Body Jam 51

Monday 3rd August - 7:00pm

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After Body Step was over, the Jammers pretty much took over the floor and assumed their positions. The front row, as always, was pretty crowded, and as this was the second to last filming of the day, the participants had figured out that being on one side of the room meant a higher probability of being filmed, which meant a HUGE cluster of people on that side. My beautiful friend Louise saw the amount of people on our side of the room, and despite my desperate pleading, she said she'd rather be on the other side where there was less confrontation (waaaah!).

I had an odd moment where I looked to my right and saw mah boi Patrick, and looked to my left and saw mah gurl Rose. Both of whom I'd been talking to for quite some time, through both the Les Mills Body Jam Forum, and through this blog. It was a dream come true to have both of them there, either side of me. I had to pinch myself to remind myself that I was awake, it wasn't a dream! I was living it!

It was a long wait for us Jammers though, and ordinarily, Pete or Chris would do a reasonably professional job of telling the participants what the filming crew was up to, what was going down, how much time they were going to take before filming got underway, etc. However, they left this job to Dan Cohen, who is the Anti-Pete, or the Anti-Chris when it comes to this sort of thing!

He started rambling off a few random things - I don't remember much of what he said, just that it was kinda like, "...right."

I don't know how many of you have seen the footage of the Jam release where Dan comes up onstage and tells All The Girls to say "Wassup, wassup, wassup-wassup-wassup" in a high pitched squealy voice, and then tells All The Boys to say "Wassup, wassup, wassup-wassup-wassup" in a low pitched voice, but he got us to do that to try and fill in the time. Rose had told me earlier about how he had done this in an earlier release, and we pretty much turned and looked at each other all like, "Not again!"

He then decided to natter on about how men can do so many more things than women can.

Right.

And yes, I am being serious!

He pointed in my direction and said, "Okay you, what sound does a gun make?"

At that moment, some DUMBASS chick on the other side of the room said, "Bang!"

Bloody hell, woman, way to let the side down - a gun does not go BANG! *facepalm*

Dan, of course, lapped this up, and did a demonstration of how OMG MEN know how to make the sound a gun makes.

By this time, everyone on the floor was getting a bit restless - Dan is an amazing program director, but my god, he is not made out for time wasting.

He continued to natter on, when suddenly, without any warning...

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Gandalf emerged from the side of the stage, holding a little wee surprise in his arms.

[photo courtesy of PJ]

Baby Geronimo!

(admittedly, PJ took this photo after the class had finished, so Gandalf wasn't this sweaty when he brought him out)

Everyone instantly was like, "Dan who?" and were oooh-ing and aaaah-ing over Baby Geronimo.

It was also incredible seeing a new side of Gandalf - he said, "I'm proud of him! I made something worthwhile! All this Jam stuff is a whole lot of fun... but HIM..!"

Carla and Dutch presenter Danny emerged from the wings to join Gandalf and Gio onstage, and to pose for a few photos.

What's been interesting lately is the debate on the Les Mills forums about how as a tribute to Michael Jackson, the Les Mills teams should include some Michael Jackson tracks in their releases. After all, Gandalf was able to get a James Brown track into BJ41 in commemoration for the big soul brotha'.

Unfortunately, Gandalf mentioned to us in an earlier class that the reason why there hasn't been any Michael Jackson in Body Jam is because the cost to purchase a license to use the song is too high. While it would have been a fantastic tribute to include a song in the release, it just wasn't possible. For those of you who think, "Hang on a minute... in the old style Body Jam format, there were Michael Jackson tracks! So they have the license already, couldn't they just re-use those tracks?"

That's not how it works. Every time the rights for a track is purchased, it can only be used in the release for which it is purchased. If exactly the same song is used in two different releases, two different programs, etc, the license has to be purchased multiple times. For example, P!nk's "So What" was used in BC39 and BC69. The rights for that song had to be purchased twice, since it was used twice. Les Mills don't save any money by using the same song between different programs and different releases, but they do have the certainty of knowing how much a song will cost. That certainty means a lot in times of global recession, having a limited budget, etc.

But! While Body Jam could not afford to get a Michael Jackson track as a tribute to the man into BJ51, there was a tribute included.

The shirts that each of the presenters were wearing had a lyric from a Michael Jackson track printed on it.

