Search - The Artistry of Fitness on DVD

Balance/Coordionation/Stretching 3 full workouts

Lena, LMT | Nassau, NY | 06/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I love Stephanie Herman's Dance with Me Ballet. She has GREAT body awareness, which she should since she was a prima ballerina for over 10 years & has dance with many of the famous ballet dancers. They're originally on VHS & seem to be low budget copies. There is only one menu w/the 3 workout choices:

Fitness though conscious movement - 36 min Mixed music, mostly light, some nicer tempos. Stephanie on small black stage with a student. Very slow paced, easy ballet movements that work on fine tuning your movements to add grace, balance, coordination & body awareness. There are some kicks, but they are done slowly to work on balance alone, not power/cardio. This is for people who want to fine tune their ballet dancing or who need to work on coordination, rehabilitation, older generation, etc. This is a VERY easy workout, there will be no increased heart rate & may be found very boring.

Espirit De Danse - 40 min Same stage as her other 2 workouts, her & 2 female students, great world beat like like Engima music, Irish music, Olympic inspired music, jazzy music all to go perfectly with her movements. Still more about coordination, balance & being more graceful & body aware. More dancey & more normal paced type workout that uses the same movements from the Fitness though Conscious Movement, but also adds more leg lifts in different angles for balance & even a touch of easy moves from Irish dance & big band swing.
The most demanding of the 3, more a normal workout feel since movements change often & a lot of leg lifts & kicks. I felt more in balance, coordination doing it. The movements are repeated many times over a small amount of routines & got a bit boring, but they were easy to follow & did work to help my coordination & learned a few easy jazz, swing, Irish moves which was a nice bonus.
You don't really need to do her other workout to follow along. If you like to work on being more graceful balance/coordination with a lot of dance kicks, this is for you. If you get bored easily or have good balance & can kick forward, side & back w/o teetering, this is too easy for you. If you get bored easily, this also might not be for you.

Stretch & Feel it! - 37 min. basic good stretching, yoga, toning, balance, pilates to really stretch you out. She uses different music from classical to world beat. Some of the sound on my disk was a bit muffed here & there, but still good & even one time the music was louder then her mic. She is on a stage with 2 backup women, one doing modifications. There is some table, camel, leg lifts, fwd bends, leg stretches, modified push ups, etc. I felt much loser/freer in my joints after doing this, but not as much as her "Dance with me Ballet" which really helped my cure my tight joint problem for days like nothing else could, but definitely better the many stretching workouts & some yoga ones as well.

You can read more about her at her site muscleballet (name of her first workout vhs)"

Lean and Long

Eva Funk | IL USA | 05/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stephanie Herman's workouts make me feel lean and long. They combine dance moves, yoga breathing, pilates toning and even dancers' physical therapy exercises. I do Workout #1 "Fitness through conscious movement" when I don't feel too energetic. It allows to work every body part without jumping around and exhaustion. I save "Esprit De Danse" Workout #2 for my energetic days. It is a fun, cardiovascular, dance-type workout. And #3 "Stretch and Feel it" is a fantastic feel-good-all-over stretch routine, a tension-reliever, and a breathing exercise that can be done every day of the week. I highly recommend this DVD."

Amazing

antique | san jose ca | 03/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is great product for a large auditorium. For former dancers and for people who wants to start to dance.
i like her fitness program on the floor - really amazing - with minimal efforts, maximum muscle relaxation and training.
i like all Stefanie Herman programs and presented some to friends."