New York City Ballet Workout

Sporting a brief introduction by Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, this near art-house-quality production includes a 17 pose workout (with perfect examples of multicultural ballet dancers beautifully performing a warm-up, flexibility stretches, abdominal and leg darts, floor barre exercises, and a final cool down), and--on the DVD--a choice of either classical or contemporary music to enhance your personal workout experience. In fact, the classical soundtrack, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and drawn from the NYC Ballet's own repertoire, is pure ear candy--theoretically, you could just curl up in a chair while sipping a double shot soy milk mocha with a dash of fresh ground nutmeg, hold the whip cream, thank you, and simply forget the workout (which was my approach). The extras on the DVD include a "making of" documentary, video diaries of the four principle workout-ateers, interactive DVD-ROM features, workout variations for football, skiing and racquet sports and a visual glossary of ballet basics, referencing terms used by NYC Ballet's Master in Chief Peter Martins during the instructional voice-over. What a contrast to your garden variety, run-of the-treadmill exercise videos: here, no one yelled encouragements to the viewing audience ("push it, you got it, uh huh"), no one played obnoxious hard driving pep music, and no one wore sweatpants. Instead, we see astonishingly graceful dancers showcasing the art and beauty of the human body. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (N. Plympton)