The Body Training Collection - Gym Dance (DVD 2004)

Like many people, I feel more motivated to work out by dancing than by pumping iron or doing an aerobics class, and I like trying a variety of dance styles, so I decided to add this attractively priced title to my DVD collection.

It is divided into three sections set to different styles of music: latin, african and classical remix. The first two sections include warm up, toning and stretching, while the third consists of warm up and stretching. The steps set to the music are not necessarily 'authentic' steps of the styles normally associated with the three types of music and are quite unusual. Don't expect to learn to dance in the latin, african or classical style from this DVD. In fact, many of the movements look too gawky and ungainly to be most people's idea of dance at all.

My first impression was that the music was terribly quiet in relation to the voice-over, which is a bit of a disadvantage for a dance workout! Unfortunately the woman doing the voice-over seems either not to be able to see what is happening on the screen while she is narrating, or to have no sense of rhythm, as the instructions are rarely synchronised with the demonstration, so you really have to follow the demonstration and ignore the voice.

On the plus side, it offers a variety of short and unusual workouts, and Nancy Marmorat demonstrates with energy and enthusiasm.