The first few times I did Janis's other videos, Kickbox Express and Kick It!, I'd been frustrated with the complex choreography and drawn-out lengths of time--I'm more of a Tae-Bo style aficionado. But the more I did her videos, the more they grew on me, and I started to feel a sense of accomplishment when I got her combos down, and to appreciate going at an intermediate pace for a long time to get a good workout as a supplement to the usual diet of 30-50 minutes of hardcore drill-style aerobics.

So I got Ringside Kick-It. I liked it more than I would have if I hadn't been converted to a Janis fan, but it doesn't measure up to her best workouts. Janis and some half dozen followers are shown dwarfed in a huge gym with a big window showing some sort of hillside. The acoustics are bad; it's hard to hear her without turning up the volume. Occasionally the camera person tries to be artsy by flashing the folks in black-and-white or angling looking-up shots of Janis' face so you see her smile a little self-consciously while she's instructing.

The first half hour is high-low kickboxing, putting together three combos that are fairly short and simple by Janis standards. Combo one is a double punch, cross-punch, back kick, jumping jack-hop and switch to the other side. Combo two is a double punch, bob and weave back, two knees, jump-kick, roundhouse with other leg and switch. Combo three, you punch forward three times, cross punch, side kick, do the cross-country ski shuffle, two squats and jumping jack back four times, two side kicks, two uppercuts, then switch.

She adds on move by move so that you learn the combos, then does them three times quite fast!

The second half hour is with the step bench. It's rather cool the way she designed the choreagraphy so that you're mirroring a partner on the opposite side of the step, (but it works fine solo) though I think most real-life exercisers would have some trouble bumping into each other at first.

You do a few combos including jab-cross-jab, squat on the step, back-kick and forward kick on the step; jab-side jab and side- kick-front-kick on the step, plus shuffling to the other side. It goes by fast; before you know it you're facing your partner, straddling the step, taking turns doing hooks over each other's heads.

Then comes a whole lot of shuffling, which eventually becomes shuffling and punching in a full circle around the step. The shuffling section gets a little tedious because she talks alot and you're just shuffling forever. It ends with a bunch of deep squats.

It's a tribute to Janis that I caught on to the choreography fairly quickly, since I'm used to harder and longer stuff from her. But the result is that I didn't feel like I got a very intense workout. Her other tapes aren't necessarily higher intensity but they're longer and more complex so you end up feeling like you got a good workout if only because of the length of time! As always, if you use weighted gloves you get a better workout, but overall advanced exercisers would use this as an easy-day short workout.

Janis is a lovable instructor whose cuing and on-camera oratory has improved a lot since her earlier videos. Still friendly and engaging but less forced goofy-cuteness. Too bad it's hard to hear her at all in the echoes of the vast hall. The music is instrumental dance-club techno stuff which sometimes seemed a bit off in the rhythm of the workout.

Cheeena