Shake, Bobble, and Roll
I’ve been excited to try this week’s DVD, Center Floor. Billed as a ballet workout that is suitable for beginners, I thought this would be a good way to try a different, and hopefully more accessible, type of dance.
The DVD features only one 56-minute workout. The chapter menu shows that this workout is divided into three main areas: ballet, strength, and stretching, with a handful of 3-8 minute segments in each of these areas.
Unfortunately, the DVD menu doesn’t have a way for you to easily select all the segments of an area. Your choices are to do individual segments, or do the whole 56-minute workout. Still excited to try ballet, I went for the full routine.
As the workout began, instructor Kari Anderson and two exercisers stood poised to introduce me to ballet. Classical music would be the expected music choice for a ballet workout, but I thought the upbeat modern music in this workout was a fun choice.
The first 31 minutes of the workout is ballet, and Anderson didn’t waste any time getting started. I was sweating just from the warmup.
I noticed right away that they were dancing barefoot on a light wood floor … a foot-colored floor, if you will. It was sometimes difficult to see how the exercisers’ feet were positioned, which made it tough to decipher some of the moves.
The main issue I had, though, was the cuing. Anderson frequently cued moves as she started doing them, rather than just before, so I felt like I was running behind a lot. She also used a lot of ballet terms that were never introduced or explained.
At one point in the workout, she says “How are you doing? I wish I could see you. Then I would know exactly what I need to say.” I definitely shared this wish with her. I need a lot more instruction than this DVD provides.
The first day, I only made it through the first 10 minutes before I got frustrated trying to do a grapevine move.
Even that 10 minutes was quite a workout though; this is a challenging one! I had also not realized how much balancing is involved in doing ballet; this adds a whole new level of difficulty to the workout.
On the second day, I modified the grapevine move (just taking two steps to the side, not crossing my feet at any point, and leaving out the arm movements). This helped, and I made it through about 20 minutes on the second day … right up until I got confused by a curtsy-grapevine combo.
Still, the moves were starting to seem a little more familiar, and by the third day, I finally completed the whole ballet section in one shot.
I’d made it through the 31-minute ballet section, but I felt like I was modifying the moves to the point where it wasn’t the same workout that the instructor was doing.
Anderson didn’t really offer a lot of modifications; she just mentioned that we would see her and her fellow exercisers bobble and shake too. She vacillated between supportive comments about doing whatever amount you can do, and suggestions about doing it perfectly. Very mixed messages.
Approximately 13-minutes of strength training followed the ballet section. This section combined power yoga, Pilates, ab work, and plenty of planks. Anderson packed an awful lot into 13 minutes.
Since strength training is generally slower-paced than cardio, I don’t know that I can say this section of the workout was especially hard to follow … it was just plain hard. I don’t think I made it through the whole 13 minutes all week.
The workout wraps up with 12 minutes of flowing stretches. Again, this moves slower than the cardio, and was somewhat easier to follow than the ballet (or at least you had more time to get back on track after you got confused).
Partway through this segment, Anderson announces: “As soon as you know what you’re doing, you don’t have to look at what I’m doing.” I’m still waiting for that moment.
It’s probably pretty apparent right now that this workout is not for the uncoordinated … it was certainly not for me.
As far as balance though, it is an awesome workout. You ache the next day from all the muscles used in trying to stay upright. If I do this workout again, it will be a small subset of the ballet, followed by the stretching.
I’m not sure I’m ready to shake, bobble, and roll through the whole Center Floor DVD again, but it’s definitely inspired me to find a balance-focused workout that is more friendly to the coordination-impaired.