Body Vive 15

[Part of the Vive presenting team with Canadian participants]

Like with all of the Vive filming classes, I hadn't seen the choreography before the filming class. Yet somehow I was in the front row with my good friend DJ (ack!), although I did try to hide off to the side. I placed myself at where I thought was the 3rd-ish row, but noone came in front of me, ahhhh shit.

That being said, it was the biggest Non-GFX turnout that I've ever seen. Compared the first filming that I'd attended - BV11 - the turnout was great. It easily matched some of the Balance classes I've attended, which makes me very optimistic for the future of the programme.

The presenting team this time were Susan (whom sadly, I couldn't get a picture of, despite my best efforts), Maureen, Mark Nu'u, Olly Fata and Suli Tuitaupe from Christchurch. I was especially happy to see Olly and Suli presenting this release, as Olly is a hardened RPM, Combat and Pump instructor, while Suli also teaches Attack, RPM and Pump. Vive, which is traditionally being looked upon as a soft program, is being taken on by these hardcore instructors. They wouldn't waste their time with something that isn't effective, and Vive is certainly that.

Susan and Maureen were wearing these fabulous looking purple tops with some line detailing on the bottom, and pleats along the collar. The boys were wearing fluro green singlet tops with Olly and Suli wearing red & white bandannas. They matched Stollery's nuclear-ness (ahahah) from the previous filming day, and send Fred into hysterics, since he's obsessed with green (to the point of dying his hair a delicious mouldy green colour :-P). I really want to get one of the purple Vive tops when they come out, they're a lovely length and while you can't see it from the photo above, there's a lot of nice detail on it which rounds it up as simply a nice top to wear. I can see myself Jamming in it as well.

You might be able to get a better view of it here.

I love this photo. Maureen and Maureen. I just couldn't resist taking a snap!

I had a lot of fun in this release. A few people have come to me with concerns about BV14 - mainly that they were concerned that it wasn't as much of a workout as BV13. I think there's room for varying levels of difficulty amongst releases - nothing wrong with some mixes being harder than others. Just when members get a bit complacent, BOOM, hit them with a hard mix. BV14 went back to grass roots with the enjoyment levels, great music and loads of fun. Meanwhile, BV15 incorporates some of the essence of what we saw in BV13. Just like how we saw a bit of Body Combat in BV13, we see a bit of Body Something Else in BV15. Guess all you like about what it is, I ain't sharing!

What my favourite memory of the class will be is in the balancing track. I'm going to slightly spoil some choreography here so that it makes sense. Mark explained about how how place the Vive ball in the crease of your knee, behind your hamstring. All of the Vive team were wearing appropriate clothing for this, but some of us on the floor were not. Your grip on the Vive ball is better when you're wearing shorts than when you're wearing pants, since skin grips better than fabric. He explained, "Now if your pants are roll-uppable... if that's an English word...". Bahahahahaha! It wasn't refilmed, so it's gonna be on the DVD!

In the same track, I was an absolute mess. I couldn't stand on one leg with the ball in the knee for more than 5 seconds, and I was forever chasing the ball around the room trying to get it back. In the end I went "Ahhhhh screw this" and departed from the front row and went and stood beside the Pump weights rack and held onto it. What I wasn't aware was the gaze of several other participants - including DJ - that followed me, and when I got myself into position, there were about 6 people looking sideways at me all like, "What are you doing?!? Get back here!!!" Needless to say, I returned once the track was over with my tail Vive ball between my legs.

After filming was over, I really enjoyed talking to some of the Vive presenters - especially Suli. I don't think I've ever had that lovely a conversation with a DVD presenter that I haven't known before since Mysti from BJ48. When I'm in Christchurch, I'd love to do one of his classes - be it RPM, Pump or Vive.

Vive 15 continues to give me more and more confidence that this programme is becoming more accepted and continuing to grow. I loved it that the number of males outnumbered the number of females in the presenting crew. I loved it that they were all ripped, tough guys, and all of them worked bloody hard and showed passion for the programme.

I'm even more excited about where the programme will continue to go from here on.