This DVD was my first experience with the Island Girl Dance Fitness series, taught by instructor Kili Kilihune. Kili teaches the workout barefoot with two background exercisers against a gorgeous Hawaiian backdrop. The music is mostly a strong drum beat throughout the approximately 32-minute workout. The DVD is chaptered, breaking up the workout itself into the warm-up, dance instruction, dance, and cool-down.

Prior to the start of the workout, Kili and friends begin with a very brief dance demonstration. The 4-minute warm-up begins slowly with hip swings, but Kili quickly brings these up to tempo. Additional moves include side-to-side steps and standing obliques; the warm-up concludes with a standing glute stretch.

During the main portion of the workout, Kili introduces various hula steps, starting slow, then bringing them up to tempo. The DVD case states that the workout "combines traditional hula with modern fitness moves," and Kili does a nice job at making this combination appear seamless. For example, one of the first steps she teaches is kaholo, what she says is the most important basic step in hula--sort of a hip sway while stepping from side-to-side. To this move, she ups the intensity by adding level changes and knee lifts. Similarly, after you learn another hula step, ka'o, which involves alternately lifting the heels, Kili adds a basic squat. Some of the steps, such as hela (a sort of lunge) focus more on the glutes, where as others, such as 'ami (waist rotation) target the abs.

Once Kili has taught you seven basic hula steps, she leads you through the simple dance that she and the other two women demonstrated at the start of the workout. The first time, Kili cues the various steps, but then the dance is repeated two more times without the cueing--I found this a bit tricky and would have preferred if she had cued throughout. The workout concludes with an approximately 6-minute cool-down. Here Kili again slows down the moves, performing gentle side stretches, hip rolls, side steps, and the same glute stretch that she did in the warm-up.

Instructor Comments:
Overall, this is a nice little light cardio/light toning workout. I was impressed that Kili provided very good, mirrored cueing and that workout did move quick enough to get my heart rate up a little at times. If you are looking for intense cardio or sculpting, this DVD probably isn't for you, but if you want a lighter, easy-to-follow dance workout, this might fit the bill. As mentioned above, Kili cues very well. The only thing that I found slightly annoying was that EVERY time she introduced a new move, she stated "this is what it looks like"--a minor complaint. ;)

Beth C (aka toaster)