Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Workout
Review: The New York City Ballet Workout is an excellent workout, however challenging it may be. Even for me, a teenager who had almost 10 years of ballet experience in my life, this video has it's challenging aspects. The exersices are fairly simple, but take a lot of effort and muscle strength to perform them. If you haven't had any previous ballet training, the workout can be hard to follow as well, being as how they simply say the name of the move, and then do it, without any real explanation on how to go about performing it. However, after a few times of doing the workout, I think just about anyone could catch on. It's also a rather lengthy video, it takes about 60 minutes to get through the 17 exersices, so it may be more practical to do half of the workout at a time. Also, the ballet dancers who do the workout on the DVD are more flexible than just about anybody that might buy the DVD, so when they go through the stretches, it seems impossible to copy their movements exactly, but it's easy to modify the movements to your own strength and flexibility. This workout really strengthens and tones your muscles, as well as improves your flexibility, posture and balance. After just a week of doing at least half of the video each day, I was already noticing differences in my muscle tone and flexibility. I definitly recommend this video, more to people who know at least a little bit of ballet terminology, but anyone can get the basic jist of the workout if they do it a few times and put in the effort to learning the proper form of the moves.
Rating: 
Summary: great for those with previous experience
Review: Take this tape for what it is -- the workout of some of the greatest dancers. Yes, you have to have some ballet experience to even attempt it, and even then you will have a challenging time following along in some sections until you memorize the sequences. There is very little of the typical ballet instruction (reminders to keep your head up, tailbone under, etc.), so you will have to be judicious about posture and alignment. But for an experienced dancer looking for a great way to keep in form, this is wonderful. The photography is lovely, and the movement is pure, hard-core ballet. My favorite part of the video were the stretches -- there were some I had never seen before, such as lying on the floor, crossing R ankle on L knee and then pulling the L knee toward you. *Wow!* I also found the New York City Ballet Workout Book to be very helpful regarding stretches -- it compliments the video very well. The downside to this video is in the narration. He gives NO breakdown of sequences, and is often off-time or just plain wrong. For example, one tendu sequence had all of the breakdown of "okay, now tendus." Where?? Front, side, back, plie, releve... I had to watch it through once to get the sequence before following along. There are also a couple of minor editing errors where the tape will flip to someone doing the left side while the announcer is still on the right, or the music will be off the dancers, so be careful with that as well. I give this 4 stars because if you have some training, it is a *great* video. Just ignore the narrator and watch the amazing dancers.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent toning workout!
Review: I love this workout! It is wonderful for toning and strength training while being enjoyable and accessible. As someone who lifts weights regularly, I definitely feel this the next day. I would say that having a small ballet background helped (I took some ballet classes as a child), but it is easy to catch on and the dancers are so fun & inspiring to watch. Plus, the two different soundtracks are an added bonus. For people without any prior ballet background, however, the 2nd Workout has more in the way of explanations (but I found the ones here more than adequate).
Rating:
Summary: a great workout
Review: I love this DVD. It is challenging to do and beautiful to watch. The only faults I have found with it are that I find the narraters voice to be a bit grating adn that he doesn't explain the movements very well. The first few times I developed a pain in my neck from having to turn my head to watch the dancers.
