Ballet Conditioning Exercise Video

Okay. I got this video probably about a month ago, and have just today been able to make it through the entire thing. It's long'ish and a 4yo and 2yo don't make things very easy. But I did today and want to share what I found!

Let me get the "bad news" part of the critique over with first.
1) It's a tad short on stretching while sitting on the floor, but that's easy to make up.
2) She says dumb things like "let's explore our releves" and stuff like that. It has a yoga'esque feel to it, so you kind of have to ignore the touchy-feely stuff. KD, there is no Miss Jozia coming to poke you in the tushy kind of talk!
3) She does these plies en releve (after a whole bunch of sloooow grand plies) that make you want to come after her with a machete. Really. It hurts. You mean thing, Elise.
4) I realize that #3 is actually a good thing, but really. It hurts.
5) Don't watch the closed captioning. They don't spell most of the ballet terms correctly. ;-)

Now, the good news.
1) It is a fantastic video, and it will kick your tuckus, especially if you are as out of shape as I am. In fact, I wasn't able to do every single step because my thighs were burning and I couldn't catch my breath during the jumps! She does things really slowly which is great for following along. But it also makes it twice as hard.
2) While the music, scenery, and talk has a yoga-esque feel to it, the moves are all ballet. She's a real dancer, and does a great job. I don't love her hands, but other than that, this is a well-done ballet exercise tape. And I don't think you have to have a lot of ballet experience to do it. I do think that someone who has had some ballet training will get more out of it than someone who doesn't know about shoulder placement, alignment, turn-out, etc. But, even a novice is going to get a good, complete workout.
3) Even though she has been a "real" dancer, she doesn't plop her feet into a 180 degree turnout position. I like that. Trying to force a full turnout is the first step to life long knee problems. Trust me.
4) I walked away from this feeling like my legs were absolute spaghetti. I realize I'm completely out of shape, but still..... It works you well!
5) The abs portion will.... oh, fuggedabowdit. I couldn't finish it. It's hard. But it is soooo good for you.

Over all - thumbs up. Definitely worth it. I know I won't be able to do it every day, because life and kids won't let that be possible. But it's a fantastic work out for those days when I can make it work!