Dance Today! Samba, with Quenia Ribeiro - Active Lifestyle Makeover: Full Brazilian samba classes, samba dance instruction, how-to, choreography

This DVD does exactly what it says it will do...teach you to samba the rio way. There are no warm-ups or cool downs. There are 2 demonstrations and 2 samba lessons. Samba 1 is demonstrated 2x and samba 2 is demonstrated 1x. I suppose that after you learn the steps, you can just do the demos over and over again until you break a sweat. My complaint here is that she didn't design this DVD as a workout tape but as a learning tool only. That said:Samba 1 gives the basic flat footed samba (samba no pe)and teaches you how to dance on the beat. This is the samba that they do in Rio at carnival, which is different from samba in Bahia. She goes over each step many times and it culminates in a routine. Lots of hips. Samba 2 is the almost the same routine but it is the 2/4 samba on the balls of your feet, like you were wearing high heel shoes. It is more performance or samba with attitude or in Diva mode as she says. The steps are faster and the choreopgraphy a bit more complicated. My only complaint is that she DOES NOT do mirror image to you so you will always be going in the opposite direction she is. Confusing when trying to learn a step. In real dance classes, the teacher faces the mirror so she can show you the steps from YOUR prespective.Now in all fairness, I haven't done the DVD yet, just viewed it. But it looks like great fun. About the music. There are 3 musicians with one having a whistle. That's all you really need to samba. The music is great and is the same for Sambas 1 & 2. The DVD also include 3 samba demonstrations by the teacher. Fantastic. I'm sure that after you learn to samba you can free style dance with her. This DVD probally works best on hard wood floors. I have carpet and wear slippery socks when I do dance tapes. If you love Samba you will like this. I'll add more to the review when I do it!***UPDATE*** I did the DVD last night. If you have carpet don't get this DVD. You need hard wood or linoleum floors. My BIGGEST COMPLAINT is that she doesn't do mirror image to you. She does everything to her right. Which means you are going to your right, her left. Too confusing, so I did all of the steps to my left. There were one or two steps that I couldn't figure out going in the opposite direction. Also, I've taken samba before so the steps were somewhat easy. If you've never done samba before, coupled with the right, left thing and the rhythm thing, you will be probably get lost. You'll need to do it several times going in the same direction she does. I won't be doing this DVD again until I get rid of my carpet. Also next time I do it, I'll add a warm up. Next time, if someone does one of these tapes. they should do it with more people like a class setting. Samba is such a social dance. This DVD would have been more fun if she had been teaching a class with free style at the end.I gave it 5 stars because all in all it's a great effort!! Love the music.

I use this video as an adjunct to my workout at home. I DO have carpet, which sucks, and have purchased a portable tap floor for just this sort of thing, which I do barefoot.About the DVD, Quenia is fantastic, she's a real dance teacher, and she has grace. I love that she has a woman's body and grace, because samba and Brasilian culture is about sensuality.Although Quenia looks like she isn't even breaking a sweat, you might, and the previous reviewer was right, it can be hard on your knees. I got a charlie horse the first day after and I did a ballet stretching program after. It's a surprisingly complicated way to move your body simply. If that makes any sense.This is a real treasure, nobody else in this town knows how to samba (everybody here does salsa)...and I feel privileged to get a real lesson. VERY glad I took the time to research this (and saw free video clips on a different site, so I could pick the right DVD).

I am giving this DVD a relatively low rating because the instructor is always facing you, thus making it difficult to follow the choreography, as you are left to figure out what side you should move to and what foot to start with. It's mostly ok when the simple steps are demonstrated in isolation, but extremely confusing when trying to follow the choreography. I found myself spending too much time concentrating on trying to follow her routine but in the opposite direction so to say, i.e. when her cues tell to step left she actually steps to my right etc. As a beginner with no background in dance, I wish the instructor would turn around with her back to the student at least sometimes so that I could just copy exactly what she is doing.

This video is great for those wishing to learn true authentic Brazilian moves and carnival street Samba. It is a dance video rather than a fitness dance video-but that is not to say you will not get a work out! Quenia is a great teacher and breaks down the routines very clearly. Being a teacher myself, what i love about this dvd is that it has a LOT of moves in the dvd even if it is the same length as some others on the market. She didn't save half to produce another dvd in the future...I do hope there is a volume 2 though!! There is also a performance segment which displays some of the moves and routines in action.

This DVD wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I gave it five stars because it was great for what it is.If you want to learn to samba, this is the perfect DVD. The wonderful Quenia Ribeiro goes through everything slowly enough that even someone with two left feet (like me!) could follow the moves.If you're looking for an exercise video, check out some of her other DVDs instead. (I use The Samba Reggae Workout and The Brazilian Carnival Dance Workout five days a week. I wanted to get more of her DVDs for a little variety.) I'm overweight, but this DVD didn't hardly get my heartrate up at all.

I was not impressed too much as I watched the video for a few minutes. Didn't seem to be too much of a workout but let me tell you, once I got up off the couch and started following the easy to understand steps I realized that this was WORK! I would recommend this to anyone who has trouble following dance moves in work out videos. It's very easy to understand and mimic and you will feel this one the next day!

Actually exactly what's in the description, the only thing it's all in Portuguese and it doesn't have the option for subtitles!

I purchased this because I previously purchased some dvds and I found that the samba drills were dreadful. I guess there's a kind of ballroom samba which is performed in some academies in England and all over Europe, but altogether, at least for me, it's way too different to what samba is really like.She emulates the energy and how the dance is REALLY performed. She explains that samba might be performed differently in Rio and in Baia.This was pretty much what, at least I, was looking for since I'm Latin American and haven't really mastered all the footwork, but still wanted it to keep traditional but hip. Very much satisfied.

Though iv tried samba steps at zumba classes,this dvd is too advanced i would say.Good music though! I would say this dvd is more for experienced samba dancers

I had purchased Quenia's "Samba Cardio" and "Samba Reggae" before this one and discovered that this DVD would best be purchased before the others! She dances really well and really, REALLY takes her time to show you the mechanics of the steps/samba dance! I like it but it's a bit too slow for someone like me who has a knack for picking things up fairly quickly. Still a FUN dvd to try but not for much of a workout, IF you're NOT a beginner!!

This is a very good instructional DVD. I already know how to dance Samba and bought it in order to make sure my moves look authentic. The instructor breaks down the basic step and builds on it repetitively. I don't know why another rewiever thought this DVD was crappy, I was able to follow everything the instructor did, and I feel that a beginner would be able to follow it as well. Quenia has included a decent amount of moves that will allow someone to dance to a song without being bored. She could have elaborated a bit more on the relevance of the different drums in relation to the dancers moves.

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