So I Think I Can Dance
Last night I did the So You Think You Can Dance--Get Fit workout DVD. I will admit to indulging in some fan girliness when I put it in the Netflix queue, but I have to say, it's not a bad DVD, all in all. I'm not exactly sure who the target audience for this DVD is, unless really it's just people like me, dancers who watch the show. Twitch, Katee and Dmitry are the main instructors, and Lauren, Courtney and Travis Wall help fill out the floor. It consists of the following:
-warm up, led by all the dancers in turn. This is one of the weaker points of the DVD. I don't really do aerobics type DVDs, so maybe that type of warm up is the norm, but I found it too high impact for a genuine warm up, and if you didn't already have a good sense of body mechanics and awareness, there is a high injury potential. It did get my pulse rate up, but I didn't feel as though it was in a healthy way.
-Hip hop choreography with Twitch. It probably will come as no surprise to fans of the show that Twitch is a methodical, well-spoken and charismatic instructor. He provided some of the alignment and safety advice that I felt was lacking in the warm up at the beginning of his segment, and was super encouraging throughout, saying things like "got it? Good! And if it's not good, that's okay too, that's what the rewind button is for, to help you get it good!" For the record, I dance hip hop exactly like somebody who grew up dancing to old school swirly goth and now is an ooey gooey Egyptian style belly dancer, which is to say, pathetically, but I still had fun with it, and with Twitch's instruction did feel like if I worked really, really, really hard at it for a very, very, very long time, I could probably manage to do passable hip hop. I did keep up with it, even at full speed, though I'm sure my technique was lousy. The fact that I was doing it barefoot probably didn't help. It did help however to have the three female dancers in the background, because I could see how the movements looked on a female body and on generally softer dancers. Target zones for this choreography were shoulders, chest, obliques and some quads.
-Jazz with Katee. This segment didn't really hold my interest and I didn't finish it, though I could see how it would be a good workout. The choreography consisted of step-touch steps, box steps, grapevines--all basic patterns that I am very used to--and worked muscle groups that I've been working on already, mostly quads and some calf muscles. I did like the emphasis on full extension of the arms. Katee is a very likable and articulate instructor with obvious enthusiasm for what she is doing. I find jazz in general to be unfocused, or perhaps it's that I don't enjoy its outward focus. See dance background above. This particular jazz routine leaned more towards the Broadway side, because this is after all supposed to be a fitness video and the larger movements and arm swings provide more of a workout. Maybe I would like a different style of jazz better.
-Cha cha with Dmitry. Finally, my muscles said, movements that we know how to do! Twisty hips, relevé feet, I got those, check! At the same time, this was the most challenging of the three segments in terms of stamina and coordination. Muscle groups worked were pretty much everything from the ribcage down to the toes, and the shoulders to the extent that you needed to maintain a lifted carriage (again with the caveat that you need some body awareness to maintain posture, etc for an effective workout--Dmitry provided guidance, but as with all the segments, I don't think the average non-dancer is going to get the necessary body awareness from this DVD). I had fun with this and found myself smiling as I danced. I even learned a little twisty cross step that I think I will carry over into belly dance. Dmitry is a solid instructor, not perhaps as dynamic as the other two but then again it's much harder to talk while doing cha cha than hip hop or jazz. His instructions were clear and made sense, at any rate. I enjoyed this enough to feel that in a perfect world where I had lots of free time, I would check out some classes in cha cha.
-Cool down with all the dancers. Again, not that impressed. Too fast paced and not enough deep stretching. But I've never encountered a DVD with a cool down that really addresses all my needs anyway, apart from Hadia's hour long cool down.
Things I liked in general: the dancers were clearly enjoying themselves, vocalizing a lot and infusing the choreographies with a lot of personality. They all worked well together and felt like a team. At the same time, I liked that each instructor talked about putting your own stamp on your dancing, and then you could see the six dancers each doing the same steps but with their own distinctive personality on top. The filmwork was great; movements were clear and easy to see and the backdrop was clean and uncluttered. If you are an experienced dancer (or yogi or martial artist or fitness DVD fanatic) who has the background of body awareness that is taken for granted here, you can get a nice workout from doing all three back to back, and learn a little something about each style as you go along. The pacing within each segment is good, starting slow, gradually speeding up and then backing off a little by the end. There are also some nice interview extras with the three instructors that make you like them all the more, and also serve to build confidence by telling you that each dancer was sore after doing a style unfamiliar to them all day long. It is all around a very nurturing and encouraging video.
