Saundra

Country Line Dance Party! features Amy Blackburn as the lead and the workout clocks in at 41 minutes. Like other DOTI workouts it has a step guide that gives you a preview of some of the more challenging steps. The step guide is chaptered. So, you can move from step to step more easily. Along with a warm up and cool down, there are three dances. The dances are: Scoot Those Boots Ride 'Em Cowboy Brand New Boyfriend Boogie I liked the dances in  Country Line Dance Party slightly more than the dances in Country Line Dance  even though in "Party" the steps seemed more repetitive.  This was an okay workout. Not to strenuous. Amy kept talking about how she had drop a pound and/or size here and there, but she was pleasant. 3 stars

Dance Off the Inches Country Line Dance is lead by Amy Blackburn. The workout clocks in just pass 36 minutes. Like other DOTI workouts it contains a step guide that takes you through some of the steps you will perform in the three mini routines. For the most part the choreography was easy to follow and the dances are very doable. I did refer back to the step guide for one of the steps that appear in routine #3.  That move was called the "chicken legs". The DVD does break the workout into chapter points. The chapters are: Warm Up Round' Em Up Party Boots Barnyard Boogie Cool  Down My favorite dance was Round Em Up. This was a nice workout. Felt more like an "active recovery" type workout. My heart rate didn't really get up and at times I felt the workout moved too slow.  Overall, though, it was okay. 3 stars

Dance Off the Inches Cardio Striptease is a 41 minute workout and it is lead by Megan Armand.  Like other Dance Off the Inches workouts, it does feature a Step Guide.  The step guide is 22 minutes and features around 10 steps that appear throughout the workout. Dance Off the Inches really needs to chapter the Step Guide so you can easily jump to the step you need help on.  I have only seen them do this in one workout. Cardio Striptease contains a warm up, three dances and a cool down.  It is taught in much the same fashion as other Dance Off The Inches where moves are repeated and layered on to one another to build a mini combo.  Several of the moves have built in core isolation/contraction for the abs. The dances are: Work It Too Hot To Handle Total Tease The music is okay. The tempo of the dances is on the slow side.   I was surprised that I burned (according to the bodybugg) 250 calories because it didn't feel like I was working that ha...

Island Cardio Party comes in a Dance Off the Inches Party Pack  titled Red Hot Dance Party that also include Latin Cardio Party which Dance Off the Inches release earlier this year or maybe it was late last year. It is a 40 minute workout and it features Emily Naim as the lead. Like other Dance Off the Inches workout, it comes with a Step Guide.  However, the Step Guide is not chaptered. I was hoping this would be a trend that they would continue as they did this for a recent release. The dances in Island Cardio Party are : Reggae DanceHall Soca Emily breaks down each dance by layering and combining moves until the full combo is learned.  The dances are super easy to learn. I like this workout. All the music fit the moves and the Island theme.  None of the tunes seem out of place and the dances are fun. The Reggae dance is probably the most athletic dance.  Some of the moves felt more like exercise than dancing.  DanceHall, I would say is the...

Cardio Hip Hop Party is approximately 42 minutes in length and features Jennifer Gilardi as the lead. The three dances in this workout are: Old School Hip Hop House Video Jam. I really love the Old School and Hip Hop House dances and give both of them high marks.  The Video Jam was just okay and overall I thought the music could have been better.  I did like the music in Hip Hop House. Old school features dance moves such as the cabbage patch, old school shuffle and roger rabbit.  Hip Hop House features steps like the glide, the sweep, and the slide.  In the Video Jam workout, Jennifer slowed down the tempo. The steps in this dance seemed really similar to each other. This workout features a 26 minute Step Guide but I was so annoyed because unlike last week's Hip Hop Jam, they didn't chapter the steps.  So you couldn't just jump through to the move you wanted to review.  Old School - 5 stars Hip Hop House - 4 & 1/2 stars Video Jam ...

Dance Off The Inches Hip Hop Jam is lead by Jennifer Gilardi.  The workout is approximately 43 minutes in length; and like other DOTI workouts it features a step guide which is about 22 minutes in length. What is great about this Step Guide is that it is chaptered.  Yea!!! So you can quickly jump to the move you want to review. There are 10 steps that Jennifer breaks down. There are three dances that Jennifer teaches in a layered pattern.  On average, Jen gives you 4 passes of each move that is taught before moving on.  Then she combines the moves and has you take it from the top until the whole dance combination is learned. The DVD offers the following options: Play - Plays all Chapters - lets you select individual dances Step Guide - Breakdown Booty Blaster Workout - Bonus Workout The chapters option further breaks down into: Warm up Cali Pop Funk Groove Street Style Cool Down I really like the Warm up.  Cali Pop was just okay. I thou...

Latin Cardio Party is the latest Dance Off the Inches workout.  Like the other DOTI workouts is clocks in at just under 45 minutes and features a warm up, three dance routines and a cool down. The workout is lead and choreograph by Emily Naim.   I was reading the back of the DVD cover and Jennifer Gilardi co-choreograph the workout. Besides Emily, there are two other cast members. The dances featured in this workout are: Samba Cumbia Reggaeton There is a Step Guide section that is about twenty minutes long and it takes you through several of the steps that appear in the three dances.  I wish this section had separate chapter points for each step she went over - to make it easier to go to the steps you wanted to work on and skip easily over the steps you did want to go over. The dances were not hard to follow. Emily takes you through a lengthy break down often teaching the move "under" tempo before taking it to full tempo.  She gives you lots of re...

