Lisa Nunziella
About me: I'm an advanced exerciser who
loves all kinds of exercise, including dance,
strength training, pilates, yoga and fusion
workouts. I particularly enjoy salsa dancing,
and have been doing it on and off for several
years. This dvd is a very good representation
of 5 popular Latin dances: the cha-cha,
salsa, merengue, samba and rhumba). Each
segment last about 26-31 minutes and is
taught in add-on style. Ultimately, the
TIFTing drove me insane and I couldn’t see
myself doing this again. However, because
Lisa doesn’t break any of the movement
down, it will be useful for some to have the
repetition. Also, there is only one song for
each dance style, which can get a bit
annoying. (There is also live drummer in the
background.)
Set and Background Exercisers: The set is a
very attractive, wood-paneled room with
pretty gray or white hanging drapes. I like
the set because it’s very clean and
uncluttered—allowing you to see exactly
what Lisa is doing. Her background
exercisers, Andrea and marina are very
competent dancers, which makes a big
change from a lot of workouts that I’ve seen.
(Anyone remember Viva Latin Rhythms?)
They are in good shape, but not stick thin,
which is also very nice. Lisa herself is very
tiny and has an absolutely amazing physique,
including killer abs. This is unsurprising,
given that she’s a dance champion!
Warmup (5 Minutes): The salsa-based
warmup is the same for each song. I actually
enjoyed this part the most since it moves so
quickly, has lots of variety and the music was
good. Most importantly, it’s only repeated
ONCE. I also appreciate the fact that Lisa
uses and appropriate, exercise-specific
warmup. That said, I think a beginning
dancer might have a bit of trouble, since
some of the footwork is fairly quick!
Cha-cha (17 minutes): Lisa dances cha-cha
the way it should be danced! In other words,
Lisa dances cha-cha ‘on 2’, which makes
more sense from a musical perspective
(working with the music, rather than against
it). She teaches moves that you will see in
any cha-cha class, and you can definitely
take some of these moves out on the dance
floor. I liked the moves, but as with the
other segments, the TIFTing became
tiresome. It also drives this on2 dancer
insane that she breaks forward on her left
foot (having me break on my right foot).
This may seem incredibly anal, but it’s
because this is one of the few authentic Latin
dance workouts, I don’t want to have to think
about how to translate the moves to breaking
forward on MY left foot.
Salsa (16 minutes): This is NY on2 style salsa
and is very authentic. You can tell she’s been
dancing street-style salsa for a long time.
The same critique applies here about
breaking on the ‘wrong’ foot. I have
definitely used similar moves in my dance
classes and on the dance floor. I enjoyed this
section the most, and it got my heart rate up
the most (it’s literally a salsa shines class).
However, this section contains the trickiest
footwork (relative to the other dances) and I
suspect it will frustrate most non-salsa
dancers.
Samba (21 minutes): I liked this section. It is
definitely more ballroom-based than the
other dances. I prefer Brazilian samba, but
this was still fun. Lots of subtle hip action
but will get your heart rate up. Those with
knee issues may want to watch some of the
moves here.
Merengue (21 minutes): This was definitely
the easiest of all the dances. Merengue
consists mostly of variations on a march.
However, I had to stop towards the
middle/end because the TIFTing drove me
insane. This was the one section (of the
ones I did in their entirety) that I simply
could not finish because of the incessant
repetition.
Rhumba: This section is probably the most
flowing and graceful of all of the segments.
It looks ‘slow’, but if you’re really using your
abs and arms, this can certainly wake up your
core. I did parts of this section and was able
to do the entire routine without going
practicing the moves very much. Those with
knee issues may want to be careful here.
Cooldown (5 minutes): Like the warmup, the
cooldown uses salsa music. Some of the
moves in the beginning seem pretty vigorous
for a cooldown! The stretches are very yoga-
based (e.g. downward dog with leg raises)
and some of them require a fair amount of
flexibility (Cossack stretch).
Bonus (14 minutes): Uses the routines from
all of the different dance styles covered in
the dvd. I didn’t do this one.
Tutorial (15 minutes): I peeked at the
tutorial. She doesn’t break the moves down
at all. She simply does each of the moves
more slowly. It would have been more
helpful to actually teach the moves, IMO.
Overall assessment: I’m glad I rented this
one first before buying. Although Lisa has
some great moves, the TIFTing gets tedious
and my mind starts to wander. I also don’t
like the fact that this dvd isn’t chaptered very
well. There’s no way to string each of the
dance segments together so that you can do
a continuous workout. Also, each section
contains a warmup (the same one), which
you can’t skip over. I’d recommend this for
the intermediate dancer who likes good Latin
music, enjoys a bit of complex footwork and
who doesn’t mind repetition—a LOT of
repetition.
Instructor comments:
Lisa is sweet and encouraging but her teaching
tends to be a bit one-note. As a dancer, I
appreciate the counting, but she went a bit
overboard, IMO. She is in fabulous shape and
has great form.
naturallove
March 26, 2009
