As Christi would say, "Oh My My!" This is her danciest, most complex tape yet; even her staunchest fans were agonizing over this one, especially the step. Unless your name is Paula Abdul, I recommend that you master Christi's other two tapes, CIA 5004 and 7002, before attempting 9801. But with her in the lead, even the learning process is tons of fun and you won't waste any time with excess marching. This tape contains two complete one-hour workouts, one floor and one step, and they are both loaded with dynamite brand-new moves from warmup to stretch. The floor warmup is a superb combo incorporating cha-cha turns and kicks, and after a static stretch (which I prefer to the "limbering" stretch in 7002) the warmup combo is then used in the aerobic section. There are a half-dozen combos in 40 minutes, and Christi keeps taking it from the top before going to the next one, then there are a couple of final run-throughs at the very end. Like you'd expect, there are lots of turns, knee-ups, jumps, leaps, lunges and pivots, all melded together beautifully with the music and with creative yet unconfusing arm motions. The floor takes up more space than her previous tapes; I was having to do a lot of the motions in place, but if you love to dance, don't let that stop you! You can modify the moves to (mostly) low-impact or add propulsions as you wish, and turns can also be easily omitted until you get the steps down. The "Walk Like an Egyptian" cooldown combo is a blast, using her X-step from 7002. When it comes to dancy hi-lo, Christi RULES!

The step is the most complex I have ever seen; it requires patience and practice, but nothing good ever comes easy, right? I still cannot get the "rockabye knee"; I'm struggling with the hopturn/pivot/boxstep move and after 4 tries, I'm just "muddling" through most of the vertical half. Christi goes over the routines much quicker than she did on her previous tapes, and again it helps to learn her old tapes first because she reuses some of the moves from them. There are a lot of turns, so you need to really LISTEN to her cueing as your back is turned to the TV. She doesn't say "left" and "right" as often as she used to, which would help make learning easier, but this is still an awesome workout that will take your dancing skills to the outer limits. The cooldown is an amazing six-count mambo over the step - how does she dream up this stuff?? - and then there's a good long stretch. The music is all new except for the first half of the step which uses the 8003 music. A+ and two thumbs up!!

Instructor Comments:
Christi is one gal who doesn't mess with success. The things we love about her - the mind-blowing combos, super cueing, singing, and sweet, sincerely happy personality - are all here by the bushel. Christi makes exercising a joyful, glad-to-be-alive experience, and her tapes are my most treasured.

Sue B