Product Details

• Actors: Jessica Sherwood
• Directors: Dante Ludovici
• Format: NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: Ballet Boot Camp
• DVD Release Date: February 14, 2007
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000NIJ4VA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,782 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Fusion of Ballet, Yoga, Pilates & Athletic Stretches, July 15, 2007

By 

DJ (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ballet Boot Camp Stretch (DVD)

I don't know what I was expecting, exactly; perhaps more flowing ballet-style stretches. While there were plenty of ballet-type stretches, there were also plenty of yoga- and pilates-inspired stretches as well. The workouts consists of 9 chapters, and you can skip to any of them at will. Here is a rough breakdown with approximate times: (1) Isolations: this is a fun 5-minute warmup working down from your neck to your hips; I loved the rib rolls and hip rolls, it sorta reminded me of bellydancing; (2) Standing Stretch: this 10-minute stretch routine included some flowing stretches, some static stretches, and some yoga-inspired stretches; (3) Seated Stretch: a short 5-minute mat routine with ballet-style stretches; (4) Ab Work! I was surprised to find 6 minutes of yoga- and pilates-inspired ab work in a stretch routine, but it worked here! (5) Cat Stretch: a 1-minute quick break from abs; (6) More Ab Work! More pilates-inspired ab work, including single and double stretch legs; (7) Reclining Stretch A: 6 minutes of yoga, pilates, and athletic type stretches in which the instructor demonstrates her amazing flexibility by going into a backbend (the other exercises did not do the backbend, so I didn't feel bad about not doing it, either!) (8) Reclining Stretch B: 7 minues of ballet-style stretching, mostly for legs; (9) Splits Preparation: A final 5-minute stretch done in a seated position. Again, the instructor is able to get her legs completely parallel, but the others do not; so again, I didn't feel so bad about not being able to do it myself!

All-in-all, this was a more strenuous workout than I was expecting, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. Jessica sounds a little raspy, like she might have lost her voice from giving so much instruction, but she is very pleasant. No time is wasted demonstrating the moves, so if you don't know what she means by "down-dog" or "passe", you will definitely have to watch it first. I very much enjoyed this fusion-style workout, as well as the classical music which played throughout.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nice stretch dvd (inspired by ballet), October 18, 2008

By 

Florence B. (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ballet Boot Camp Stretch (DVD)

I own both the element ballet dvd and the ballet bootcamp stretch dvd. They are really different! The element ballet dvd has a lot of standing exercises and it's more like a ballet class at the barre. Sometimes you have to do a lot of repetitions and you feel that your muscles are getting sore! So if you like that kind of workouts, buy it!

I really prefer the ballet bootcamp stretch dvd. It doesn't have too many repetitions and it helps to improve the flexibility (for example with the splits). I'm 42 years old and recently started ballet class for beginners. I think both these dvd's are very good for a ballet beginner, and I would advice to buy them both!

I also have Jessica Sherwood's Ballet Bootcamp II dvd. It's also a really good dvd. I hope she'll make some new dvd's in this serie, I'm quite a fan of hers!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stretches but nothing new, April 26, 2011

By 

T. Carr (CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ballet Boot Camp Stretch (DVD)

As a dancer of 20+ years I was excited to try out this dvd to maintain my flexibility and learn some new stretches. While the dvd offers a good variety of stretches, there's nothing here you haven't seen before if you're a dancer. If you're not a dancer I think this is a do-able exercise if you know your limits and are able to modify as needed.

As I said, this does have a nice mix of stretching exercises that are influenced by dance, yoga and pilates, and it's hard to find a good dvd that works primarily on flexibility. While it tends to focus on the legs and hips it also works your core and back and even some foot/ankle stretches are included, an area that's often neglected in workout dvds. As someone with weak ankles this was a nice addition. However, there are some things that may make this difficult for non-dancers or those who aren't as flexible. First of all, she doesn't offer any modifications. While it may be common sense to only stretch to your potential and not push yourself too far, it might have been helpful if she offered gentle reminders and alternatives for those who can not fully go into some of the stretches. Beyond offering modifications, in general she could have given more tips and instruction on proper form. Instead she just tells you where to move next, with little commentary. Also, she uses dance terminology with no explanation. If you don't know what a passe or degage is, for example, you will need to follow along visually quite a bit rather than rely on her cuing. I don't think it would be difficult to follow along in this way, i.e. the steps aren't advanced, it would just perhaps be an annoyance to those who aren't familiar with the terminology. Also, the production cost (and therefore quality) seems somewhat low. It looks as though it were shot in a small, local dance studio on a cheap camera. The music is classical ballet, bordering on cliche (a couple of Nutcracker tunes) and it is very quiet and almost inaudible at times which also makes it seem as though it were done cheaply. The women doing the workout in the background came across to me as flexible women, but ultimately untrained dancers who show incorrect form at times. I'm not sure if this would be noticeable to others but I found it slightly irritating. This combined with the production made it all seem somewhat amateurish. I wish some of the stretches were held longer and I had to do my own cardio warm up before doing this dvd in order to make sure my muscles were warm enough to fully do the stretches without risk of injury. Even with all of these concerns, I still think it is a worthwhile stretching routine and a good purchase.

The segments included are as follows:
- Isolations (5 min): Straight forward warm up consisting of shoulder rolls, hip rolls, head/neck isolations and chest isolations. She moves somewhat quickly through these though when some of them should be done more slowly to avoid injury and pain, particularly the head rolls.

- Standing Stretch (10 min): Gentle dance and yoga inspired standing stretches that work the back, chest and legs. Nothing too intense here, the most difficult is probably a standard forward bend. Kind of a nice additional warm up and intro to the stretching.

- Seated Stretch (5 min): Dance inspired floor stretches that mostly work the hips and legs. Includes a straddle stretch.

- Abs Part 1 (6 min): Pilates inspired ab work that fits in well with the stretches because she incorporates leg and back stretches into the core work.

- Cat Stretch (1 min): Fast break from the ab work. Even though I didn't find the ab work too intense I was surprised at how good the cat stretch felt stretching out my abs afterward which makes me think the ab section worked my muscles harder than I thought!

- Abs Part 2 (5 min): More abs. Includes reclining leg stretches while holding abs. Also includes putting your legs back behind your head and rolling slowly down the spine to work your core and stretch your back.

- Reclining Stretch A (6 min): Yoga and pilates inspired floor stretches that focus mostly on the back. Includes a back bend.

- Reclining Stretch B (7 min): Dance inspired floor stretches focusing mostly on the legs and hips.

- Splits Preparation (5 min): Lunges, hamstring stretches, splits and a final straddle.

All in all it adds up to about an hour. Although it's somewhat pricey and could do with some improvement, Ballet Boot Camp Stretch offers a good variety of stretches in a market where options for pure flexibility workout dvds are limited to little beyond yoga. It's a welcome addition to my exercise regimen and a nice change of pace.