CIA 9801: Double Impact Workouts

Christi Taylor
Year Released: 1998

Categories: Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance , Step Aerobics


This video has the most creative, complex, imaginative choreography I have ever seen. Christi takes moves from funk, jazz, and regular aerobic using syncopated rhythyms.

You're hardly ever doing moves on the "down" beat here. If Christi were a jazz musician, she's be Miles Davis. Turns, turns, turns. Every single move in this video turns. These turns can be exceptionally difficult to follow in the 2nd step section where the step is vertical. Visually, it's hard to figure out, using mirror image, which way to go. And when you're on the opposite side of the step, Christi's doing something new WHILE your back is turned. Aaargh! Many times, there's no demonstrations. She'll whip in a turn or complicated move with no introduction and say, "You get that? Do it with me."

That said, this video takes effort to learn. The step section was far more difficult for me to master than the floor, and I've always considered myself better at step than floor. Don't plan to get a truly intense workout doing this video the first time. You'll probably spend loads of time rewinding to get the moves. I found that when my frustration level maxed out, I'd take a break, watch some of the video from the couch, and then try again. The cuing is excellent, but there's so much going on in this video! Christi couldn't possibly explain it all in words. Despite this, I sometimes found myself wishing that Christi would say "Turn towards your right/left shoulder" or "start the reverse turn into the mambo with your right/left foot" or "pivot back to the front with your right." The alternative to temporary confusion, is of course, breakdowns that disrupt the flow of the video once you've learned it. I personally will take the temporary frustration anyday, because this video will never get old.

I don't mean to scare anyone off from this video. I didn't spend as much time trying to learn this as CIA 9001, yet it has FAR more complex choreography. And it was WORTH EVERY MINUTE of the time I invested. What separates this video from other hard ones is that you don't get any breaks where you repeat a familiar move for 8 counts. Things change rapidly, and you always have to think. For some reason, I like the step more than the floor. Intensity wise, I would rate the step as intermed/advanced, and the hi-lo as advanced, though not killer. The music is the best I've ever heard on a video, and it's perfectly matched to the choreography. I even liked the techno-country! And Christi, like everyone said, is a doll in this one. Adorable, funny, witty, and encouraging.

One small criticism: I found the hi-lo section (which requires lots and lots of room by the way) a little repetitive. The first combo is taught in the warmup and you find yourself doing it over and over 45 minutes later. After the first perceived exertion check, you go back to the first combo AGAIN, and that's sort of irritating to me. I wish she started with an entirely new 20 minute segment after the break like she does in the step section (ala Cathe Friedrich), instead of stringing together the old sequences each time she adds a new one.

Eulonda Skyles

04/09/1998