So You Think You Can Dance :: Cardio Funk

With the fifth season of FOX's hit dance competition show So You Think You Can Dance just wrapping up (and a bonus sixth fall season soon on the way), there's no better time to be young, good looking, and able to do the cha cha, the waltz, and hip hop with equal finesse. Now you can try to emulate the prolific talents of your favorite dancers at home with this fun and humbling Cardio Funk DVD.

The disc features three routines with three different dancers from past seasons of the show. Season 3 contemporary/jazz dancer Lauren Gottlieb does hip-hop. Season 4 contemporary dancer Courtney Galiano does disco. Season 2 contemporary dancer Travis Wall does contemporary. He's also gay, adorable, and welcome eye candy by the time you make it halfway through the dances and feel like you're going to die. Stephen "Twitch" Boss, Katee Shean, and Dmitry Chaplin appear as back-up dancers. (They get their own routines on a companion DVD.)

Do you consider dancing a necessary evil to pick up men/women at nightclubs? Did the last time you busted a move involve a prom tuxedo or a wedding dress? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, this DVD is probably not for you. While the routines are simplified for the non-dancer, the learning process is not. It moves quickly and you may need to rewind parts of it to make sure you're getting the steps right.

The exercises require an average or better level of coordination and rhythm. Anyone seeking a more instructional and/or basic dance experience should find a studio and go to a class. Anyone looking to have some fun should read on.

The simplest of the three routines is the hip-hop. Not only are the moves the most familiar to the modern home exerciser, but Lauren allows lots of room for your personality. The disco routine is also relatively easy to grasp, but once it gets going is too fast for anyone with a small apartment filled with breakable items.

Both hip-hop and disco are more traditional dance workout styles. Certainly they've been done elsewhere before. The contemporary portion is the most difficult of the three, and that's because it's more of an actual dance than a cardio workout. It's something unique. It's also a full 10 minutes longer than the other two, and requires a great deal of time to conquer.

As the dancers discuss in the disc's bonus interviews, Cardio Funk is intended to be a learning process. There's no way a normal person would be able to pick everything up right away. Since Lauren, Courtney, and Travis make the moves so fun, you'll want to continue the learning process even if you feel a bit ridiculous doing it.

Once you've become familiar with all three routines, there's a bonus megamix workout that mashes together all three styles. It's enough to get anybody moving.