Got my DVD on Monday and did it Monday night and last night - I did dancing when I was younger but nothing for at least 12 years, some parts when they went into the routine were quite difficult to keep up with, I especially found Erin's Quickstep a bit confusing. All the routines are a good workout and for the majority I find that I can keep up with most of the routines, when I did it last night, I went through the instructional part at the beginning of each routine, just to try and familiarise myself with the steps and the names of the steps because Karen and Erin use the names of the steps during the routines and when I was doing it for the first time I couldn't remember what they were talking about!!
It does give a good all round workout and my legs are killing me this morning!! I would recommend this DVD and I will be doing it a lot more.

I mithered my mum to get it me all week and she's finally caved in so i've just tried it now. On the disk there was:

warm up (with both karen and erin)
cha cha (with erin)
salsa (with karen)
quickstep (with erin)
jive (with karen)
samba (with both)
cool down (with both)

I only had the energy to do the warm up, salsa and cool down (it was very hard work) but it will definitley get me fit.

I chose to do the salsa because Erins cha cha was complicated footwork whereas Karen's salsa had a lot of hip-moving (it looks like Erin's dances are in general more comlicated than Karen's).

I couldn't do all the moves though because my living room is quite small () but it should be ok for average living rooms. It's very tiring excercise but well worth the money.

Do they explain all the steps first? That would be handy. Or is one supposed to watch and dance along straight away?
Do the DVDs teach entire dances as danced on SCD but which you can do without a dance partner? (Doesn't seem like it on the preview..)
What songs are used?

I did exactly the same thing today. Thought the Cha Cha was a bit much for me until I watch it a couple of times.

I think it is an exercise DVD rather than a 'how to dance' DVD.

It is an exercise DVD, it does use dance steps. They do explain the steps prior to you trying the routine though!

Having had a go yesterday...

I think Erin and Karen are slightly better at explaining than Lilia and they seem to go through it more times in the instructions and show you slowly and at pace (in Lilia's one you often got it slowly but then she did it 20x that speed in the real thing!).

As for the difficulty of the dances I would probably rate them (from easiest to hardest):

- Samba (shorter and seemingly with less steps)
- Salsa
- Cha cha (looks more complicated than it is)
- Quickstep (actually not too bad apart from one step. Is obviously very quick!)
- Jive (again, general speed does this one in although the steps aren't too bad)

I wouldn't recommend it if you don't either pick things up quickly or like a challenge because you could find yourself getting frustrated. An improvement over Latinasize in that I think the instruction is better, the routines are longer giving you a better work out and I love the inclusion of the Quickstep.

I've just skimmed through this once but it looks fun. It does seem like more of a mental workout thinking about the steps rather than a physical workout.
I like the look of the jive and quickstep.
The music is great, you can imagine that your are Jill or Denise for a few seconds. The samba is done to the theme tune.
But I really feel like I should decorate my tracksuit bottoms with sequins though.

There are also instructional videos (which you have the option to play) before the workouts. They go through the steps at a slower pace and in more detail

Well, I'm taking time on Christmas day to post here because I bought the DVD for my daughter, who is currently giving it a go (after Christmas dinner, lots of chocs and a fair bit of alcohol) and shouting the odds at both Karen and Erin because she says it's too hard.

I got this for Christmas from my mum, not had a go yet, I'm waiting for the family to go out later in the week

You can't wait? Getting it for your mum eh? And then to borrow, no doubt!

Ah, QED

My neighbour bought this! I'm hoping to pinch it! sounds like fun!

I must point out that Erin was very adamant that they didn't pick the outfits!!!

hi everyone!

read with interest what you had to say on this DVD!

I posted this on my home thread (Team Cutler Appreciation) this morning - this is how I found it......

" have just watched (not DONE lol) the Dancercise DVD.

I sat watching it eating a box of chocolates! Which is NOT the idea, I AM aware.

I have never been a great fan of Karen Hardy - but I have to say she is really brilliant in this video.

Of the two of them - Karen and Erin - I think Karen seems to be the one who explains the routines the best.

They do a warm up which is excellent - then Erin does the cha cha cha - and here, I feel you really need to know the cha cha steps beforehand - otherwise it looks too difficult for someone who has never danced before, and she doesn't talk you through it quite as well as Karen does.

However, Erin does much better with the quickstep routine - this is fun although can be a bit difficult in places.

Karen's samba is huge fun and she explains it well - and talks you through it all the way.

