Search - Chantal Pierrat: Soul Sweat on DVD

Danita M. from BRUCETON MLS, WV
Reviewed on 4/21/2011...

I first did this exercise dvd's at my daughters. The moves were certainly different, so I wanted to get my own copy and master them. It moves your body in different ways, but certainly gets your heart moving. An excellent change of pace, and long enough to be challenging. I could recommend it.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Trish S. (HarleyT) from MORENO VALLEY, CA
Reviewed on 12/30/2007...

If you are looking for something different, you'll like this DVD. I happen to like a more free dance video and this is a bit more intense than most. It starts with a 5 minute warm-up/stretch. The main part of the 40 minute aerobic section is a combination of ballet, African/Brazillin moves and free-style. Even though the music is soothing, the moves really got my heartrate up. Lots of flowing arms and long step movements. Loads of fun! I'll keep this one.

Good Workout Best dance DVD I own

YogaGirl | san francisco, ca United States | 02/18/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I did this DVD this morning and I have to say that I did work up a sweat. You have a choice between a 45 or 30 minute workout followed by a yoga-lite stretch. The dances are routines to 9 songs and the class builds in intensity with each song and then cools downs with the last song. If you have thick pile carpet as I do, you won't be able to move as freely as the dancers do. There are a couple of pivots,chasses and turns.

Music: Techno world beat music. Very rhythmic and earthy. Think Shiva Rea Trance Dance type music. However, it wasn't loud enough for me. I do my workouts in the morning and I can't turn up the TV too loud for fear of waking up my spouse. I could barely hear the music over the teacher. I gave it 4 stars for this. Great world beat music but you can't hear it unless your TV is very loud or you have surround sound speakers, which I don't have. Also she doesn't have a music only option, so I went on omstream and calabashmusic and downloaded 7 of the 9 songs, bought 1 album (Dance, Dream Dance)Because I like Shaman's Dream, and put the music on my ipod. I turn the sound down and listen to the music in my ears. When you hear the music in stereo with heart beating bass, you can feel it in your soul. I wish you could feel that on the DVD. Sometimes the music is out of sync with the DVD on mute, but if you pause the DVD and start up again you can usually get it back in sync, and anyway I know the routine so well that I dance facing away from the tv screen. This may seem like a lot of effort but I tell you that this music is meant to be heard LOUD. Especially the Bob Holroyd song. That song jams!!. I think that soundstrue should re-do the DVD with the music louder than the teacher and extra bass. Or at least a music only option!!!!!!!!!!!!

Setting: 6 dancers (I think, with 1 guy in the back) No professional dancers here, just regular folks in a hardwood floor studio.

Routine: Loved it. A cross between jazz, modern, african and latin dance moves. Again very earthy. No ballet here. You feel it in your lower and upper body. Lots of arm movements. Ths is like a Nia class. In fact Chantal is a Nia certified teacher. After each routine segment there is a short free form segment to keep you moving until the next song. You never stop moving. I didn't know how out of shape I was, because I had to stop several times to catch my breath. There is a separate tutorial that teaches you all of the routines. Didn't look at that as I follow along pretty well. One more thing, she DOES NOT do mirror image to you. When she says left or right she is talking about her left or right NOT yours. But the moves are so simple that you can just go in the direction she does.

What's missing: In my opinion what is missing from this class was a good floor routine. The yoga stretching at the end didn't do it for me. It consists of deep squat, side warrior, open legged stretches, butterfly, thread the needle and child's pose. I was so warmed up that some ab work and intense stretching would have been perfect. In a Nia class they have something called floorplay that Chantal didn't include on this DVD. Next time I do the class, I will use Core abs & forward bends from Shiva Rea's fluid power DVD as her type of dancey yoga is a perfect compliment to this DVD. One other suggestion is, if after the deep sweat you need more, you can put on Shiva Rea's Trance dance and bliss out some more. I felt that I needed just a little more bliss.

Overall: Will I do this again? YES! Will just add my own stretches at the end. I hope she comes out with another DVD soon! (See my review on "Dancer's Body workout, Patricia Moreno" Take note, Soul Sweat is what a dance workout DVD should be!!!)"

Great positive meditative dance

Lena, LMT | Nassau, NY | 04/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great workout if you are looking to sweat, not have any breaks as you are dancing hard/fast & know you are picky about great music to dance by that puts you in a great mood.
There is a 20 min tutorial with no music where Chantal alone shows you all the moves & the 12+ combos you will do. This is a little slow/boring, but it she breaks it down so well, anyone could get it so when you do the dancing, you know you'll get it easy, just a question of getting use to the speed. The dances are quite simple have have things such as easy steps like grapevine, v/square step, box step, cha-cha, chasse (easy stepping 2x quickly), plies, 2 different basic turns, etc. All these steps feel great since they are easy to do, but really strech your muscles at the same time really work the abs/obliques as well as the legs. She adds a lot of arm movements so your arms & chest get the same treatment & you really open up.
There are two workouts, quick sweat (30 min) & Deep Sweat (45 min). Tehre are 5 women & 1 man. Chantal & all the dancers have quick text bios in the bonus section & they are everyday people who love to dance.
The music is the strong suit, she had a great marketing idea to get great music that normally musicians didn't in the past want to be used by fitness dvds & making sure the names of the group & song are featured so you can buy them. The music is very positive & help put you in a better mood. Chantal does a great job of only speaking to tell you what moves are next or only every so often, remind you of the energy your body is producing that doesn't get in your way of connecting to the music.
I had no problem hearing the music though, yes, it could be louder in relation to her sound level.
There is also a 13 min stretch chapter that uses (not in this order) mountain, standing fwd bends, Indian style bending fwd, butterfly, sitting wide legged side stretching & torso to side stretch, kneeling arm to the side stretch, side angle & child's pose. The pace was slow & relaxed & did feel good, though, as another said, short.

You can see a trailer at soundstrue & soon at her site soulsweatdance."

I Love to Dance!

Gina McEnroe | Australia | 03/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I fell in love with Ana Brett & Ravi Singh's Dance the Chakras Yoga Workout and wanted to find more just like it. This is the closest I've found. I love it. The moves are earthy, easy to do, and fun. Chantal has awesome abs. I would give it 5 stars but the stretching/yoga section was not very good and I like to feel the music pulse through me when I dance and in this one I couldn't turn it up without her voice blasting as well. Overall though, I really love this DVD and will do it again."