Customer Reviews

African Grace: A West African Dance For Cardio Fitness

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had high hopes for the 'African Grace: A West African Dance For Cardio Fitness' DVD. I'm afraid I have been spoiled by the high quality instructions in some other dance DVDs (e.g., 'Crunch - Cardio Salsa by Giselle Roque de Escobar', 'Brazilian Dance Workout with Vanessa Issac').

Although the actual West African dance is beautiful, I had a hard time following the instructions. Some of my favorite dance DVDs first demonstrate a new step in full-tempo, then the viewer is asked to dance along to the new step in half-tempo, then full-tempo, then transitioned with the previous step, before dancing to everything learned up to that point. Other favorite DVDs have you repeat a step 8 times, then 4 times, then 2 times, then 1 time in order to 'get it'. There were only a few steps in the 'African Grace' DVD that offered such helpful instruction.

Another problem with the 'African Grace' DVD was the costumes. Although the pants worn were attractive, their bagginess made it difficult for me to interpret what the instructor and other dancers were actually doing with their legs.

I would consider buying a version 2 of this same DVD if the instructions were improved, but could not recommend it as is.

"African Grace" exceeded my expectations. I'm only beginning my fitness journey (yet again) and wanted an alternative workout; something doable but rigorous. This fits my growing ability level and would certainly be effective for the more advanced. Debra Bono is a focused, engaging teacher who sensitively isolates the moves and prepares the way for the next steps. This workout is a wonderful and accessible chance to explore African dance.

I really like Debra Bono and I like this routine, it's just a bit perfunctory. This coming from somebody with a very long dance background who is now taking two courses, sometimes three, in African dance. One of her dancers keeps forgetting steps and getting lost, which is distracting. It is a demanding workout once you get the steps. A bit more cultural background would be great.

Ok this is a wonderful workout program, and I mean workout, The dance is beautiful to watch them do it.(maybe I will look as graceful later) The steps aren't really that hard..except for maybe the bird thing, but if you should catch on pretty quick even if you are just beginning. I plan on getting more of Debra Bono's video and am planning to show the kids how to do the dance at the youth summer program just for fun.

I love watching African dance and thought that this would be a great way to learn some of the moves and get a good workout at the same time.

I'm sure this is a wonderful DVD for those who have done African dance before or who pick up dance steps REALLY quickly. My problem was that the insructor would demonstrate the step very briefly, launch into the move at full speed, and then go on to the next step without much opportunity for the student to practice. I need to do a new step 3-4 times before I'm ready to tackle the next one. The pace was lightening speed which is too bad because the moves are beautiful.

Some insight and African dance moves AND a workout. Really enoyed it and glad I bought it.

Although I was afraid this would be easy because of the title "African Grace" I quickly discoverd that this DVD is very invigorating workout. (I thought is would be graceful and flowing) I have completed it three times so far and I sweat!
I appreciate the encouraging, clear instructions and the fact that the actual cardio workout is longer than 30 minutes (about 45 minutes total cardio with a 5 minutes warm-up and cool-down) If you want to work out for the 30 minutes, there is a break at about that point so that you can skip the second cardio section and go straight to cool down.
The moves are adv. beg to intermediate because of the steps and rhythms, but nothing to difficult that can't be mastered after a few plays.

Just thought I'd share my two cents here, I thought the video was great but what she said was the warm up section should have been much slower. It felt like I was jumping right into the faster aerobics portion. Muscles need time to be warmed up, stretched, etc., before jumping into fast paced work. I liked Debra and her helpers, and the dance is fun and great exercise. The only problem I had was that the warm up should have *been* more of a warm up.

The music/drumming is really, really bad. Dancers are not inspiring at all. The full performance of all of the steps together--which should inspire you to learn all of the steps--is pretty bad. If you know West African dancing at all, or the culture/vibe that surrounds these kind of dance companies, this video might actually seem kind of depressing. Sorry!

Really enjoyed this. Can't wait till I learn the entire thing. It is presented with fun and energy.