Cardio time: 3 minutes
Breakdown time: 2 minutes
Equipment needed: None
In week 96 of streaming the TAVA routine is from the London team (yay gooo the Brits!). It’s aptly named LDN and is performed to “Can’t Go Wrong” by Wiley.
The breakdown is pretty short as is the dance. The dance sequence is short which makes it easier, it’s very hip hop (matching the music), I didn’t nail the moves on the first go but they’re definitely a lot easier than some of the other TAVA dances.
Breakdown time: 1 minute
Cardio time: 1 minute
Equipment needed: None
In week 95 of streaming we got this fun dance. I like that the music matches the choreography of the dance- handclaps performed to Fitz and the Tantrums “Handclap”. This dance is performed in the newishly opened Church Street studio. This dance is quite simple, although I say that having not mastered it the first time around! There isn’t a thorough breakdown but hopefully the simplicity of the dance makes up for it. There is quite a bit of jumping so it’s not as low impact as I would like, but thankfully it’s not all the way through. The positive energy from the trainers is a definite bonus and love that one of them’s English 🙂
Tracy Anderson TAVA D.R.A.M. Cha Cha
Cardio time: 2 minutes
Breakdown time: 3 minutes
Equipment needed: None
In week 94 of streaming, TAVA returns to the more traditional Latina TAVA style. The breakdown does offer a bit more explanation than previous weeks but it would be great to have some more run throughs before it’s done to music.
Breakdown time: 4 minutes
Cardio time: 1 minute
Equipment needed: None
After missing a week of TAVA it’s back again in week 91 and I’m so happy that this week’s dance is to Tinie Tempah’s “Girls Like”, I’m a massive Tinie Tempah fan and this is one of my favourite of his songs.
Once again we’re not getting much of an explanation of the breakdown section, yes sections are explained twice, but there isn’t any real detail work. It’s a shame that the cardio time is only one minute and it wasn’t repeated through at least until the end of the song as it’s a pretty good dance but you definitely need more than one minute to get the hang of it. I really like the moves and that there’s some unusual ones like when you rotate backwards and there’s lots of nice stretches in there as well.
Tracy Anderson TAVA Destiny’s Child Lose My Breath
Tracy Anderson TAVA D.R.A.M. Cha Cha
Cardio time: 3 minutes
Breakdown time: 2 minutes
Equipment needed: None
In week 89 of streaming we got our second portion of streaming TAVA cardio. Keeping with the Beyonce theme this dance is to Destiny’s Child “Lose My Breath”. I really love this dance, I definitely didn’t master it but I hope with time that I do. The breakdown section could have done with being more thorough- last week’s breakdown section was 9 minutes long so it’s quite a difference. The breakdown in this section was similar to that in the TAVA DVD in that it was just going through the moves once and saying what you were doing as you were going on, which I’m sure is great if you’re a dancer but if you need more than one movement explained in each move you definitely need more detail. Unlike last week’s 7/11 TAVA you only got to dance to this song once, making the cardio time only 3 minutes with a bit of a party time free for all at the end.
Tracy Anderson TAVA Beyonce 7/11
Cardio time: 8 minutes
Breakdown time: 9 minutes
Equipment needed: None
In week 88 of streaming we were blessed with the new option of TAVA cardio as a cardio alternative to the dance cardio.
So how has this come about? Despite the advertised “new cardio every week” with streaming there have been huge gaps with no new cardio uploaded- as much as 18 weeks in a row with no new cardio material. This no doubt encouraged many tammers to jump ship to KP Dance Body, which Tracy has been openly upset about. Tracy has said that she was hesitant to put out new high impact dance cardio material as she is moving towards lower impact dance cardio hence the release of TAVA. The reason for this is that she is concerned about the impact that non stop jumping cardio has on our joints especially as we age- a concern brought up by Tracy’s client Jennifer Lopez as well, so Tracy has advised that people should only perform her non stop jumping cardio on her Cardio Fly Super G Flooring or otherwise do TAVA. To reconcile this Tracy has now started releasing new “weekly” TAVA dances with her streaming, thus providing us with a new low impact option on a weekly basis.
Another appeal that KP Dance body has, on top of offering a plethora of dance cardio options, is that KP Dance Body’s dances are a lot more current, mirroring the style of moves you’d see in for instance Beyonce music videos (KP Dance Body has an awesome “Run the world (Girls)” routine). Tracy’s new streaming TAVA seems to respond to this too, as rather than a latino theme which her TAVA DVD had, these moves are choreographed by her dancers and are also in a more current style, which is a definite departure from Tracy’s ballet-mix dance cardio we’re used to… and low and behold the first two weeks of TAVA are performed to Beyonce songs.For this dance we definitely feel like we’re in safe hands learning a routine to Beyonce from Lashonna as she has performed with Beyonce as one of dancers at the VMAs!!! Swoon!!