Things I disliked in general: the warm up and cool down, the lack of posture and safety instruction, the eminently forgettable music.
I don't know that I would buy this one, but I had fun doing it, and could see renting it from Netflix again, just to shake up my regular routine a little and in the case of hip hop push my movement comfort zone.
.
-warm up, led by all the dancers in turn. This is one of the weaker points of the DVD. I don't really do aerobics type DVDs, so maybe that type of warm up is the norm, but I found it too high impact for a genuine warm up, and if you didn't already have a good sense of body mechanics and awareness, there is a high injury potential. It did get my pulse rate up, but I didn't feel as though it was in a healthy way.
-Hip hop choreography with Twitch. It probably will come as no surprise to fans of the show that Twitch is a methodical, well-spoken and charismatic instructor. He provided some of the alignment and safety advice that I felt was lacking in the warm up at the beginning of his segment, and was super encouraging throughout, saying things like "got it? Good! And if it's not good, that's okay too, that's what the rewind button is for, to help you get it good!" For the record, I dance hip hop exactly like somebody who grew up dancing to old school swirly goth and now is an ooey gooey Egyptian style belly dancer, which is to say, pathetically, but I still had fun with it, and with Twitch's instruction did feel like if I worked really, really, really hard at it for a very, very, very long time, I could probably manage to do passable hip hop. I did keep up with it, even at full speed, though I'm sure my technique was lousy. The fact that I was doing it barefoot probably didn't help. It did help however to have the three female dancers in the background, because I could see how the movements looked on a female body and on generally softer dancers. Target zones for this choreography were shoulders, chest, obliques and some quads.
-Jazz with Katee. This segment didn't really hold my interest and I didn't finish it, though I could see how it would be a good workout. The choreography consisted of step-touch steps, box steps, grapevines--all basic patterns that I am very used to--and worked muscle groups that I've been working on already, mostly quads and some calf muscles. I did like the emphasis on full extension of the arms. Katee is a very likable and articulate instructor with obvious enthusiasm for what she is doing. I find jazz in general to be unfocused, or perhaps it's that I don't enjoy its outward focus. See dance background above. This particular jazz routine leaned more towards the Broadway side, because this is after all supposed to be a fitness video and the larger movements and arm swings provide more of a workout. Maybe I would like a different style of jazz better.
-Cha cha with Dmitry. Finally, my muscles said, movements that we know how to do! Twisty hips, relevé feet, I got those, check! At the same time, this was the most challenging of the three segments in terms of stamina and coordination. Muscle groups worked were pretty much everything from the ribcage down to the toes, and the shoulders to the extent that you needed to maintain a lifted carriage (again with the caveat that you need some body awareness to maintain posture, etc for an effective workout--Dmitry provided guidance, but as with all the segments, I don't think the average non-dancer is going to get the necessary body awareness from this DVD). I had fun with this and found myself smiling as I danced. I even learned a little twisty cross step that I think I will carry over into belly dance. Dmitry is a solid instructor, not perhaps as dynamic as the other two but then again it's much harder to talk while doing cha cha than hip hop or jazz. His instructions were clear and made sense, at any rate. I enjoyed this enough to feel that in a perfect world where I had lots of free time, I would check out some classes in cha cha.
-Cool down with all the dancers. Again, not that impressed. Too fast paced and not enough deep stretching. But I've never encountered a DVD with a cool down that really addresses all my needs anyway, apart from Hadia's hour long cool down.
Things I liked in general: the dancers were clearly enjoying themselves, vocalizing a lot and infusing the choreographies with a lot of personality. They all worked well together and felt like a team. At the same time, I liked that each instructor talked about putting your own stamp on your dancing, and then you could see the six dancers each doing the same steps but with their own distinctive personality on top. The filmwork was great; movements were clear and easy to see and the backdrop was clean and uncluttered. If you are an experienced dancer (or yogi or martial artist or fitness DVD fanatic) who has the background of body awareness that is taken for granted here, you can get a nice workout from doing all three back to back, and learn a little something about each style as you go along. The pacing within each segment is good, starting slow, gradually speeding up and then backing off a little by the end. There are also some nice interview extras with the three instructors that make you like them all the more, and also serve to build confidence by telling you that each dancer was sore after doing a style unfamiliar to them all day long. It is all around a very nurturing and encouraging video.
Things I disliked in general: the warm up and cool down, the lack of posture and safety instruction, the eminently forgettable music.
I don't know that I would buy this one, but I had fun doing it, and could see renting it from Netflix again, just to shake up my regular routine a little and in the case of hip hop push my movement comfort zone.
.