Owner: Natacha Zamor
Years in Business: 5 years
Location: Tampa
Website: www.tampabayafrofit.com
On Green Book: https://greenbooktampabay.org/listing/tampa-bay-afrofit/
Natacha Zamor is the owner of TampaBay Afrofit, Inc., which provides a space where optimum state of health and wellness is encouraged using an Afrocentric approach through dance fitness, tribal and traditional dance classes, cultural and health education.
Thirty-five years ago, Zamor’s grandmother voiced her irritation about her prioritizing European dance classes to keep in shape instead of her tribal and traditional dance training. Her grandmother insisted that everything that is needed for survival, wellness and health were passed on through generations in their traditions.
Zamor received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Montreal, specializing in orthopedic, rehabilitation and community health. She has also been trained extensively in her traditional dance: Haitian Folklore, Chakacha (Kenyan) and Mutuashi (Congo).
She observed diabetes and cardiovascular diseases increase at an alarming rate within the Black community, and even lost both grandmothers to them.
“I had to take action for myself and for the collectivity, and that is when TampaBay Afrofit was incorporated.”
For five years, TampaBay Afrofit has been active in the community, providing dance classes, fitness sessions, national educational workshops, performances, lectured at the University of South Florida and as a guest writer for the cultural and health section of Rebelle d’Haiti, a prominent Caribbean magazine.
Zamor feels health and wellness are a right, not a privilege. She said it brings her immense joy when she is able to provide tools for clients to discover strengths that they have always possessed to take control of their health and wellness through Afro-Caribbean influences.
“In doing so, we bring them to discover ways to be more preventative and proactive in developing a sense of accountability for themselves that demands that their right to have a certain quality of life be respected.
For more information on TampaBay Afrofit, visit www.tampabayafrofit.com.
