Product Details

• Actors: Kym Johnson, Lacey Schwimmer, Dmitry Chaplin
• Directors: Cal Pozo
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: December 1, 2009
• Run Time: 54 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002PLMJ6K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,656 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Each season, audiences watch in amazement as stars shrink down and shape up on ABC’s DANCING WITH THE STARS. Now you can share their weight-loss success and dance off the pounds with three different cardio dance routines—Swing, Jive and Quickstep—led by pro dancers Kym, Lacey and Dmitry. Each routine gets your body warmed-up with the signature moves of the featured dances before progressively adding on to create complete, calorie-blasting workouts – so you can learn with ease and get dancer-fit all at once. Join the fat-burning fun and dance your way to a superstar body!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and cardio!, December 2, 2009

By 

JJ - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dancing with the Stars: Dance Off the Pounds (DVD)

Let me start off this review by saying that "Dancing with the Stars: Dance off the Pounds" is my favorite DVD in the "Dancing with the Stars" (DWTS) series of workout DVDs. The styles of dance were fun, actual routines were taught as opposed to just unconnected moves in previous DVDs, and I actually worked up a huge sweat! The choreography was a bit complex, but I really enjoyed the challenge. Beginners to fitness and dance may be a bit frustrated at first, though. There is no warm-up, therefore the viewer has to either do his own or just let the beginning of one of the workouts act as the warm-up. The DVD was divided into the following four parts of the workout:

Swing - Led by Kym Johnson, it is the most basic of all the routines. It's almost an intro to the Jive, which is a style taught later on in the DVD. I found the moves to be rather easy to follow; although there is really no breakdown of the steps. It includes moves such as triple steps, rock steps, kick-ball-changes, sailor steps, Charlestons, and many more. It has quite a bit of hopping of kicking (at a rather slow speed, though), and it will really get the heart rate up. Kym is very motivating and sweet to the viewer; I like her as an instructor. This was my least favorite of all of the segments, but I still enjoyed it immensely.

Jive - Lacey Schwimmer leads this fast-paced routine. All of the moves are incredibly fast, and I could easily see a dance novile becoming completely confused and annoyed. Lacey teaches the moves very quickly and prefers going from the top a lot more than making sure you have the moves. She breaks down the really fast, complex moves which is something Kym never did.. Moves included are more triple steps, kicks, Charlestons, heel bops, jump steps, and more. Lacey is very chirpy, so she may possible get on your nerves if you don't like that kind of instructor. This was my second favorite routine on the DVD.

Quickstep - This was the most challenging of all the routines, which may have been partially due to poor teaching by the instructor Dmitry Chaplin. Don't get me wrong, I really like Dmitry; but he just didn't teach the moves well. He seems to be better at showing rather than telling. The moves taught were really fast and sometimes hard, but Dmitry broke most of them down really slowly. The many break-downs did make my heart rate go down a bit, but I just do the quickstep segment first and let the beginning low cardio segment count as my warm-up. There is lot of movement in this routine and a lot of jumping steps, as well. Some of the moves included are the box step, pendulums, knee bops, shuffle hops, and many more. The quicktep had the most challenging footwork by far but arguably the most fun.

Cool-Down - All of the instructors take turns leading the cooldown, which is comprised of many stretches. Unfortunately, they don't stretch the calves, neck, glutes, or arms that well. But it does excellently bring your heart rate down.

Overall, I thought it was much better than the previous DVDs Dancing With the Stars - Cardio Dance and Dancing with the Stars: Latin Cardio Dance which were both a bit too boring and slow. Beginners may like those better, though. I also enjoyed this video much more than its sister DVD Dancing with the Stars: Dance Body Tone that wasn't very effecting in either toning or cardio departments. I reocommend getting this DVD it if you are a fan of the show, or if you want a fantastically fun, old-school, cardio workout. Beware if you are a beginner, though, you might not get the steps right away.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dance Workout DVD fan says "It's Adorable, Sophisticated, and Fun!", December 6, 2009

By 

Erin (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with the Stars: Dance Off the Pounds (DVD)

I'm a DVD dance-workout junkie. I buy *everything* dance-dvd, almost. This is the best of the four Dancing with the Stars workouts. It's not modern dance - it's super-cute jive, swing and funky-quickstep. It's a great workout.

The first segment is adorable and sweet learning the American dance 'the swing' (triple-step, rock-step, the sailor, etc.). Great intro to what's to come on the dvd. It's not slow either.

