Jessica Sherwood
BalletBootCamp, the title's first impression to me was a workout that was
rigorous but also elegant, what I saw was not quite what the title suggested.
I expected a bit more of a fusion between the current BootCamp workouts and
Ballet training. The tape itself is 60 minutes long, and broken up into
distinct sections. The tape overall is really a toning tape using the body's
weight for resistance with a little bit of "dance" work. It can be rigorous
in some sections but overall I would say that was due to the 32 repetitions
on each side that overloaded the muscles. Also, beware the camera work tends
to focus on the "art" of making a scene look good than showing the moves
well. I constantly felt like screaming - "BACK UP WILL YA!"
When the instructor say now do this with your feet, SHOW HER FEET! You know
that simple stuff that you think is obvious, but you get the feeling that the
camera-person has never done or watched a workout tape before in their life.
The workout consists of:
Warm-up/ Standing Stretch- basically forward bends, side bends, range of
motion arm sweeps, lunges, plies and hamstring stretches.
Warm-Up Aerobic Dance- a series of moves are previewed then linked together.
These are pretty basic moves and they are called out first in layman terms
then ballet terms. (this section lasts about 4 minutes)
Abdominals- 32 reps of crunches with arms at sides, then hands behind the
head, then bicycle crunches, then arms at sides and then legs up doing full
crunches.
Plies/Scissors- You lie on your back and the first section is keeping your
heals together and do plie moves. Then you do inner thigh work by opening
and closing your thighs (like scissors)
Push-Ups- 32 push ups from a knee position
Hip Rotations- On hands and knees you lift your leg up, heal to ceiling then
holding that there you rotate your leg so your knee faces outward. This is
the starting position. You rotate in knee down then out, and lower your leg
and tap your foot on the other foot and raise it. This sequence 32 times on
each leg.
Floor Exercises- Laying on your back, knees bent and feet flat on the floor
near your butt, is the starting position. You do a number of bringing your
foot up to your other ankle, pressing out 2 inches above the floor and
bringing it back. Then you do a series of straight leg raises then flexing
the leg straight and bent then, raising the leg toward your chest and then
lower to 2 inches above the floor.
Arm Rotations- Holding your arms in "second" position which is basically like
a lateral raise with bent arms. You rotate your arms from your shoulders,
bringing the elbows down then horizontal again.
Centre Barre- There's no barre used, this is standing plies and leg work done
in first and second position. Also a number of full leg lifts and pulses.
You need lots of balance to do this section, probably one of the hardest
sections of the tape (for me.)
Choreography- For about 8 minutes you preview and do the five sections of
choreography then in the last 3 ˝ minutes you do the routine about one and
2/3rds through. Then the workout ends.
My overall impression of the tape was that is was very uneven in layout. The
stretching beginning I found a bit archaic because it would much more
beneficial to have had the dance warm up precede this. Then toning sections
were not particularly new and then only section that really had a ballet feel
to it was the arm rotations and the centre barre work. The choreography at
the end was really disappointing. I can't believe that such a long time was
spent reviewing all these moves and then you only did them once and a bit
through!!! Then the tape ends…no cooldown at all. What a strange tape.
Overall- I enjoy doing some of the toning work, but still get very frustrated
with the dance work at the end, due to the lack of cueing as well as the run
through getting cut off. I find that I have done the tape all the way up to
the choreography section and then stopped and gone on and done something
else. So, I don't know what to say specifically in terms of recommending the
tape. It may appeal to a number of people who like to do "toning" work vs.
strength training. The dance section, I think would be a big draw for many
but there is just a dash of that… So, I am a bit disappointed in the workout
overall, I truly wished for something a bit more "fun" and "dramatic". I
have a feeling that an instructor like Michelle Dozois could pick up this
idea and create a workout that would be much more in keeping with what I was
hoping for.
Instructor Comments- It seems that Jessica Sherwood is new to being on film.
She's nervous and doesn't look at the camera throughout most of the workout.
She doesn't cue well verbally or by body gesture… I also found that she
didn't really explain the form of a number of exercises throughout the
workout. I think she explained a bit of form during the abdominal section,
which many people have done, but practically none on the center barre
section. I felt like I needed to take her aside and give her a few coaching
lessons on how to lead a workout on tape. I don't expect absolute perfection
from instructors. But I do expect enthusiasm and an ability to draw a person
into a workout and explain how to begin and progress. These qualities did
not shine through on the video.
