Motivation Integration: Step Choreography

Jennifer Mills Palmer

Categories: Step Aerobics



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This is a Sara City production made for instructors to get choreography ideas for their classes. The entire class is taught from that perspective along with tips on how to teach moves, integrate the choreography, etc. Because it is a not-recent Sara City workout, the production values are pretty basic. The workout is led by Jennifer Mills with two background exercisers in a basic studio. As far as the music goes, I can’t tell you anything about it – don’t remember it. It must have been pretty basic instrumental exercise class type music. I didn’t have a problem with the production values, but then I’m not very picky about those things.

This was my first workout done by Jennifer Mills and I’d be interested to do another workout of hers that is done more for the end user. She talks to the whole time – mainly about how to teach, explaining the choreography, explaining options with the choreography, etc. She jokes a lot with the background exercisers. Her demeanor is loose and fun, like she’s in a roomful of people she knows well who are colleagues. I wished she was just a little bit more formal. At times, she or the background exercisers totally mess up. With her, it doesn’t happen to much, but when it does it’s like she forgets where she is in the choreography.

My clocking of the workout went as follows:

Warm up, 9 minutes
Step choreography, 36 minutes
Cool down and stretch, 11 minutes
Lecture at the end, 30 minutes. Didn’t watch it. The cover says it’s there. I assume it is.


I probably won’t keep this workout. The choreography was fairly fun and pretty basic, but I have other workouts at the same choreography level that I enjoy more. When I say it’s pretty basic, I’m comparing it to Christi Taylor, Marcus Irwin, Andre Houle, etc. Someone who is new to stepping and/or likes totally basic choreography probably would find this workout frustrating. But, if you have moved beyond the most basic tapes and want something a step up choreographically, this might be a decent workout for you.

Instructor Comments:
She was chatty, likable, informative.

Laura S.

12/20/2004

This got some ho-hum comments when it came out a few years ago, so I wasn't expecting to like it. However, I do like Jennifer Mills (now Jennifer Palmer), so I decided to try it since it's only $10 from Sara's City. Much to my surprise, I found it quite good and it's one I'll be keeping. The entire workout is about 55 minutes, including a warm-up and cool-down. Jennifer's choreography is athletic-style, intermediate to high-intermediate. The intensity ranges anywhere from intermediate (early on) to advanced or lower-advanced. It's fun, and it stays interesting. In some of Jennifer's workouts, she has a tendency to TIFT way too much, but I did not find this to be so here. She does TIFT, but it's just the perfect amount. The single annoyance I found with the tape is that sometimes she seems to be making up the routine on the fly, and ends up cueing late. This mostly happens early in the workout, and, since her choreography is not really complicated, it's not too hard to catch back up with her. As for the production quality, the picture is a little blurry like a lot of the Sara's City tapes, but it's not horrible. The sound is good -- I can hear both Jennifer and the music. Grade A-.

Annie S.

08/24/2003