What Is It
Dancinerate is a fitness DVD instructed by Ilyse Baker. Ilyse is known for her in-person dancing fitness classes over in California, so for those of us who can’t quite move states to attend a fitness class, we now have the Dancinerate dance fitness DVD!
The DVD includes two separate workouts. The first workout is the “Sexy Broadway Jazz” which fuses ballet, modern dance, and jazz to work on your upper body and core. The second workout, “Hip Hop Funk” focuses on the legs, lower body, and core through a hip hop routine. Both of those routines are 22 minutes each. Plus, if you want a bit of extra bit of firming and toning, there’s a 5-minute section called “Dancers Abs and Bootylicious Buns”. So if you want to do the full DVD, you’re looking at a 54 minute workout – which is actually pretty standard and definitely achieveable for a lot of different people despite busy schedules.
My Opinion
I love exercise classes, but there’s always the issue that they are at specific times and at specific places. When you live in the rural Midwest like I do, that also means that all the unique and amazing fitness classes are nowhere near where I live. That’s why I love it when instructors, like Ilyse Baker, come up with at-home DVD versions of their in-class workouts. This way, I can do things on my own time, in my own home, and I can still get the feeling of working with the instructor like I would in a live class.
The workouts on the Dancinerate DVD are definitely enjoyable! I like both the hip hop and the jazz versions, and I can feel my abs (and how hard they’ve worked!) on the days after when I do the Bonus Ab workout that’s included. The Ab workout is definitely challenging, so if you haven’t been working on your abs, I’d say that it’s definitely possible to get annoyed or not be able to do the workout. However, you can modify the movements based upon your own judgement to make it work best for you.
My biggest complaint is that the workout doesn’t have too much cueing and you really don’t “learn” the routine. Instead, Illyse Baker jumps right into the routines without taking time to really “slowly” introduce you to the moves. This means that you should definitely expect to do this DVD at least 2 to 3 times before you really know what you’re doing. Don’t get frustrated in the beginning when it’s slightly confusing. Instead, understand that this will make it easier to do in the future because there won’t be any slow and frustrating “teaching” segments, and instead, you’ll go straight into the full portion of the workout itself. However, it would have been nice if the “Dancinerate” workout DVD had included a small, separate section that slowed down the routines and really helped to teach you the moves. In it’s defense, though, the Hip-Hop Funk one seems ot have a lot more explanation of moves than the Sexy Broadway Jazz segment does.
As a note, though, much like Zumba and other dance classes, once you learn the routines, they are relatively repetitive, so it’s not like it’s a “music video” type of dance. It’s long strings of similar movements that repeat in a fun and easy-to-do way that will get your heartrate raised without being too frustrating.
I also found myself wishing that Ilyse Baker had chosen to provide a “lower intensity” version of the moves as well. For some people, a lot of the jumping and hopping is going to be pretty hard on the joints and the heart. I’d have loved to have seen one of the three instructors provide a lower-intensity workout that would have been suitable for those who were pretty out of shape.
As for how well it works, Dancinerate DEFINITELY raised my heartrate! I was sweating by the time I was done with the DVD – every single time I did it. When I really wanted a higher impact workout, I went with the Sexy Broadway Jazz since there’s a lot more hops and larger movements, but I felt more “cool” (though I’m sure I didn’t look that way) doing the Hip Hop Funk workout. On the days where I had a ton of time, I would do the entire DVD. No matter what I chose to do, I was definately ready for a shower by the time I was done.
Pros
The Dancinerate workout DVD does exactly what it promises – it raises my heartrate and provides a good cardio workout while still being realy fun and enjoyable! Plus, I can choose two different workouts depending on the day and how I feel.
Cons
Dancinerate definitely has a learning curve. Expect to need to do the DVD a couple times before you’re going to be able to really keep up with the moves.
Recommended
If you tend to get frustrated easily, you’ll definitely want to understand in advance that Dancinerate will require a bit of a learning curve. However, once you learn how to do it, the DVD is fun and enjoyable, and it really provides a good workout!
Buy It
The Dancinerate DVD is available directly from the Ilyse Baker website as well as available for purchase anywhere where workout DVDs are sold.