Rating: 
Summary: Some, but not too much, experience required
Review: As a warm up, the exercise segments are incredibly short but also very effective. I must say however, this DVD has the WORST instructional voiceover EVER--Peter Martins may be a brilliant director, but he's a lousy instructor. For example, the first warm up exercise is a series of movements involving rotating the arms up backwards and around to the side concurrent with demi-plies and releves, his instruction on this is: "Take a deep breath and raise your arms over your head." On the off chance he does actually give a relevant instruction, it happens quite a while AFTER the movement is completed. Mercifully, the DVD allows one to turn off the voiceover--if you've taken ballet or any other form of dance, you'll be fine following by sight. You can also choose your preference of classical or modern background music and to do either the entire workout (unfortunately having to sit through the Sarah Jessica Parker intro) as a whole, or focus on each exercise individually--very helpful when learning a new combination. The footage is incredibly beautiful and artistic--lots of black and white, cutting between male and female of different races in the same exercise so you can watch the lovely play of light on muscles. The only problem, the director's yen for the art shot cutting from one person to another with the second person in an entirely different position, so you're not really sure how they got there, however, you can probably guess. Working through the dvd was not unlike going to a new dance class for the first time. The brevity of the exercises and flow from one to the next kept it from being boring, yet it did get your blood flowing. If you're in really good shape, this will be a nice warmup for your day, if you're not, it's challenging in a good way.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring and challenging
Review: I've wanted to buy a workout video for some time now, but I was put off by the blonde, perky, caffinated aerobics instructors that seem to saturate the market. I bought this DVD with the hopes that it would be sophisticated, relaxing, challenging, and inspiring. It did NOT disappoint. The dancers are beautiful, the music soothing--not that you're listening when you're trying to hold an arabesque or do the dreaded abdominal segment. Like other reviewers, I have to agree that this workout doesn't live up to its claim that everyone can do it. Not only are the movements not explained, I don't feel that the video reminded you enough to straighten your back, tuck your tummy in, not stick out your rear, keep your arms held up, head straight etc. etc...all fundamental elements in ballet form (and really important for building strength, balance, etc.) I'd recommend that anyone using this video have had some basic ballet training in the reasonably recent past. (I took four years of ballet while in college...I stopped about four years ago, when I graduated.) Also, I consider myself as having above-average coordination, and the second warm-up movement taxed it a bit. (On the other hand, it's nice to know that I'll have something to grow into.) That aside, the DVD was wonderful. The options to turn off the audio commentary and change the music are terrific, and the interviews with the dancers are fun. I hope that any other workout video that I buy is as entertaining as this one!
Rating:
Summary: NYCB Workout - great DVD!
Review: This is a great DVD! It's great if you need some additional technique work at home or if you just want to stay in shape. I would recommend that first time dancers take a beginner ballet class before trying this workout though, because you may not be able to follow everything and be able to do it correctly. I use it when I have a break from classes or if I need some good stretching. The music is great and I do enjoy the workout!
Rating: 
Summary: This ex-dancer says: 'Thumbs Down'
Review: I'm glad I had 10+ years of ballet study. Even though it was 20 years ago, without it, I wouldn't have been able to properly execute the Balan-ce / Chas-se combination in the warm up. If you have never taken ballet, do you even know those terms, much less how to execute that combination? I had been using the New York City Ballet Workout book for six months. It is excellent. In it, 50 exercises are described in step-by-step detail with accompanying photographs for each step. Following the advice of a reviewer of that book, I tape recorded the instructions to give myself that 'correction' that you get in class. (I used the recommended exercises for the 20-minute Workout). I had hoped this DVD would be equally--if not more-- instructive. It is far less instructive. In fact, there are no instructions for proper positioning of any body part. (And, there are fewer exercises.) Proper positioning is the key to ballet -- for injury prevention, as well as for the beauty and form. This DVD is quite a disappointment. My homemade audio tape is much better.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful to watch, Challenging to do
Review: The New York City Ballet workout is the best ballet tape I have seen. Elegantly narrated by Ballet Master Peter Martins, this video takes you through a challenging, and thorough warm up and stretching routine. Seeing the elgant line of a dancers body, and their truly amazing flexibility and muscle tone is inspiring. The workout is shot on feature quality film, with feature quality sound, not the grainy video and off sync sound we normally find in workout videos. The soundtrack is classical, although with the DVD version, you can listen to something more upbeat and contemporary, and you can see every move from several different angles, demonstrated by male and femal dancers. The ab exercises are really challenging, I could barely get through them, but you keep going. Maybe it's because there is no overly perky barbie doll making veiled attemps at encouraging you. I did not find the moves to be hard to follow, but as with any artform, practice makes perfect, and if you want to perfect your technique, then you should do the video regularly. Just take your time, and listen to the music, and enjoy yourself. All in all, this video makes you work hard, and looks like an actual ballet production. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Best ballet video for strenghening the body.....
Review: I take open adult ballet class with the Houston Ballet 3 times a week and find this tape is invaluable for increasing my abilities in class. I have tried every other ballet video on the market, Melissa Lowe, David Howard, etc, etc....Somehow, I always seem to come back to the New York City Ballet Workout Video !!! The unique thing about this workout is that it changes my posture, so that I stand up really tall. It is magic. The "floor barre section" is excellent. It strenghens the legs and posture too. The abdominal section while hard, becomes easier if you do it everyday, like Peter Martins says, "This is what we do everyday" and so I do it everyday, 7 days a week, even when I have class. My back problems have disappeared too. I feel more centered. This is the only video that doesn't seem like a chore to do. And the music is enthralling. I find myself whistling along with the wonderful classical score. But then, what else would you expect but excellence, from a world class, world famous ballet company like the New York City Ballet. This video rules !!!!
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