I'm new, only passed my module this weekend but BJ50 is amazing. I know some people dislike the mambo everywhere on these forums and if I had to assume it's been used in other releases? Since it's new to our club and general area everyone went nuts for it at the training. It'll be interesting to see how the release goes but I think the mambo everywhere is awesome if you've got instructors that are really into it like our trainer was when she did a master class for us.

"The thing is to mix for example BJ 50 and BJ 51 or BJ50 and BJ 49 but not much older."

Seriously?!!!!! Then you're missing out on some great Jams! You're robbing your crowd of some Jamming fun!!! Now, I agree that 36 would have scared me off, but I came and they were doing 45, and I saw 38, I think, and on from then and I loved them all. If you robbed them of that, it's almost sinful. Sure, new releases are fun, but mix backwards to the old fun stuff too!!!

Probably, but I only start BodyJam in release 48...

And I'm not mixing as I'm a participant 

mellag:

"The thing is to mix for example BJ 50 and BJ 51 or BJ50 and BJ 49 but not much older."

Seriously?!!!!! Then you're missing out on some great Jams! You're robbing your crowd of some Jamming fun!!! Now, I agree that 36 would have scared me off, but I came and they were doing 45, and I saw 38, I think, and on from then and I loved them all. If you robbed them of that, it's almost sinful. Sure, new releases are fun, but mix backwards to the old fun stuff too!!!

Where quality is maintained, what just been said is true.  There is a some place in the world in which common sense just does not apply.

And Bob, I can see your very very negative tone...  But I guess I don't have to repeat the same story.

You know what?  The instructor, who said Good-Bye to 50 in the middle of enthusiasm and chose to do 40-something, completely forgot the choreo of that particular release she chose to do, so music just went on (I had no problem doing it, anyway.  She said "thank you," was that to me? ).  Her way of doing BJ is just repat counting the rhythm over and over again even for a very simple repetitive move, without doing demos at all, which is disturbing because the count is off the beat.  I guess that is why she doesn't remember choreos.

What I care about is just a little addition of fairness, not for my sake.  "There isn't just one way, no, no...," quated from Oye Mi Canto by Gloria Estephan.  We had over 50 participants at the 4th week of BJ50 (30-50 participants we always have), which seemed still growing.  So, just listening to a change request by 5 people out of 50 cannot be considered as a sound base of fairness, which is what I think.

 

mellag:

Now, I agree that 36 would have scared me off, but I came and they were doing 45, and I saw 38, I think, and on from then and I loved them all. If you robbed them of that, it's almost sinful. Sure, new releases are fun, but mix backwards to the old fun stuff too!!!

You might want to try 36 if you have access to it.  It's one of my favorite go-to's for mixing.  My members love the first half of 36 combined with the second half of 43, and it's a great cardio workout!  It's true that the combos in 36 are pretty long, 64 counts, I believe, but what great opportunities to breakout!  "Hey Little Mama, why you look so sexy!"  I love the second half of 36, too, but it's not quite up there, cardio-wise, and they music is a bit choppy at the end, sort of like the Cardiofunk Shabam from 50, not as much of a cardio workout, but add more songs with dead spots between them.

Maki....perhaps I misunderstood your post.  You were negative toward the releases from the 40s, no?  That's your opinion, right?  And that's perfectly fine.  As is mine, that the releases from the early 40s were good and still good.  Based on my experience with them, I assumed that the instructors were not doing a very good job with those releases.  Which I based on your comments previously that they weren't teaching the Jam classes as authentically as they could have.

If my assumption was wrong, and they are teaching those releases authentically, doing the choreography as designed, on beat with the music, with energy and enthusiasm, along with good cueing, then I apologize.  And I'll read your comments more critically in the future regarding the problems with Jam at your gym.

Thank you, Bob.  I absolutely understand your confusion. 

The serious problems I posted in August have been solved somehow (not completely, but much better), thanks to you people.

At that time, the large part of my focus was on the other instructor, who completely misunderstood BJ.  Right after receiving replies to my post, I prepared reports and went to talk to our manager face to face as well as on the phone, and we agreed that I would hand out a memo to the manager each time I find a problem, because "he" (not "she" whom I posted earlier in this thread, although there were some common proplems "they" shared) did not have a clue.  Actually, the manager seemed very sad because she also found out that he did not have a basic common sense required as an instructor after she discussed with him about my claims.  Anyway, he seems to have got a clue now.  I can sense that from his classes, and hope that he will be fascinated by the BJ world.  But he needs a bit more work for mambo move... (In our gym, free-style aerobics instructors call a simple back-and-forth leg move "mambo," I don't know why...) 

Now, I just talked about different problems which I thoght less important before.  I have nothing against any BJ releses and love to do them all, but I am not able to have fun when I find totally confused new participants everywhere.

BJ50 in our gym kept on attracting new participants every week, like about 3 to 7 per week.  This means that even in the 4th week, more than 10 people were still new to BJ.  (The BJ first time experience, which we all have..., remember?)  The instructor could have given much thought about the situation, such as keeping at least one block from BJ50 at a time, just as a bonus for them.  So, I agreed with Tiger, try not to do too old numbers only, when we think about new people.

In my opinion, some 40's have complicated choreos, especially with hand moves, which can easily intimidate new people.  At least at a glance, BJ50 is less complicated than earlier releases (I am not saying that BJ50 is easy.  I am just saying this from a new member's point of view), which is good as anyone can enjoy according to thier levels.

Sorry, if it is off-topic, but thanks to the outstanding greatness of BJ50 and comments from you people, my claims have been convincing enough to make things better (which means "fair-er") in our gym. 

 

orkanbob:

If my assumption was wrong, and they are teaching those releases authentically, doing the choreography as designed, on beat with the music, with energy and enthusiasm, along with good cueing, then I apologize.  And I'll read your comments more critically in the future regarding the problems with Jam at your gym.

In my reply above, I am not mocking you by saying "Thank you."   You can make any asumption and become critical, but just read it without imaging a selfish witch or something.  I just cared about going off-topic, and did not think about how it looks if it is read in connection with your last paragraph only.

Glad to hear things are better with Jam at your club.  Hope the improvements continue.

orkanbob:

Glad to hear things are better with Jam at your club.  Hope the improvements continue.

In the near future, I will write my feedback in my post, "envy you where quality is maintained."  I hope you will read it.

I did get to try 36. It was hard for me...coming from a non-dance background, I feel like it took me longer to catch on to it, especially with no techniques class (which we used to have when I started, but lost). I was starting to get it after about 3 times, but then we had to begin something new...launch maybe? I don't remember. It was fun, but if it'd been what I walked in on when I was a new jammer, I would've been scared away. That's what I was saying on that :)

The only one I haven't tried is 37. My instructor never has tried it with us. I'm sure she will someday :)