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5 Day Latin Dance System with Lisa Nunziella Dance to live music and the beat of the drums with Lisa Nuniziella's 5 Day Latin Dance System. The DVD gives you the option to select . Cha-cha Salsa Merengue Samba Rhumba Dance with Lisa Extras Explain the Steps Explain the Steps are broken down further by each of the dances. Each Explain the Steps are less than 5-minutes each. In these mini-segments, Lisa walks you through the steps you will be doing in each dance. She goes over each step sequence twice. Each of the 5 dances are preceded by a warm-up and they end with a cool-down. The warm-up and cool-down are the same in each of the dances.  Including the warm-up and cool-down the dances are roughly 23-minutes. The DVD does not allow you to select just the dances without the warm-up. This was soooo annoying. Some of the dances would allow you to chapter past the warm-up and some would not. It was weird. I could chapter pass the warm-up in the Cha-cha but when I tried to do that with...

Jessica Smith Dance Walk DVD contain two 30-minute dance inspired workouts.  Along with Jessica, there is one other cast member and this cast members show less intense versions of the moves. The DVD Menu  Latin Dance Walk Dance Walk Play All  The play all workout options clocks in at under 63 minutes.  These workouts are filmed outside  with a pool and a pier as the back drop. These workouts are aerobic base and they are a good way to get your steps in. If you have done any of Jessica Smith walking workouts, some of the music tunes and dance moves will  be familiar to you. Jessica introduces you to each move. Sometimes she will have you watch her first and then join in when you are ready.  After performing each move, you return back to the standard walk.  Jessica repeats various moves as she takes you through the workout. Latin Dance Walk - 3 & 1/2 stars Dance Walk - 3 & 1/4 stars

Rhythmica features Marc Santa Maria as your trainer.  Marc takes you through three 20 minutes dances. The dance are: Hip Hop Fat Burn Latin Dance Mix Get Fit House Party Each dance contains two mini dance routines. There are four moves to each dance.  Marc teaches a move at half pace. You get two run thrus before he has you perform the step at tempo.  (However, I didn't think tempo was really all that fast). After performing the move at tempo, you add on the next move. You repeat this pattern until you have all four moves of the mini combo. Marc then runs through all four moves from beginning to end four times before moving on the either the next mini combo or the next dance. All the dances follow this pattern.  All of the dances also had a based move that you would go back to as you were learning what was coming next. Along with Marc, there are two other cast members. This workout was okay.  I liked most of the moves that were in each of the dances...

Fat Blasting Latin Dance Mix is lead by Stella Sandoval. Stella takes you through five 10 minute latin style dances.  Each of the dances are self contain and features a mix of the various Latin rhythms such as cha cha, mambo, salsa, merengue and tango. The five dances are taught in the same pattern.  Stella does a very brief warm up and then she layers a series of four to five moves.  You practice these moves until about the five minute mark of the workout, Stella then adds on another series of 3 to four moves.  You practice just these moves for a couple of repetitions before adding in all the moves (taking it from the top) for three times through. I really like this one. The music in all the dances had pretty good tunes. The dances are: Fat Burning Cha Cha - 3& 1/2 stars Salsa Slim Down - 3 & 3/4 stars Hot Cardio Mix - 4 stars Merengue Grooves - 3 & 3/4 stars Tango Toning Twist - 3 & 1/2 stars

Figure 8 Fitness is workout system that was created by champion ballroom dancer Jaana Kunitz.  Jaana Kunitz is the co-creator of the Core Rhythms system that can out a few years ago. Jaana describes Figure 8 Fitness as Fitness Meets Dance. It is based on the competitive Latin dance training. This system comes with an in depth training guide title Extreme Dance Fitness.  This guide gives a description of the workouts, breakdown 15 Signature Moves of the Figure 8, Fitness System, gives you a menu with recipes, includes the workout calendar and testemonials. The other items that come with the kit are: The 7-Day Belly Fat Meltdown guide. This is your Kick Start Guide;  A separate workout wall calendar is included. It is the same calendar that is in the Extreme Dance Fitness Guide; a tape measure and a body measurement card for before and after results.  And of course you get the workouts which come in a disc size booklet .  The workouts are: D...

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 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...

Jumpin Jive is about 42 minutes in length and features Champion Ballroom Dancer Julia Powers and Jaana Kunitz. The sound track is awesome. I absolutely love the music in the workout. In the Core Rhythm workouts the moves are choreograph tightly with the music. Along with a warm up and Rumba cool down, the two main sections of Jumpin Jive are Salsa and Swing. Jaana leads the warm up and Swing section. Julia leads the Salsa and cool down segments. In the Salsa and Swing segments, there are about 4 mini combos that you repeat several times. As you go through each iteration of the combo you are adding a little bit each time. Both the Salsa and Swing conclude with "a sprint" which are very high energy moves. The Core Rhythm DVDs are very versatile. You can follow the workout from the front or from the back. I had fun with this one. 4 1/2 stars

Oh Cha cha cha cha. Salsa Blast is 45 minutes in length and feature a warm up, the Cha Cha rhythm and the Salsa rhythm. Rumba is the rhythm for the cool down. I love the Core Rhythm workouts. What I like most about the workouts are how all the moves are precisely synchronized to the music. Jaana and Julia continue to do a good job in showing off and explaining the steps. The moves are becoming easier for me to do as well. Although I still have a long way to go. I can hip circle in one direction but I still need lots of work in hip circling in the opposite direction, but I am having fun in trying to get it. The music used in Salsa Blast is music you can really groove too. Jaana always references moves that you can take out to "the club". The moves and music used in this workout, I can see that happening. This workout features intensifiers that Jaana and Julia called sprints. The Cha Cha sprint was particularly a challenge. Jaana has you doing Cha Cha jumping jac...

Okay. I love love love this workout. The music is the best I have heard in a workout in a long time. Carlos is fun and charismatic . As far as Latin style workouts go, I put no others above it. But this is a critique and a review, so let me be objective for a moment. This is a 63 minute workout that includes a core abdominal section. Carlos takes you through various Latin rhythms ( cha cha , salsa, mamba, soca , samba, merengue, rhumba ) and he does it all with an athletic flair; and what he calls stylizing the move. Stylizing is really just adding your own interpretation or "flavor" to the exercise. Carlos' cuing is not very precise. Several times the right side doesn't match up with the left side. Meaning he will do something on one side and not do it on the other side. I didn't mind this so much because I felt it was more like a dance routine even though the workout included squats, lunges and a chest press. Also, he cues several moves by telling y...

Today is really suppose to be my rest day but I made it an Active Recovery day. I wanted to practice my Core Rhythm technique and the perfect DVD to do this with is their Kick Start dvd. The Kick Start dvd comes in the first Core Rhythms set that came out. In this workout, Jaana and Julia take you slowly and methodically through the basic movements that make up Core Rhythms. It's mostly instuctional but if you are truly following the technique, you will sweat or at least I did. The workout features 3 mini programs. - Get started - Get moving - Get dancing The programs build on one another and it really lets you practice the technique of Core Rhythms and that can really help with later Core Rhythm and really any type of rhythm workout. The workout is approximately 34 minutes long.