The Cardio Samba Workout: Brazilian samba fitness classes, Samba how-to, Samba dance instruction

I just finished doing this workout and it was intense! The workout sections are:1) samba basic steps - She teaches front foot samba, side to side samba and going back first samba. She teaches it first without music and counts for you. This is excellent as you can get the count and the sway of the hips. I have been doing brazilian dance for years and this is the first time I had someone break it down with precision. She then teaches it with music and at half time and regular time.2) workout tutorials - She breaks down the workouts (1-4) at half time.3) Transition samba steps - These are steps you will do between the workouts to keep your heart rate up.Next is the warm-up. If you have ever taken a dance class, the warm-up will be familar to you. It is a slow warm-up, not very exciting but it gets the job done which is to warm up the muscles.Then there is the workout which is broken into 4 sections. She does each one slow then up to tembo with a transition step in between each workout. The workouts are on separate chapters in the event you need to repeat one. The steps are not complicated but are fast and challenging as you will be changing directions and turning. I suggest that you have a pretty large dancing space. The last section, 5, is all of the workouts strung together w/o the transition steps at warp speed (up to tempo).For my first time through I got about 1/2 the steps up to tempo. The samba is very fast and tiring. I sweated up a storm!!! Unless you are in excellent shape and/or a sambanista, you will not get this at tempo the firt time around. That's good because this dvd challenges you so that each time you do it you get a little bit more and a little bit stronger.The last section is a short but sweet cool down.Quenia is joined by 3 dancers 2 of whom were on her last dvd. The setting is a soundstage with hard wood floors. (not good on thick pile carpet) The music is very good BUT could have been a little louder. Thankfully, once the workout starts she doesn't talk alot except to cue you.Over all I loved this dvd and will do it again and again and one today I hope to be able to do part 5 straight thru without stopping. And since workout 5 is its own chapter, you can put your dvd player on repeat and do it several times as you become stronger. I must say that I had the priviledge of taking her class at the Alvin Ailey dance school in NYC and she is the sweetest person and a petite dynamo. Obrigada Quenia

I have all three of Quenia's workout DVDs. I absolutely LOVE her Samba Reggae Workout, which was her second DVD. It feels like more of a workout than her first DVD, which I only did once because I found it hard to follow. Since there was so much improvement from her first DVD to her second one, I couldn't wait for this one. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed.As always, Quenia is wonderfully engaging and energetic in this DVD. She is very thorough with her instruction and cuing. The moves are great and authentic. You will definitely work up a sweat if you do it all the way through. There are also lengthy warm up and cool down segments.However, something about the format of this DVD really takes away from my enjoyment of it. The routine does not flow as smoothly as her Samba Reggae workout. There are too many interruptions. The segments seem disconnected from each other instead of flowing as one whole piece.I also miss Grupo Ribiero, Quenia's live musicians. I don't know why the decision was made to play a recording instead of having the live drummers, but that took away from the workout. I loved the intensity and authenticity that the live drummers brought to her previous workouts. Hopefully they will return in her next DVD, which I will buy.

I now own four of Quenia's DVDs, and if I were to put them in order, this one would be my second to last. (Last is "Dance Today! Samba" as that's actually instruction and not meant as a workout.) As other reviewers have said, this one moves really fast and doesn't seem to flow as well as the others.The music was probably the worst of all four DVDs, not only was it just a recording, it sounded more Hawaiian than anything else. (Mostly it just didn't sound good, canned and tinny.)She had three backup dancers this time, which was really nice (Dance Today! had none, her other two DVDs each had two). Two were the same and one person was new.If I could give half-stars, I'd rate this 3.5 instead of 4. I suppose if I didn't like her so much I could really knock it down to an even 3, but she has such energy and enthusiasm, I really enjoy working out with her.

I love Quenia and i really do like the samba regae dvd but this one is better for me. She really breaks down how to do Samba both front and back and side to side. I like that she has a section that breaks down slowly and individually the steps that will be used in the dance routines. I would think to be acurate Samba regae is samba from Bahia and a different style or flavor of brazilian culture and i do encourage people to get that dvd but I like this one more. However the warm up in this dvd is more challenging than the one in Samba REgae. I practice pilates and african dance and belly dance and i find this warm up is tougher for me. Over all I love Quenia as an instructor and I really encourage people who are interested in dances from the African Diaspora to learn about Samba in all its' styles! You will not regret it nor regret learning Samba from Quenia. Muito obrigada Quenia!

Maybe its because I bought the Vanessa Issac Samba DVD first, but I just don't like this. I find the presenter annoying and there is an awful lot of pretence and "look at me, see what a good dancer I am" during the filming which really winds me up. Maybe at a later date I will come back to it but I can't recommend it at all if, like me, all you are really interested in is learning the dance. Vanessa Issac's Samba Party DVD's are heaps better for that, they are easy to follow, and a lot more fun and they get quick results. Sorry Quenia.

I just recently purchased this DVD and have only done it ONCE and trust me, this is NOT for beginners! It is INTENSE from the very beginning! I'm a little on the plus side but usually very active/energetic. I broke a sweat just after 15 minutes into the tutorial. After completing the tutorial, the workout begins. The workout combines all the moves learned in the tutorial with each move donefirst at a slow/med pace then immediately afterwards at a fast/intense pace. Which I couldn't finish, I stopped the dvd after 20 minutes of the workout! However, I believe that if you do this 3-4 times a week, maybe, you will be able to master the first 3 moves, easy! (Ha!) Yes, it is intense but a good intense! A 'sweat-out-the-junk' intense! Overall, I think this DVD will be a good workout once my friend and I complete it!! :) If this is your first time trying Quenia's workouts, go with the SAMBA REGGAE first before attempting this one! Most important thing to remember......Enjoy yourself! Don't get discouraged!!

I think that this is a good workout CD when you get the hang of the dances. Don't expect to learn samba that fast from the dvd, it takes time. The only negative thing to say about this workout is that I wish it had beginner, intermediate and advance dance routines.

Not as good as I expected

I didn't like the instruction or how fast the video went, you could barely understand and it was very hard to follow

I prefer the Brazilian carnival dvd to this one; it was much easier to learn so you could skip straight to the faster tempos. The moves in this dvd are complicated and too fast for me; I have to keep replaying sections so I'm not even moving half the time.Eventually, I may learn the routine and change my mind but since I know I'm not going to get a good workout until I do learn the routine, I haven't found that I'm inclined to put it on.