Dance Aerobic 4

I'm reviewing this workout after doing it twice (although I've done Marc-Oliver's segment at least half a dozen times).

General workout breakdown: Carol has already described this dance aerobics workout well, so I'll just provide times and a few notes of my own.

The total running time of the main workout is just over 59 min.; with the bonus that comes to just over 73 min.

- Warm-up and stretch (6 min.)

- Petra (14.5 min.) - From Germany, Petra is a born dancer, and her segment probably has the greatest range in terms of inspiration, from Broadway and musical movies (think Dirty Dancing, Fame, etc.) to hip hop and street to studio styles like ballet, jazz, and modern dance. Petra is probably the chattiest instructor, and she's also having the most fun as a background exerciser.

- Pat (16.5 min.) - From Switzerland, Pat keeps things a little more athletic than Petra, but he finds other ways to add flourishes to remind you that you're doing dance aerobics, emphasis on the dance. Pat is probably the quietest of the three; he prefers to let his feet do the talking.

- Julian (18.5 min.) - From Spain, Julian adds in a bit more Latin spice, although he's not all about the mambos and cha chas, that's for sure. Julian goofs up a few times as a background exerciser but is much more focused as a lead, and he's got quite a bit of funk in his step.

- All Together (3.5 min.) - As Carol notes, Petra leads this TIFTing (taking it from the top) portion, if by "lead" you mean "assume the spot in front and only occasionally call out names of moves or give you a visual hint of what's coming up." I did pretty well with the individual pieces, but this part still trips me up because Petra is so sparse with the cuing and because by the time I get to it my brain and feet are tired, so somehow combining these segments together makes it seem like I'm seeing them for the first time.

- Marc-Oliver (14 min.): This also appears on the Evolution Just Dance compilation, where I'd done it before. I agree with Carol that Marc O is his usually goofball self, although he just catches himself before he goes overboard in joking about his pants that are trying to fall off. This piece is entirely separate, with no reference to the others. Marc O's style is also his own, and IIRC the upper body, especially arms, gets a little more involved than in some of the other segments, adding some drama to the steps.

Level: I'd recommend this to at least intermediate exercisers comfortable with decently complex dance-style choreography. This is for the choreography lovers, not the intensity junkies.

I consider myself an int./adv. exerciser, and I also consider myself a big choreo hound, able to pick up choreography that's taught at least halfway decently with relative ease. This is a fun, doable workout that for me is not quite moderately challenging in terms of intensity and just beyond moderately challenging in terms of choreography. I do well with the combos as they're taught, but I still need a few more times before I feel comfortable combining them together. Those darn transitions still trip me up!

Class: Petra, Pat, and Julian take turns leading or being in the background. For Marc O's segment, Petra and another male People in Motion instructor join him as back-up dancers.

Production: clear picture and sound, although the music almost threatens to overpower the instructors"voices. There are some wacky camera angles, including some close-ups of someone's head when you want to see feet and a few spots in Marc O's segment where there's kind of a pause or slow mo bit for a moment or two where shots have been edited together, but I find it still usable.

Equipment: shoes that'll pivot and turn easily on your workout room's flooring. I pull out my dance sneakers for this one. (A cheap substitute is to put a piece of slick tape over the toe box of an old pair of sneakers.)

Space Requirements: This will take as much room as you'll give it. At 5'8" I had to shorten up some of the movements, particularly some of the front to back (or vice versa) sequences, into my space of about 8"wide by 6"deep.

DVD Notes: After the Evolution logo flashes across the screen, your main menu pops up with these options: Play All, Intro (and that includes a long, as in about 5 min., Evolution intro running through all of their instructors plus a shorter intro from Petra with Pat and Julian), Petra, Pat, Julian, Bonus Marc, Evolution Montage, and Bonus Features (Behind the Scenes; Bloopers; Bonus Blocks, which here is a segment from Christiane Reiter's Reit House Moves; People in Motion Previews; Evolution Aerobic, Dance & Step Previews; and How to Make an Evolution Video?). The main workout is actually divided into 8 chapters (blocks 1-8 on some of the sub-menus), including one for the warm-up and another for all together.

Comments: People in Motion are certainly on the dancier side of dance aerobics, compared to, say, my favorites Christi Taylor and Marcus Irwin. It's been a while since I've done Patrick Goudeau's dance workouts, but if you want to go even more into dance, check him out, or look into some of the other more recent Evolutions, like Christiane Reiter or Robert Steinbach or Balazs Fuzessy. The closest American instructor I can think of is Rob Glick, although he tends to be much more Latin dance-influenced whereas People in Motion draw from a broader dance repertoire, including jazz, musical theater, hip hop, and even ballet. Petra Kolber's brand of dance aerobics is also somewhat similar, but her choreography is much less complex and more aerobics-based. Interestingly, Rob and Petra have both hung out with the Evolution crew, so this isn't a coincidence.

Dance Aerobic 3 vs. Dance Aerobic 4: Both are products of People in Motion and use similar styles of dancey aerobics, but Marc O leads all of 3 (with Petra and their friend Bianca as back-ups), 3 is set on one of the "black abyss" sets, 3 has no warm-up, although it does TIFT at the end, and 3 has a lot - and I mean A LOT - of down time, with step touches and marching in place and boogying down in between run-throughs. All that said, I'm still rather partial to 3 because a) I'm one of those Marc imagines yelling, "gimme more, Marc, please," only I shout, "gimme more Marc, please," b) for reasons I can't quite articulate I prefer 3's choreography (although maybe once I know 4 better I'll appreciate its more), and c) 3 was my intro to Marc O, whose fun personality instantly catapulted him onto my list of favorite instructors, so it'll always be a sentimental favorite.

People in Motion - Dance Aerobic 4

For anyone who enjoys dance-based aerobic choreography, this one's for you! Dance Aerobic 4 is filled with fun but doable moves. As always, there are lots of twists and turns. Same Evolution set (red backdrop) and music. "People in Motion" are all great dancers and do a decent job of cuing. They all appear comfortable in front of the camera (despite a few goof-ups) and charming.

Petra Kluike (Marc-Oliver's wife) starts things off with a 6 minute warmup and stretch. She then teaches two 32-count asymmetrical blocks, and then runs them through together twice. Next Pat Seifried takes center stage and gives you four 16 count asymmetrical blocks, combining them at the end of his segment twice. Julian Crespo takes over next, showing us four 16 count asymmetrical combos. He also combines them twice at the end of his segment.

Petra takes over again at this point, combining everyone's choreography and going through it all twice. At this point you have nearly an hour of material, but you're not done yet! Next you get a bonus section from Marc-Oliver Kluike, who gives you 2 more 16-count asymmetrical combos with some very funky and different-than-I've-heard-before music. Marc does a lot of joking around, as usual.

You'll have to do your own cooldown and stretch as there is none provided.