Very reminiscent of Fat-Burning Dance Party, Dance off the Inches, etc. etc. Not very intense, but fun and gets you warmed up. It does involve a like of hip-shaking and coordinated arm movements. I am neither a choreo klutz (anymore!) nor a born dancer, so I would say that I got the moves 80% of the time. The other 10% I just improvised and/or didn't do the arm movements. You have to totally lose self-consciousness to do all the shaking and shimmying.

This is a beginner/intermediate workout in terms of intensity, but the choreography, though done in very short chunks, can be somewhat complex. You really have to let go and "shake it" or else you won't get much out of it. I'm neither a total choreo klutz nor a dancing diva, so for me it was kinda fun, and occasionally painful, to learn all the moves.

Very reminiscent of Fat-Burning Dance Party, Dance Off the Inches and others in terms of bright set, gaggle of stylish girls (to their credit, they have some variety in terms of shapes and sizes, though the majority are still 'It' girls with sleek bodies that they surely didn't get from only doing these workouts!). Each of the four dance segments is composed of about 3 different moves that Marie teaches one by one, then puts together. You do each move twice, then at the end do each of them once, non-stop. Typical moves include the cha-cha; two quick squats right, then left; a "popeye" move where you side-step forward with swinging arms; a samba where you tap forward right, then left, shaking your torso the whole time; and a strut where you walk forward swaying your hips then lunge from side to side. One of the trickiest moves was a fast-time lunge-side-to-side-kneeup immediately followed by a grapevine. Tricky in execution if not concept.

This is Crunch, so as always the background exercisers in general are what I call "painfully hip." I almost never give a thought to fashion, and certainly usually don't care what people wear in workout videos, but I just had to comment on this video. One woman wears a pair of fatigue army pants cut so that one pants leg flaps around and shows the leg, while the other has a big slash across the thigh. I guess it's supposed to be urban hip-hop-cum-military chic, but to me it just looks like a bunch of cats went at it on a perfectly good pair of fatigues. :p Maybe I'm just getting too old! :)

Instructor Comments:
A very competent cuer with a nice sense of humor. "Watch out, Beyonce!" She seems warm, friendly and down-to-earth even when uttering such contrived utterances like, "Shake it, girl!" and doing the occasional whoop that is echoed back by the gang. I would love to see her lead a more intense workout.

acey