NZ Glen : BodyCombat fanatic

Okay just so you know before I jump in I can’t reveal anything about the music or choreography for this release. I need to make that clear as Les Mills are getting really strict about this – there has been a no cellphones, no cameras and no bags rule at filming classes for some time but honestly I thought this time round we were gonna have to walk through a metal detector on the way in (oops may’ve just given them an idea there haha). They are really clear about this, and rightly so after all they want to protect their intellectual property. So, although I never reveal anything specific in my filming class posts normally (apart from when I first started this blog and didn’t know any better) I just wanted to make that really clear from the start.

So, BODYCOMBAT 47. What can I tell you. Well, it was presented by D&R, Ben Tang from Singapore and Andres Vesga from Colombia (now based in Hong Kong). This was the first filming class of the massive GFX event (I’ll write a separate post on that soon) and unusually it was filmed just after 8am. PJ was saying this was the first time a combat filming has been in the morning since BC18 – over 7 years ago! Doors opened for the class at about 7am – and queues had started to form before 6! Unless I missed it (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t) there was no real “theme” per se for this release (past themes have included boxing, muay thai etc) but the theme really only determines the clothing more than an overall feel for the release in my opinion. I know Dan has been asking on his blog for theme ideas so perhaps they’ll bring them back in future releases. Anyway, as always they looked great in LMI gear – I was especially excited to see Ben in action as I’ve heard nothing but amazing feedback about him and he definitely didn’t disappoint! 🙂

The first thing I noticed when I did this release is there’s quite a few tracks that have been “reused”. One has already been used in a previous BODYCOMBAT release, two others have been used in recently in other programmes (one was used recently in at least two other programmes that I know of, maybe more, and if you teach attack like me you may be really sick of two of the tracks from this release straight off the bat as they were both in VERY recent attack releases). However, from the rumours circulating about the difficulties in obtaining music licences this may become even more common place (and don’t even get me started on music licensing in Australia!)

The other thing I noticed straight away was that they’ve chosen some tracks that are getting TONNES of airplay right now on radio and music television. Both the upper and lower body warmup, conditioning and cooldown are being smashed in terms of airplay frequency right now. The plus side of this is that they are songs people will recognise and sing along to – the downside is that quite possibly by the time BC47 starts rolling out around the world (Feb – April next year) these songs may be old news. Not sure if it was the same for you guys but when we released Hot and Cold or My Life Would Suck Without You while yes were pop hits at the time of the filming, they’d well and truly run their course in the charts 4-6 months later when we released them. But again, unless the PDs have a crystal ball there’s very little they can do about that!

So what did I think of the release? Well, to be honest I’m getting a little hesitant to firmly comment on whether or not I like/dislike a release based on one class as some releases take time to grow on you. But, this does make an interesting case study as if someone comes to try a class for the first time you want them to love it straight off the bat – you may not get a second chance! I definitely liked more of it than I disliked let me say that.

Track by track what can I tell you. Obviously based on what I wrote about the warmup is quite poppy, and has current chart hits. I liked it. Track two fell really flat for me – it was very rocky and was not my cup of tea at all. 😦

Ben presented track 3 and it just WENT OFF! It has this catchy little do-do-do-do-dodo tune that is still days later stuck in my head (wow – really helpful description there Glen “do-do-do-do-dodo”?? Brilliant 😉 – sorry it’s the best I can do!). Honestly the whole place went nuts. Track 4 was the track that has been reused before in combat. Really good – possibly the highlight of the release – Andres did a great job.

Track 5, well, an old format of track 5 has come back (I hope I can say that without getting in trouble). Ben presented this, and while the crowd (and I) had a ball I’m not sure how well the music is going to translate in a non-filming class situation. What I mean is Ben did such a great job with this track, he really just made it so much fun – but he may’ve oversold it given he’s so talented – in that in the real world it probably won’t be that great. Not sure I’m explaining myself very well there.

Track 6 is definitely a recovery track. Nothing nasty – traditional track 6. A little too much kata in it for my liking. Muay thai didn’t do it for me unfortunately. Short (thankfully!) but wasn’t all that much fun – probably the other low point which sucks as muay thai is my favourite part of the class. Sorry.

Track 8 was great – seemed long, not as epic as say Overload or You’re Shining (and it’s been in other LM programmes already so hard to make it super special) but solid track 8.

Conditioning: I might get in trouble for saying this but I know you all wanna know. NO KOMODO DRAGON – Yay! 🙂 It’s a tough conditioning track trust me!

Cooldown is always mostly determined by musical choice but I thought it was great.

The release didn’t have any new moves really, the muay thai kinda had one – but calling it “new” would be a bit of a stretch.

Overall I walked away from this release excited. While track 2, 5 and 7 weren’t my cup of tea tracks 3, 4 and 8 were great – and the warmup, conditioning and cool down are great tracks. Track 6 was okay too. So more tracks I liked/loved than disliked! Speaking to others they liked the release, feedback has been better than what I heard about BC46 (which I admit I still haven’t done! – expecting the DVD tomorrow).

So there you have it – my review without any music or chorey specifics! Hopefully it wets your appetite a little, let me know your thoughts, and also if you were there I’d love your feedback… we’ll see it next year!