They do the jive too but I haven't watched that far yet! Chocolates ran out!

This was very useful for me as a beginner - my "dancing state" as it were, is that I started to learn Latin and Ballroom from February last year and I only go once a week. With the school holiday breaks when my dance studio takes a break as well, it has meant that although it sounds a long time, I am still very much a beginner/early intermediate.

Am going to watch the other ones first then I think later today I might try Karen's samba routine after the warm up.

Will report back and tell you how I find it.

And if I don't appear back on here, you'll know I'm dead lol.

Karen seems to understand a woman's psyche better than Erin (don't mean that in a funny way since I love Erin!) - and I know women always go on about childbirth etc - but your body REALLY does change - not always fatter but just what your body can do at times - it certainly changes the way your upper body moves because your rib cage has moved during pregnancy and it doesn't go back! And I think because she HAS had a baby herself, she understands how that feels and how you work round it.

For me - she worked better all round, so maybe I shall be revising my opinion of her - she was also incredibly encouraging.

I found it to be a DVD that I will actually USE. You can just choose one of the routines if you want to, don't have to do them all. So often, when you buy these things, you're all enthusiastic and go for it like mad, then toss it on a pile - but with this one, I felt it would help me in my dance class, and its a workout that I actually WANT to do as well. If you do just one routine, I would have time to incorporate it quickly into my day - am going to try and do one a day.

Overall I thought it was excellent - but I DID feel it was of great benefit to be doing dance classes - otherwise I felt that you would be learning routines AND basic dance steps as well - it is quite hard and I don't know if I would recommend it to someone who hasn't danced the formal steps of the dances before.

just my opinion.

I haven't done it yet - I'll probably be on here moaning away that I couldn't do it!

we shall see! I have now put the chocolates away!

and I'll try it later!

enjoy everyone!

Great review

i might buy it ... the only thing that was putting me off was Karen since i am not a massive fan .... sounds good though, i watched the clip that is on play.com and even though it looks a tad complicated it don't half look like fun!

I bought Lilia's today and i have to say it is a better all round DVD than the first one and there is a longer explaination before each one.

N x

That's a great review, I really want it now!! Erin's fabulous, she's my teacher so I'm used to the way she explains things and stuff. I 'm not Karen's biggest fan but I'll over look that! I'm happy my neighbour has it, I can try before I buy!

I got it for Christmas but haven't tried it yet. My dad also got it for my mum, along with a sparkly glitterball so she could have a trophy!

^ thats really sweet!

N x

I brought the dvd today, i airnt tried it yet though.

Even though i airnt watched strictly come dancing on tv i wanted to learn a new type of dancing and get more exercise and this dvd looked really good. I cant wait to try it out later. What songs are on it?

Found this one - hope it helps!

(Site was very slow to load though, even on a broadband link)

I got my daughter the dancersize DVD and n one of her housemates at unihad it too . She had a text today saying it was so difficult her friend just sat down and watched it

I just tried my dancersize dvd and it was really fun but extremly exhausting!! I done three dances and i'm exhausted!! My favourite was the quick step it was really energetic but really fun (and i use to go line-dancing* so i reconised some of the steps in the quick step that they used at line-dancing)

*I know alot of older people go line-dancing so i just thought i'd let everyone know, i'm not old. I'm 16.

I finally got the house to myself yesterday and put on the dvd to have a go. I did the warmup and then decided to have a go at the jive first since it's my fave dance. I did manage to get to the end of it but admittedly I ended up flat on the carpet wondering if I needed an ambulance! I could tell I hadn't done any dancing for a few weeks! It's a great routine though and I can't wait to try all the others.

I bought Lilia's Latina Size dvd last year and I enjoyed it but I found the dance steps a bit too easy because I do a lot of dancing (although the workout was still good). This dvd seems to have more challenging steps and the workout is great as well. I'm really looking forward to trying the quickstep as well because it looks fun.

Thanks

I got it for xmas, and went to have a go yesterday, but only had time to do the warm up... but I have to say, it was great fun and I will be definitely attempting the rest

Tried this out today (only just bought it). Did the warm up (ok), Cha Cha (got lost even though I know some Cha Cha) and Salsa (easier).

Thought it gave a good workout though and enjoyed doing the steps, and didn't need too much space for these particular dances (but then they are more or less on the spot). Will continue with cha cha and salsa for a while as they target the right parts of the body for me.