I love this workout. The music is great, the choreography is fun and the instruction is outstanding.

The warm-up is guaranteed to get you grooving. The moves are simple, but they are big and sweeping and Kari has you using the floor space all around your step, with a couple of fun mambos and pivots thrown in for the choreography junkies. And the warm-up music ROCKS! (Loud too, which I love.)

On to the body of the workout. Kari teaches it in 3 big chunks of choreography. You put chunks 1 and 2 together for a couple of runthroughs, then she teaches chunk 3 and you get to string it all together at the end.

The chunks are progressively more complex, but even steppers who are afraid to do much more than a basic step and an L-step could handle this workout, since Kari teaches the basic move first, then gradually demonstrates more complex variations. For example, the basic version of one move is a 4-knee repeater, tap the step and go over the short way, then tap again and return to where you started. Kari gradually makes this more and more complex, until at the end the 4-knee repeater becomes a knee-up, a quicktime shuffle-pendulum thingy (Cathe does it in Step Jam, but I don't know what it's called), then a knee up and 360 degree pivot turn on top of the step before tapping and going over the step the long way. It's a blast.

The cooldown seems very short and then you move on to the strength work. Kari uses 2 sets of dumbells for the strength training and advises you to go heavy, since you only do 1 or 2 sets for most body parts. I only did this section once, but I thought it was okay. I remember thinking that she went way too light on legs and my triceps got a little TOO much attention. Also, the ab work disappointed me, only because I expected something stellar from Kari -- and this was merely average.

There are a few things about this workout that I think are outstanding. The first is Kari's way of easing you into complex choreography. This is a great tape to help the person who is afraid of choreography move on to the next level, because Kari really allows you to set your own pace for learning. Because of the variations, this is also a tape that can be adapted to either an intermediate or an advanced level in terms of intensity.

Another standout is the structure. This is a very versatile workout. Kari has put together a total body workout in just 1 hour. The format makes it easy to break up into separate strength and cardio. And if you choose to do just the cardio, it's a great workout to team up with your own strength routine.

Finally, the music. It's good and it's LOUD. Love it.

Warning to experienced steppers -- Kari teaches the first chunk of choreography (L-steps, repeaters and a charleston) kind of slow. Hang in there -- once you get through that section, things start to get interesting.

I find myself doing this video every week. I think it deserves the Hall of Fame.

Instructor Comments:
Kari is just lovely, both in personality and looks. She's a long, cool looking blonde without a klutzy bone in her body. Well, I've got klutz coming out the wazoo, but somehow I manage to keep up -- and still like her while I'm learning. Her cuing is meticulous and her form pointers are most welcome. Kari is a star.

Daphne M