Please note that I wrote this review back in 2004 (yikes - that's 5 years ago!). I have copied and pasted the review as I originally wrote it. I'm not sure how often I did this workout, if at all, after writing about it, and although I held onto this DVD for a while as a lovely workout to watch and a means of evoking lovely childhood memories of dance class (ah, nostalgia... how you make us forget the agonies), I passed it on a few years ago, as ballet workouts are no longer a staple in my collection.

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I’m reviewing this after having it used it somewhat regularly in the past.

General workout breakdown: 6 minute warm-up, 38 minutes of unweighted strength and flexibility work, and 7 minute cool-down / stretch for a total of 51 minutes. The workout consists of 17 sections, with a slight pause between each. This means that you can’t rush through the program. Exercises 1-3 are a moving warm-up done standing; Exercises 4-9 are doing lying on the floor, with Exercise 4 being stretching, Exercises 5-6 working the abs, Exercises 7-9 comprising the “floor barre” (leg exercises traditionally done standing at the barre, but here done on the floor so you don’t have to worry about falling over and can concentrate on your legs, butt, and abs); and Exercises 10-17 are done standing, with Exercises 10-15 working your legs through basic ballet moves (plies, tendus, degages, passés, attitudes, arabesques, etc.), Exercise 16 consisting of little jumps, and Exercise 17 being the Reverence (cool-down / stretch). If you have difficulty with balance, consider doing Exercises 10-15 next to a wall or chair. The moves focus primarily on lower body with some abs and minimal upper body work. The standing work is, as far as I can tell, all ballet. The floorwork includes some traditional stretches, crunches, pushups, and yoga / Pilates-inspired work for the back.

Level: I’d recommend this to an intermediate exerciser. Familiarity with ballet is extremely helpful; familiarity with Pilates and/or yoga is also helpful. You don’t have to be a dancer, though. (Heaven knows I’m not!) I took ballet lessons for 6-7 years 15-20 years ago, and I’ve been practicing yoga for about three years and Pilates for a little less. I’m not sure I’d be able to pick up the form quite as well without some of that experience, although I’m sure more athletically gifted people could. By the way, I don’t have the related book, so if you’re determined to use this video but need extra instruction, you might consider picking that up.

Class: 1-4 dancers from the NYC Ballet corps, with 2 women and 2 men of diverse backgrounds featured. One woman is slightly older, but all four are fairly young.

Music / Set / Other Production Notes: You can choose between gorgeous classical music (which I use) or a modern jazz-inspired soundtrack, both with or without narration. Regardless of your choice, the sound is clear. The interior set is minimal (think solid color backdrop), as the focus is on the dancers. This, along with NYC Ballet Workout 2, is one of the few workout videos in letterbox. The choreography and production are truly beautiful.

Equipment: optional mat for floor segment. The workout can be done barefoot, with ballet slippers, or you can use special split-sole dance sneakers from Bloch or Capezio. I used to do the workout barefoot, pausing for shoes before attempting the jumps because of past knee and ankle problems. Now that I have my Blochs, I use them.

Comments: You need some space for this workout. You should be able to take two big steps to each side and be able to kick front and back. I have to get creative with where I start and end the passé series, but other than that I haven’t had any trouble fitting the movements in.
There is an introduction by Sarah Jessica Parker, who doesn’t otherwise appear in the workout; you can’t skip it, but you can fast forward through it.
In comparison to the New York City Ballet Workout 2 or even Jessica Sherwood’s Ballet Boot Camp (1 or 2), this has less explanation and more basic moves. There is no “movement combination,” so it feels more like a class than practicing a routine for a recital. However, with no standing barre work it doesn’t feel quite like a true ballet class.

DVD Notes: The DVD comes with a booklet offering workout tips and a summary of the program. (Don’t let the photos of the super-flexible dancers intimidate you; you won’t have to do any of those stretches in the workout.) You have the option to select chapters (i.e. segments), so if you only want to do part, you can. (For example, you coulf do the warm up, floorwork, and stretch one day and the warm up, standing work, and reverence another day.) In addition, there are pre-programmed routines for racquet sports, football, and skiing. The DVD extras include biographies of each of the dancers, a behind the scenes look at making the workout, and a brief “Dance and the City” documentary. If you have access to a DVD-ROM, you will also get to see a video glossary, a photo gallery, a trailer, music listings, and weblinks. You may find the book version of the exercise program helpful, particularly if you have little ballet experience, but it is not necessary.

Conclusion: There’s no way I’ll part with this one, even if I only pull it out once in a blue moon. I wanted to be a ballet dancer when I was little, and then reality set in. This video won’t make me sweat buckets, give me that “dancer’s body,” or substitute for real ballet classes with the pink legwarmers and everything, but I don’t care. I enjoy pretending I made it as a dancer after all for those 50 lovely minutes.
With two videos available, I might as well throw my two cents in as to which I prefer. Personally, I have both NYC Ballet Workouts and use them equally. I’m partial to 1 because I’ve had it longer and because it breaks the exercises down into fairly basic moves, but then I like two because it combines moves into little routines. So which one you choose should depend upon what you’re looking for in your ballet video. I say get both. (Insert evil grin here!)

Instructor Comments:
Peter Martins, NYC Ballet Master in Chief, and his British accent instructs (or should I say narrates?) via voice-over. You’ll have to rely on watching the dancers to pick up the exact number of repetitions, the exact moment they begin a new movement, etc., as Peter simply names the exercise and offers a few pointers at more or the less the same time the dancers start doing it. He even ducks out at the end. You’ll need to be familiar with or else quickly pick up ballet terms, because he gives little explanation during the workout, and some of the explanation is rather obvious (e.g. bend your knees to plie). You will have to choose whether to follow the direction cues (their “right” is your “left”) or mirror the dancers, although often it doesn’t matter since Peter doesn’t mention a direction at all.

KathAL79