Product Details

• Actors: Quenia Ribeiro
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: StratoStream - World Dance New York
• DVD Release Date: October 28, 2008
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0019SPX0O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,649 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Stratostream Release Date: 05/19/2009

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Obrigada Quenia, November 3, 2008

By 

YogaGirl (san francisco, ca United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cardio Samba Workout (DVD)

I just finished doing this workout and it was intense! The workout sections are:
1) samba basic steps - She teaches front foot samba, side to side samba and going back first samba. She teaches it first without music and counts for you. This is excellent as you can get the count and the sway of the hips. I have been doing brazilian dance for years and this is the first time I had someone break it down with precision. She then teaches it with music and at half time and regular time.
2) workout tutorials - She breaks down the workouts (1-4) at half time.
3) Transition samba steps - These are steps you will do between the workouts to keep your heart rate up.

Next is the warm-up. If you have ever taken a dance class, the warm-up will be familar to you. It is a slow warm-up, not very exciting but it gets the job done which is to warm up the muscles.

Then there is the workout which is broken into 4 sections. She does each one slow then up to tembo with a transition step in between each workout. The workouts are on separate chapters in the event you need to repeat one. The steps are not complicated but are fast and challenging as you will be changing directions and turning. I suggest that you have a pretty large dancing space. The last section, 5, is all of the workouts strung together w/o the transition steps at warp speed (up to tempo).

For my first time through I got about 1/2 the steps up to tempo. The samba is very fast and tiring. I sweated up a storm!!! Unless you are in excellent shape and/or a sambanista, you will not get this at tempo the firt time around. That's good because this dvd challenges you so that each time you do it you get a little bit more and a little bit stronger.

The last section is a short but sweet cool down.

Quenia is joined by 3 dancers 2 of whom were on her last dvd. The setting is a soundstage with hard wood floors. (not good on thick pile carpet) The music is very good BUT could have been a little louder. Thankfully, once the workout starts she doesn't talk alot except to cue you.

Over all I loved this dvd and will do it again and again and one today I hope to be able to do part 5 straight thru without stopping. And since workout 5 is its own chapter, you can put your dvd player on repeat and do it several times as you become stronger. I must say that I had the priviledge of taking her class at the Alvin Ailey dance school in NYC and she is the sweetest person and a petite dynamo. Obrigada Quenia

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suitable for beginner, May 14, 2009

By 

Lemontree - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cardio Samba Workout (DVD)

While reading Esther Gokhale's book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back: Natural Posture Solutions for Pain in the Back, Neck, Shoulder, Hip, Knee, and Foot (Remember When It Didn't Hurt) I took her advice to learn the basic samba step to help my back and hips. I started doing the very first section of the samba video five days ago (just the how to do the basic step). I have done it twice a day since I am a slow learner when it comes to dancing. I'm getting the hang of it. The video has a slow and a moderate speed for each part, so beginners can catch on more easily. I am enjoying it greatly and I recommend it for someone who wants to learn to samba but may be uncoordinated or lack confidence.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talented, fun teacher, slow/very fast workout, July 26, 2009

By 

Touch Remedy "TouchRemedy" (Nassau, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Cardio Samba Workout (DVD)

I love Quenia, she is a fluid dancer that you can tell can enjoy the dance in the moment & has a great, friendly, fun personality that comes across that doesn't let you get bored. Like her previous "The Samba Reggae Workout" this is done on stage w/now 3 backup women & no live band, but a great music piped in. Quenia again teaches as she dances, no voice over.
Menu:
* Welcome: 2 min
* Basic Samba: 11 min - Quenia alone slowly teaches fwd, back & traveling to the side. Fwd & back are done differently. She goes very slow here, no music for the first 5 min, but there is for the rest. Luckily Quenia makes up for the lack of music. She occasionally goes into 1/2 speed, but mostly a very slow 1/8-1/4 tempo even for most dance workout dvds. Only at the end does she do a quick at tempo speed practice.
* Step Tutorial: 29 min - broken up into 4 sections, she alone teaches you all the other moves you will learn for the workout, which there are many, but easy to learn, nowhere near as fast as samba, the only hard part being directional changes. She goes so slow, it's hard to picture what it's suppose to look like at tempo. Hip circles, box steps, lunges, etc. She again goes mostly 1/4 tempo, stopping to teach. Again, she is a very good, thorough teacher. She goes over basic samba again for those who need a refresher in the last 2 min.
* Warm-up: 27 min - wow, a very long, thorough stretching that gets even the ankles warmed-up & stretched. Included are yoga sitting fwd bends, standing fwd bends, chair, reclined spinal twists, as well as some crunches, pilates, rib & hip circles, etc. Done w/her dancers.
* Workout 26 min - broken up into 5 sections, she & 3 backup dancers do the previous 4 sections, first in 1/4 tempo, then full VERY fast tempo. She then does all 4 sections all in VERY fast tempo in the last 6 min.
* Cool Down 3 min - basic stretches you'd expect w/the dancers.

The only thing I didn't like about this was that even though 1/8-1/4 speed is perfect for the step tutorial, she should have gone 1/2 speed when doing the workout or at least a summery end of the tutorial. It's too jarring since Latin dancing is VERY fast, you feel you're either going too slow, or it's too fast to keep up. There was very little body placement teaching in the workout section to remind you ahead of time where you're going unless you've memorized really well the previous sections which goes too slow once you get the idea. If she had trouble teaching in 1/2 speed, an added voice over would have been fine to keep the momentum up.
Most of my dance workouts go 1/2 speed w/teaching as you go & then tempo w/an added step tutorial if need it which I find to be a perfect formula.

video clip: worlddancenewyork