DVD Review: Muve

Muve

Dance your way to fitness.

The DVD section at Borders is crammed with exercise videos designed to whip you into shape right in your own living room, in a million different flavors. Pilates, yoga, ballet, the samba. Now you can add Hawaiian-style to the list, with this new, locally produced dance exercise DVD.

Originally conceived by Maggie Kunkel in 1998, the Muve program ties upbeat Island music with a forgiving choreography that consists mainly of small, simple steps and foot taps.

We popped in the Family Muve edition (there’s also a Mellow Muve DVD) and were soon bopping along to the strains of Sean Na‘auao, the Barefoot Natives and Don Tiki. It turns out to be a pretty relaxed experience—there are no voice-over instructions, and the routines accommodate any improvisation you might want to throw in.

Honestly, you could get a similar workout by popping in a CD of your own music and hopping around the living room for half an hour, but Kunkel’s backup dancers are a charmingly motley crew to dance along with, and the colorful graphic overlays that burst in time with the music can prove hypnotic. If you’re trying to stick to an exercise routine, little motivational touches like this might make all the difference.

Check out muve.com for sample videos. $28.95