Dancing With The Wannabe Star By Monica Cruz on Dec 04, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I am the queen of all cardio dance DVD videos- if it's out there I have likely owned it. That being said, I have plenty of DVD's that I owned that got resold on eBay or Half.com because they were God-Awful.

This isn't one of them! I love the show, and I am always thinking to myself, "It can't be that hard." Of course this is while I am eating a pint of ice cream and talking to my dog. However, it really isn't that hard. I by no means am a professional dancer, but I do love dancing.

The DVD starts off with a very easy dancer's warm-up. Nothing too strenuous here. 5 minutes long or so.

Then the first dance is the Paso Doble led by Maks. His instructions are crystal clear; he's easy to follow. The Paso isn't a fast dance at all, but my legs are always burning after this segment. I am sure it is because during the Paso you sort of have to do lunges, which makes me tired. Nonetheless, it'll firm the legs so no whining! 10 minutes.

Then you move on to the Cha Cha Cha led by Ashley. While she's cute and all, her voice is kind of annoying at times, nothing too awful though. The Cha Cha Cha is a bit harder than the Paso Doble because it moves really fast, so it's a bit more challenging but doable. You work up a good sweat on this one. Fun music, too! 10 minutes

Next is Kym leading the Samba. This dance style seems to be all about hopping and jumping around- not my favorite thing to do. It is easy enough though, and on this particular dance I feel like I get an awesome ab workout. 10 minutes

Finally, all 3 come together to teach the Jive. This is where it all falls apart! I love the Jive, I think it's entertaining to watch, not so much fun to actually do. As someone who could stand to lose a few pounds, this segment is really challenging. The main reason it is challenging is because the instructors all move really fast and it seems there is little-to-no guidance or instruction. There's a whole 1-2 minutes where I just kind of jog in place because I have no clue how to do a particular step. The instructions could really use some improvement.

Then you cool down, which is easy enough given you'll be tired from learning dances. I think this is a DVD one could do over a period of time and still love. You will just get better at the dances, you'll lose weight, you'll likely gain some muscle definition in your legs...it's great all around. Just be prepared to be patient with yourself and remember to use the rewind function on your DVD player for those difficult moves.

Don't forget you can customize your workout! On most days when I do this DVD, I will exclude the Jive because it's just not my favorite thing on this DVD.