This dance is one you’ll actually want to perform, lots of great moves that not only burn calories, are kinder on the joints but you won’t be embarrassed to perform in public! Like the rest of TAVA it won’t get your heart beat up as much as the normal jumping dance cardio but it’ll involve your brain more as you try to master the moves. This dance is repeated from the back as well followed by a split screen of from the front and back so you’ll get lots of practice.
Tracy Anderson TAVA Destinys Child Lose My Breath
Warm up time: 4 minutes
Cardio time: 22 minutes
Equipment needed: None
Although the disc is 39 minutes long, your actual cardio time is only 22 minutes – the rest of the time is made up of breakdowns of each dance and a warm up.
On the box, Tracy wears one of the bikini tops which is later transformed into a top for one of the dances. And we can see by the quotes given that the workout is endorsed by Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Rhonda and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
This is actually pretty hard, the dances are so different to the type of thing we’re used to with Tracy like star jumps etc, it’s probably because these dances have all been choreographed by someone else that they’re so different. It’s a lot of fun and I’m glad that it’s something so different and it’s great that there’s now a low impact option available for all of us with bad knees/shin splints or those who haven’t been able to work up the stamina to her other workouts. You’ll definitely not get bored of this DVD quickly as it’ll take you a while to master the dances. It’s definitely low impact, there are a few jumps, but not many, what makes it hard are all the fast steps and the different style. So I would disagree with the cover where it says “easy to follow”. I think you would probably burn less calories doing this cardio compared to her other jumping cardio, my heart rate definitely didn’t get up anywhere near as much as it does with her other cardio. That being said perhaps if you master the dances and really perform it you might burn some more.
Tony G seems lovely, he seems like loads of fun, in fact if he had a range of dance DVDs available based on this you would want to buy them. The breakdown section is a lot shorter than the breakdowns we’re used to with Tracy- he literally goes through the whole thing once and then it’s time to do it up to tempo, so if you’re struggling it’s worth doing the breakdown a few times. It’s definitely fun and upbeat. Tony gives really clear and fun instructions. Once the dance is up to tempo you do a dance once all the way through without flair- so I suppose this would be an even lower impact or less complicated version and then another time but with “flair” which means extra arm moves etc.
You can tell that Tony is a seasoned choreographer who’s used to teaching dancers who would normally pick up the moves very quickly. He uses terms like “syncopated grapevine” which I have no idea what that means and probably unless you’re a dancer you won’t know what that means either. The rhythm/pace is completely different, maybe it’s a cha-cha pace? I don’t know I’m not familiar, but it’s definitely different to what we’re used to doing with Tracy.
Tracy changes her top for each dance which is useful if you’re having to skip through the play all option to find a new dance. All of the tops she wears seem to be bikini tops with fabric attached underneath to transform it into a top- this is literally what they’ve done as during the last dance the attached fabric breaks free from the bikini and bunches itself into what looks like a waist belt.
The music is really fun and thankfully something new and different sounding to her past soundtracks
As the DVD is presented by two people unfortunately there are a few moments when it gets a bit awkward as they’re both vying to lead the workout and have different styles. Tracy is more chatty and takes her time whereas Tony is more to the point and wants to get it done quickly with no chit chat. On dance number 4 just as they’re about to do the dance up to tempo with music, Tony is eager to get on with the dance and gives instruction but Tracy starts chatting over him to Maria about about how she’s wearing a top that matches a Hawaiian move in the dance, you can tell Tony gets impatient as he says “We going?” and then Tracy snaps back loudly “5, 6!” showing that she’s ready to go and she’s not holding them up.
This DVD has a “fame” feel with dancers in different brightly coloured clothes warming up in the background during the intro section. I love the set- with the bright lights and the group dynamic is really nice. You might recognise some of the instructors from Tracy’s studios. Tracy gets all a bit street talk and says “this is how it’s going to go down” when explaining what the different sections of the workout will be.
On the DVD you’re able to choose Play All, Intro and then all the individual dances. However the breakdown section is included in each dance bit so you can’t choose to do the dances all the way through without the breakdown, so it’s quite frustrating having to skip around getting to each up tempo section.
Tracy has said this is the “first TAVA DVD” which suggests there may be more to come in the future. I think by the new direction that Tracy is going in for at home clients (she has said that she prefers those without access to the Cardio Fly Super G Flooring to only do TAVA as her other workouts are too high impact to do on a non bouncy floor and will harm our joints) that Tracy will want to continue to add to the collection, and if it sells well of course she will!