Dance it Off Ballroom features Kristina Milova as the lead and it is about 42 minutes in length. The sections of the workout are: Warm Up Cha Cha Samba Jive Cool Down There is also an Intro segment and a Step Guide segment. While I like the workout, it is not a very cardio intensive dance workout. This workout would be great for lite or active recovery days - days you would want to move but not work to strenuously. The dances are very easy to follow. I did not use the step guide and had no problem picking up the steps. There is a fair amount of repetition. Kristina cues well and is very pleasant. The music - I thought a bit blah. The set is okay. Along with Kristina, there are two other cast members. 3 & 1/4 stars

Dance Off The Inches Latin Party Pack ! was a Christmas Gift. In the box came 4 workouts on three DVDs, a 30-Day rotational calendar and Salsa Sculpting Bars. The bars are pink and solid. They do not shake or rattle. So the workouts are : Red Hot Cardio Party Sizzling Salsa Total Body Tone with a Twist Slim & Sexy Dancer's Abs. I will start in the order I did the workouts Total Body Tone with a Twist . This DVD consist of two workouts. Both workouts are led by Desiree Bartlett. Toning with a Twist is 21 minutes and Slim & Sexy Dancer's Abs is 17 minutes. If you select play all, it will play both back to back and that clock in at around 36 minutes. Both of these workouts have a warm up and cool down and both used the Salsa Sculpting Bars. In Toning with a Twist, you are doing plies, lunges, dips, squats, biceps, triceps, overhead press. This workout is very basic. In between the different sculpting sets you do basic dance movement, merengue or cha cha. I did not pa...

Calorie Blasting Party is a 41 minute working starring Juliane Arney. This Dance Off The Inches workout is a bit different than the other DOTI workouts I have done. First it does not have a step guide. Juliane teaches the moves in what she calls progressive Tempos. There are three tempo variations - 1, 2, and 3. As you go up in numbers, you go up in speed and movements. The workout breaks down as follows: Warm Up Michelle's Favorite Cat's Dance All About Abby Nicole's Favorite Cool Down. Michelle, Cat, Abby and Nicole are all cast members. I like the 4 combinations. Most of the DOTI workouts only have 3 combos and the workout length is relatively the same. So this one moves a little more quickly than most. There is repetition. You are repeating each move at each tempo at least four times (usually two on the left and two on the right). Also each dance is composed of 4 moves each. So after teaching each section (i.e. Michelle's Favorite, Cat's Dance etc) Ju...

Dance It Off & Firm Up! features Bethany Lyons as the lead. The workout is about 41 minutes and follows the same patterns as all the other Dance Off the Inches workouts. There is a step guide. I didn't use it. The moves are very basic and easy to follow The workout breaks down as follows: Warm up Rock It Own It Tone It Cool Down The Rock It and Own It sections are the mini dance combos. Tone It is not really a mini combo. It is a bunch of toning moves done with a dancer's flair. Plie , tondu , lunges, squats, calf raises, and posse are some of the moves in this section. In the two mini routines, Bethany has this swivel hip move that she uses as her base move. So instead of marching it out you do this swivel move before taking it from the top or adding on. There seemed to be a lot of taking it from the top in this workout. Although, I don't think it is any more or less repetitive than any of the other Dance Off the Inches workouts. I just wasn't in the mood fo...

Hip Hop Body Blast is Jennifer Gilardi's third hip hop dance workout for Dance Off the Inches. This workout is about 45 minutes in length and like all Dance Off the Inches workouts or the ones I have, this workout has a Step Guide to teach you the moves. I never or rarely used the Step Guide. I will do the workout first and if I have trouble picking up a step, I will go to the step guide. I didn't have any trouble picking up the steps in this workouts. The steps are basic and Jen repeats them enough so by the time we were moving on, I had picked up the move. The DVD is chaptered. The sections of the workout are: Warm Up Dance 1: In The Club Dance 2: Groovin Dance 3: Kick It Up Cool Down Out of the three Jennifer Gilardi DOTI workouts, this one is my favorite. With the exception of the first tune in Dance 1, the music was really good and worked well with the choreography. I wasn't feeling the Hip Hop in that first tune of Dance 1. There are two cast members in the wor...

Clocking in at 43 minutes is Dance Off the Inches Cardio Hip Hop . This workout features Jennifer Gilardi. Like most if not all Dance Off the Inches workouts this DVD contains a Step Guide that breaks down the most complicated moves. The Step Guide is about 18 minute long. I didn't use the Step Guide, but on a couple of the moves I thought I should have. The Step Guide is not chaptered and I didn't feel like searching for the one or two moves that I wanted to watch a breakdown for. So the workout consist of a warm up, three dances, and a cool down. The dances are: Hit Em Hard, Work It Out, and Smooth It Out. Hit Em Hard and Work It out really work the legs. Smooth It Out works the core and ab region. My favorite dances are Hit Em Hard and Smooth It out. Although I like the music better in Work It Out , then Hit Em Hard and last the music in Smooth It Out. All the moves are doable. Jennifer repeats the moves several times so after awhile you are able to pick them up without a pr...

Dance Off The Inches Hip Hop Party is a 43 minutes workout featuring Jennifer Gilardi. It features 3 dance workouts - roughly 11 to 12 minutes each plus a warm up and a cool down. The dances are : Basic Hip Hop Sexy Smooth Hip Hop World Hip Hop (African/Brazilian influence). Jennifer also includes a step guide that breaks down some of the moves in the dance. I didn't use the step guide and had no problem in picking up the steps a Jennifer taught them in the main part of the workout. Within each dance - or so it seem to me - it's like that the dance was broken up into two distinct sections or maybe it is the fact that the music change mid way through each dance that gives me that impression. Speaking of the music, I like it. I was expecting to hear the same old songs I always hear in dance workouts and that was not the case. My favorite dance was probably Sexy Smooth Hip Hop. I thought that routine had the best flow and it was the most unique. Yes. There is a lot of takin...