Dancing With the Stars: Fat Burning Cardio Dance

After seeing some of the previews of the DVD, I was really excited to get "Dancing with the Stars: Fat Burning Cardio Dance." And, although it was a pretty good fitness DVD that gave me a good cardio workout, it still left me wanting just a little bit more.

The DVD is divided into four different sections: Mambo, Jazz, Hustle, and Cooldown. This is what I thought of each individual section:

Mambo Mix - This first section fuses Mambo and Salsa moves together, and I'm afraid that the different tempos of the two dances in addition to Edyta Sliwinska's (the instructor for this routine) bad cuing makes this low impact segment the worst of the bunch. While you start off by doing some very easy and slow mambo steps to the side, forward, and back, Edyta soon adds in moves that are very fast, and the two different speeds just don't really feel right together. Edyta does do a good job, for the most part, of slowing down each move before bringing it up to tempo, but there are a few times when she teaches the move incorrectly and never corrects herself, leaving the viewer to notice the mistake a few minutes later when doing the move quickly. Overall, the moves were very Latin and sexy, but the speed differences between the two styles was just too awkward for me.

Hollywood Jazz - Kym Johnson leads this routine which is a mixture of many styles of dance such as: Swing, Jazz, Broadway, Charleston, and more. Kym starts off with a very slow fosse move, but the rest of the routine is very high cardio and very much fun to do with moves that include fast kicks and lunges. The cuing is really well done, and most of the moves are broken down to teach but brought up to tempo before the heart rate falters. Some of the moves are definitely a little tricky to master, but this adds a challenge to the workout that isn't frustrating since it's just one or two moves. It may be a little harder for beginners to pick up, but otherwise, this a great section in terms of fun and cardio.

Hustle & Pop - Coming in as the third cardio segment on the DVD is this one, led by Chelsea Hightower. The moves in this routine are very Disco with just a slight Hip-Hop feel to them. It starts right out with Chelsea jumping full on into several fast high cardio moves that she doesn't break down at all, and it just continues on from there. There is definitely a lot of content in this section, and I absolutely loved all of it! The breakdown may not be there, but the cuing definitely is as Chelsea cue excellently through the fun, cheesy Disco moves that includes a lot of hops and lunges. This one is definitely a blast, and I enjoyed doing it, as well.

Cooldown - As the finish to the workout is this cooldown, led by all 3 of the instructors and aided by the 4 backup girls who were in each routine. I was disappointed with this part, though. The first half is just step touching, triple stepping, and doing some other cardio moves! Finally a little bit of stretching is done for the abs and legs, but it is done so quickly, I barely feel anything before we move to the other side. I didn't feel like there was enough stretching here for the end of my workout.

Overall, though, the dancing on this fitness DVD was very fun to do. Edyta's cuing may have been off, some of the moves may have felt a bit weird, and the cooldown may have not been sufficient, but this is still a very good cardio workout for fans of dancing and exercising.

I own a few DWTS dance DVD's as well as the Julianne Hough ones and while I am not a pro dancer I feel that I am at a higher level than the novice dancer. However I did this DVD for the first time the other day and I was very dissapointed. It was very hard to follow along in most cases
Edyta started off fine but then she ended up going way to fast and did not explain alot of the steps that well. I was very impressed with another DVD that had Kym in it and am able to do that dance but this one she did same thing was lost part way through. I felt that out of all the dances Chelsie was the best and easiest to follow.
I will give it another try but it is not fun doing a DVD that you get frustrated doing

This video is horrible. Totally unispiring. Boring. Boring. Boring. The music has a low volume and it did not put me in the mood to dance (let alone exercise). The "Hustle and Pop" segment is a really bad version of 80's aerobics. I'm really surprised the producers put their names on this.

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