[photo courtesy of PJ]

Danny was wearing a red t-shirt that said, "I wanna rock with you", Carla wore a green sleeveless top that said... well, truth be told I don't remember what hers said, but it was 'Black or White' or 'Wanna Be Starting Something' - can anyone help my rusty memory out here?

For those of you who aren't familiar with Danny, he's an uber funny presenter from The Netherlands - unfortunately you probably won't get The Danny Experience from viewing the DVD, but I absolutely LOVED him in regular classes. He had everyone - Gandalf included - in stitches with the funny things that he came up with! He must've felt right at home with Rose and The Netherlands People popping up in just about every Jam class that there was. (ahahah, that sounds like a band name from the mid-90s; forget Hootie and The Blowfish, Rose and The Netherlands People are the NEW black!) He's definitely been my favourite international presenter since Phil Harrison in BJ48, hopefully I can get over to Holland and do some of his classes at some point; that would be awesome! (hopefully he teaches some classes in English over there... hmmm...)

When the filming finally got under way, the energy in the room was plain awesome. Gandalf presents the warmup and isolations track - more recently, I've been a fan more of the iso tracks than the warmups, but BJ51 is the reverse. It's a slick, stylish warmup - the closest release I can compare it to is BJ46's 'Speed Up', but that's a very loose comparison.

Normally in each of my BJ filming posts, I think of the *fabulous* Ryan when I write about the Latin block. When I did the latin blocks from - in particular - BJ47 and BJ50, I thought "Oh MAN, Ryan's gonna enjoy this one!"

The latin for BJ51 is on a whole other level. Normally when I look at a new release, it's the house or cardio blocks that I'm itching to do again. For BJ46, it was Tribal Explosion. For BJ47, it was the Freaking Faking block. For BJ48, it was UFOh. For BJ49, it was Street Jazz, and for BJ50, it was Cardio Funk. While I enjoyed the latin for both BJ47 and BJ50 respectively, it was not the one of the blocks that I was itching to do again - the release was still defined for me in terms of either the cardio, or house blocks.

Apart from BJ51.

The latin in this release is IN.CRED.IBLE. Ryan, you are in for an absolute treat. I'm writing this post filming, and there's not a single block in this release that I like better than the other - every single block in this release, I'm itching to do again.

In fact, the first time that mah boi Patrick saw the choreography he went "BEST. LATIN. EVER" Now that's his personal opinion, and there will be people who think that Ran Kan Kan from BJ38 will always be the supreme Latin block. That being said, it is a block that has quite a bit of choreography in it to remember, is super intense, and super fun. Heck, I'm getting excited right this moment just thinking about it. When I have a bad day, I listen to some of the music from this latin block, and it puts a smile on my face.

The latin block in this release is actually the second block, the first is a single cardio track. Danny teaches that track and the beginning of the latin block, then passing over to Carla during the block. Carla suits this block down to a T, she was sizzling, and it was a WHOLE lot of fun.

Carla also presented the recovery, though as she was introducing the block, Danny assumed a pose behind her. Gandalf spotted him and went, "Ahhhh!" and assumed a mirror image of the pose on the other side of her. Both of them looked absolutely ridiculous, which sent the participants floor into hysterics. Danny and Gandalf were trying to keep a straight face, but they were giggling as well... meanwhile poor Carla was oblivious to what was going on behind her and a puzzled-slash-worried-slash-horrified look came across her face before she said, "What.... WHAT?!", finally whirling around to see Danny and Gandalf standing behind her. We weren't laughing at you, Gucci! We were laughing at the goons behind you :-D

The last block in BJ51 is off the wall, and all the while, I'm thinking to myself, "This is BASE! Plus is yet to come!" The filming pretty much went off without a hitch, with the exception of one little glitch. Gandalf turned himself around to teach a move with his back facing the participants. He tried to do a stylish turn to return himself facing to the front, but in doing that, he lost his place in the music and started doing the wrong move. When he realised, he put his hands on his hips and said, "Oh BUGGER!" What you cannot understand from my typing it is how... 'proper' he sounded, he almost sounded posh! I was like, "Was that really Gandalf?!?!?!"

The groovedown is a fun, kooky one, along the lines of the cooldown from BJ45.

BJ51 was an incredible, phenomenal experience. As it ended, the thought that went through my head was, "And I get to do it all again in just two days time."

With a huge smile on my face, of course.

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Next up...

Guest Body Balance 47