Block Party Step

Franny Benedetto
Year Released: 1997

Categories: Step Aerobics


Make sure you have plenty of water on hand when you do this workout. While not as intense as Franny's CIA 9905 tape, it still ranks right up there. The complexity of the choreography is similar to 9905, but it's done at a little slower tempo. It's also taught in the same manner -- 7 combos, and you learn 1, 2, and 3, put those together, learn 4 and 5, put together 1 through 5, and then learn 6 and 7. Except with this one, she runs out of time, and you don't put together combos 1-7 like you do in 9905. While I thought 7 combos were "choreography overload," since I went to the trouble of learning the last two, I really would have liked to put them together.

If I sound like I'm dwelling on 9905, there are two reasons for this: one is that this workout is extremely similar, and also 9905 is one of my favorite step tapes of all time. So I will make one more comparison with 9905, and then I'll move on: Block Party is not as much fun. It's fun enough that I will keep it, but it won't be one of what I call my "classics."

Now that the 9905 comparison is behind me, I'll talk about other things. This is a Sara's City Production. The picture and sound quality are better than in many of the Sara's tapes, but the set is extremely drab. That does have some effect on my enjoyment of the workout. It didn't used to a few years ago, but I'm noticing more and more that I like nice/interesting visuals. Also, the music in this tape is not your typical bland, boring Sara's City music. It's much more like CIA music. It's not outstanding or anything, but a big improvement over many of the Sara's tapes.

As for the choreography, you will recognize Franny's complex but un-dancy style from other tapes. She does the Whirlybird in this one (one of my favorite moves), but it's done just slightly differently. There were a couple of moves that I found extremely awkward -- mainly because I'm short -- but I modified them to suit my needs. There is one combo where you do a back kick - front kick - back kick - front kick that I really like. It just feels good! When you do the back kicks, you stretch your hip flexors and torso out a little bit, which just feels really nice at that point.

Finally, at the end, there is a very short stretch. I would have preferred much more stretching, but I'm pretty sure she shortened it because of the running out of time problem. Overall, I give this an A- for the workout, and a B for production. If we had either put together combos 1-7 or just limited it to 5 combos, I would have ranked this an A.

Annie S.

08/20/2000