Perfect mix is a charming but strange program. Certainly not a "perfect mix."

The program is divided into three sections that don't really go together. First there's a more or less traditional beginner pilates mat work segment with a bit of yoga thrown in. Next, a dance/sculpt segment that's done to some nice flamenco-type music. Jennifer uses light hand weights in a series of controlled flowing motions and has her class with her for this segment only. Finally there's a yoga-based segment that's supposed to energize and wake you up.

It's a lovely program. The segments, taken by themselves, are all quite nice. The pilates segment is well instructed. The dance/sculpt is dreamy to do, and Jennifer's treatment of Kundalini breath-of-fire during the yoga segment is one of the best I've seen on a beginner/intermediate video.

But I do have some reservations -

1) what's up with the sequence? Isn't the prevailing philosophy that there should be a light warm up followed up by cardio work, then strength/core or whatever, then stretch? So why are we core training first, then doing our little dance, then doing yoga? 2) the dance/sculpting segment is very pleasant to do - graceful, dancey but doable, but I guess I have serious questions about whether it does genuinely provide either cardio conditioning or sculpting. 3) the yoga segment repeats many of the postures and exercises of the pilates segment, which makes you feel a bit silly when you do all three. Also, the Jennifer energizer-bunny chatter about how the yoga segment is going to wake me up and get me raring to go was somewhat disconcerting because I did the segment at night (but I was able to sleep just fine, thank you!).

I get the sense that Jennifer is being spin-doctored a bit - someone is whispering in her ear telling her to call her dance routine cardio-sculpt so people will buy the tape, similarly, it can't just be "breath of fire", it has to be a.m./p.m energizer. Jennifer has a beautiful smile, but you get the feeling someone's said "smile for the camera" and sometimes her facial expressions come off sort of false.

At the end of the three segments I was left with two thoughts, first - "gee, that was really fun and kind of unusual, I'd like to do it again", but second, "did I really get a work out?" A guilty pleasure, I guess.

I would describe the overall level as intermediate. The dance/sculpt segment would intimidate an exercise newcomer.

I would describe the set as "minimalist Firm". Sort of a romanesque marble statute thing happening, but uncluttered.

Regarding the DVD features, there aren't many. You can chose the sequence of the three segments, and you can turn off the spoken instruction in the dance-sculpt segment so there's just music - but it looks kinda goofy. Jennifer's lips are moving but you can't here what she's saying! You can't modulate the sound, i.e., raise the music level, lower the voice over - you must choose A or B - and, as I say, this feature is only available on the one segment. This is unfortunate because the music on the lst and 3rd segments is close to inaudible. I've heard that the video version of this program is sort of visually grainy. I wouldn't characterize the DVD this way.

Jane C