Lisa Kucharski
Eenah@aol.com
This workout is not for me, but might appeal to someone who takes ballet classes or wants to. It starts with a short dance sequence, followed by several sections of toning exercises, and then at the end is another dance section. I thought the dance was hard to follow for someone who's not used to ballet. The toning sections are EXTREMELY repetitive. You do pushups, legs, thighs, abs, etc., and you do about a gazillion repetitions of each. The only section I liked was the inner thigh section, where she does the exercises lying on your back. I don't have any other tapes that do it this way, and I did feel a nice soreness the next day after doing it. However, that section alone isn't enough to make me want to keep the tape. The set is very unappealing -- a drabby gym-type setting, and they keep changing the picture from color to black-and-white. Collage describes it as "artsy," but I can only call it "ugly." The instructor was fine -- you can see that she has had a lot of dance experience, because she's very graceful. Grade B.
Annie S.
ann.s@worldnet.att.net
10-2-2000
Ballet Bootcamp is a great tape. It's misnamed. It's tough, but it's not
boot camp. It's a ballet floor /barre routine with a dance combination at
the end. It includes abdominal, arm and leg strengthening segments that,
properly done, are quite challenging. The 10 minute dance combination uses
add-on choreography and is challenging for someone who has never done that
kind of work. The tape is over an hour so even if the last ten minutes
are beyond you, there's still lots of interesting stuff to do.
It is an intense tape, but it is not a cardio tape in the sense of keeping
your heart rate consistently elevated for any length of time.
I gather this routine is taught in different New York City gyms, including
Crunch and New York Sports, but the packaging and official website are
mysteriously secretive about the instructor's name. I gather from Collage
that it's Jessica Sherwood. She is the quintessential ballerina.
The set is a nice, sunny loft space and there is a fairly large class of
diverse gender, ethnicity and body types.
Sherwood uses real ballet terms, interspersed with more generic
descriptions. The tape remains true to a ballet sensibility but is not
haughty or pandering. It's a glimpse into the ballet world, and many of us
are fascinated with that. Fans of NYC Ballet Workout will like this tape,
and it's actually very similar in concept. The ending dance sequence is
much more challenging than anything in NYC ballet, but the floor/barre work
is similar, maybe a little tougher.
Complaints are minor. The dance cuing could be better, the audio over dubs
help but they aren't enough. There's some dreaded "creative camera work"
(head shot while a leg move is demonstrated, that sort of thing). The
dance segments are space hogs. Still, these points are nitpicking. The
routines terrific, the production values are good, the classical score is
quite good. Overall, Ballet Bootcamp is fun and beneficial. Recommended!
Jane C.
7/21/01
This is a somewhat strange video. It feels quite uneven and disjointed. While it is very common in dance classes to start off with some stretches, in video land it is customary to start with a warm up and follow that with stretches. So you stretch then do a dance warm up (which I enjoy quite a lot) and then you do floor work, then standing leg work then a final dance. First of all the floor work is very toning oriented and its shot in a bizarre way. Push ups in huddle (I wondered if anyone got an elbow in their face), there was virtually no instruction in the ab work, or any of the floor work, for that matter. Even the standing leg work seems under-instructed. And the final dance is fun, but its built then all of sudden just dropped and the workout is over. Further, the filming changes from color to black and white. The camera focuses alot on Jessica's face rather than her feet and legs, which makes it hard to figure out what you're actually supposed to be doing. Jessica also seems somewhat awkward in teaching (although she does move beautifully). But having said what I find distracting and unappealing, this is not a bad video. The music is wonderful, the cast is an exceptional mix of sizes, shapes and colors (especially for a ballet tape), the standing exercises are also challenging and I found them enjoyable and the dance sections (warm up and final dance) were a lot of fun. A better production company and more experience for Jessica can only help her improve if she makes further videos. Overall, I enjoy using this with other videos by doing the standing section, some of the world (the inner thigh section on the back, namely) and the two dance sections. Its a lot of rewinding and forwarding but they are the gems that I enjoy in this workout. People who fancey ballet workouts will want this in their collections.
Anonymous
8/22/01