The second instructor and routine really shines, is a crazy-fun good time; the pace increases as you are taught the taught the international version of 'swing' which is called 'jive' (faster triple-steps, kicks, heel-bops, Big-X step, swivels, the charleston, the Lindy,etc.) High-impact and difficult cardio which can be modified by not doing arms.

The last segment is a suave, dressed-in-black quick-step routine that is explained well and, tho different, has the same great dance-flow as the first two parts. Make sure you watch it to the end it just is a sophisticated blast! Great job of teaching old dances with a totally-modern feel! Gene Kelly would approve.

I go back to this DVD as a "serious" fat-burning workout because it's a smiling good time that really makes you sweat and laugh. It's pure dance-cardio with, again, great flow. You ARE dancing, not aerobics pretending to be dance. Beautiful choreography that works. It's fun, not lame, slow, or dull, if you know what I mean. Just good times, dancin' hard like it's 1920-1945. And, whoa, did they move it back then. The dvd includes the option doing the workouts with music and instruction or just music so you can cut out the chattering once you're proficent and just dance. Love it. Super-fun. Good for beginners and established dancers alike, this is a serious workout worth the $$.

(A similar buy is the spectacular "Dance with Julianne: Cardio Ballroom" (purchased after this dvd review) which is also fantastically-fun cha-cha, jive, etc,-- another dancer from the Dancing with the Stars franchise.)

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and challenging!, December 14, 2009

By 

mcel (Salem, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dancing with the Stars: Dance Off the Pounds (DVD)

This DVD is a VAST improvement over the previous DWTS DVDs. First off there are less sections, but the segements are longer, which I like more since I think choppy short segments don't give you an adequate workout.

Lots of cardio in this DVD, and while it is a whole lot of fun, it is very challenging. I was soaked after doing the workout. To give you an idea of my background, I am an intermediate level in fitness DVDs and I have been dancing since the age of 4.

I decided to do this DVD from start to finish so I could see the quality of the workouts and time it as well.

The first section is Swing with Kym. This is great, alot of what you may have seen in the Jive sections if you got the first DWTS DVD, but it is still a very good workout. Kym not only does swing, she also adds in some Charleston, which was a nice change since I've never done that. You may be a little lost if you don't have any background in dance, but Kym does do her best to explain moves like pas de bouree the best she can in the few seconds she has before jumping in. Definitely gets your heart rate up with kicks. This was just the first section and I was tired after it--and I still had two more sections to go!

Next up was Lacey with Jive. Whoooo!! This moves fast and is similar to the swing section, but the moves are smaller and more precise, so it is more difficult since you have to keep your moves compact. This one was a real burner AND the steps while a lot of fun, again are hard to get down on the first try if you don't have a dance background. And it goes REALLY fast. I even had a hard time keeping up and just had to triple on the spot a few times. She also throws in some little X jumps and squats which were unexpected but complemented the moves quite well and were REALLY intense layered with all the moves in the routine. I thought this was the hardest section until I got to.....

Quitckstep with Dmitry. This dance I am totally unfamiliar with, as is most people, so it starts off a little slower in the breakdown of moves. But don't let this fool you, this section must be a HUGE calorie burner because there are a lot of jumps and hops, and the pace speeds up as you go along. Dmitry was great and is absolutely adorable! He is a good teacher for the amount of time you get, and does his best to break down these moves that go so fast and look so easy, but take so much effort. He also throws some jump squats in at the end of the routine, which I enjoyed and felt the next day!

Then there is a short cooldown with all 3 instructors, about 8-10 minutes if that. The cooldown is adequate and by that time I was so tired, I just didn't care and any stretches felt good.

This is an excellent video and is sure to burn major calories and fat. Here I am the next day and my butt and legs are sore--almost like when I go for a run! It is that good. And it has to be great cardio. I am so glad since I hate doing cardio, this is fun and something I will actually look forward to doing!

A couple of cautions: 1) There is no warm up here (which is odd since it is such an intense workout) so if you need a warmup do some light strecthing or aerobics.
2)These are fast dances, so you will lose time frequently in your first few workouts. I know I did. So that kind of messes up the routine as you go along. But please don't get discouraged. Just triple step or march in time until the routine starts and try again.

All in all,excellent cardio DVD if you are looking for something different and love to dance. I also purchased the DWTS Dance Body Tone and will try it later this week! I will post a review of that as well, but I think "Dance Off the Pounds" is top-notch!