness. 

 

She discovered Zumba in 2011 when a friend gave her a Zumba Basics DVD during a time when she was a stay at home mother, homeschooling her children. She was immediately hooked, finding time to dance every single day. She found that Zumba both grounded and elevated her, reminding her of who she truly was. Throughout the next few years of personal challenges, she always had Zumba. 

 

In 2016 she moved back to her hometown of Rockport ME where she found the local gym and a new Zumba tribe where she felt she’d found her home. In 2017 she became a certified Zumba instructor and in 2019 was certified as a Strong Nation instructor. She is also currently working toward certification as a group fitness instructor through AFAA. 

 

Shizuka co-founded Midcoast Strong with Amanda Strong in 2020. This has been an amazing and rewarding experience for her.  The thing that she loves most about teaching at Mid Coast Strong is pouring herself into to her students, body, mind, and spirit.  Shizuka feels that all of her experiences including her struggles have helped her to have a deeper sense of empathy with her students and to help each person overcome their own struggles by employing fitness and the fitness community that she and Amanda are creating as a path forward through better self-love.

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For more information please visit: Zumba Instructor Page