2010, $2.99 (in the original shrink wrapper!) at Goodwill on Brand in Glendale
First Impression: Check and see if Tracy Anderson’s deoderant is working.
Second Impression: Oops! Enamored with her own reflection, she’s tripped again.
There is so much discussion of “perfection” in this video. The disc itself is part of the Perfect Design Series. In her interview segment, Tracy says she has dedicated her career to finding a “strategy to achieve the mastery of perfection.” If you follow all her advice, and work out to her routines six days a week, “it is possible to become the best you, and to achieve perfection.”
What this woman means by “perfection” completely eludes me. Because the way the four routines are presented on this DVD is completely half-assed.
Tracy Anderson introduces her video in a bare-bones dance studio with three of her Master Instructors. They are all ex-models who would never talk to you at a party.
The concept is, that each of these ladies has invented her own routine, and none of them have seen what the others have come up with. So you at home are learning the dances at the same time as all of the instructors, including Tracy.
At first I thought, there’s no way a professional exercise video would be shot without any rehearsal at all. From the standpoint of quality, production value, and time, that seems like a terrible idea. But you know, after doing the routines, I think that’s how they actually did it.
My best guess is that each dance was choreographed by drawing slips of paper out of a hat that read, “jump in place,” “jump and twist,” “walk forward and back,” “wave arms without purpose,” “leap awkwardly to the side,” “skip,” “approximate a Highland Fling,” etc. The instructors follow each other well enough, but there is so much variation in technique that I can tell it’s not really important that I copy each move… what’s the word now… with “perfection.”
These four routines can be described in many ways: “sloppy,” “ungraceful,” “an elaborate practical joke to be played on freshman sorority pledges,” but one word that does not apply is “dance.” This DVD won’t help you develop your dance skills. It will just strain your calf muscles, since there’s lots of jumping, and absolutely no cooldown. Perfection.
Thrift Store Fitness 