Last Friday I gave an MP3 CD compilation to Clark, my hiphop instructor on Monday mornings at 6:30am. He’s been looking for new music for our classes, so in a way this also benefits me. I helped him import them to the iTunes on his laptop.

Clark also happens to be one of the two program heads for BodyJam here in the Philippines. (In fact he was one of the judges at the audition for instructor training last September.) So, his iTunes had a BodyJam playlist. And it wasn’t just any playlist: it was the list of songs for the upcoming release 39, to be launched in mid- to late December 2006. I ribbed him about getting a sneak peek at it and he just laughed at me and said it was too bad he’d ruined the element of surprise.

Anyway, since the launch is coming up it’s been increasingly easy to find sneak peeks into BodyJam 39. The tracklist has been posted to the many different Les Mills and BTS message boards, so at least I know what kind of music we’re in for — and what dancing styles are involved. DON’T LOOK IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS! You’ve been warned. Ü

Warmup
1. Canned Heat – Jamiroquai

Isolations

2. Buttons – The Pussycat Dolls

BollyJam

3. Mundian To Bach Ke – Panjabi MC
4. The Power Of Bhangra (vs. Motivo) – Snap!

Reggaeton

5. Hips Don’t lie – Bamboo – Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean

Latin

6. Boom Boom – Chayanne

Recovery

7. Deja vu – Beyonce feat. Jay Z

Dance4Life

8. Mesmerized – Faith Evans
9. Sexy Back – Justin Timberlake
10. S.O.S. – Rihanna
11. London Bridge (Oh Shh) – Fergie
12. Dance4Life – Tiesto feat. Maxi Jazz
13. Love Sensation ’06 – Loleatta Holloway

Groove Down

14. I’ll Do 4 U – Father M.C.

From this playlist there are a lot of dance styles in this release (and a mix of old and new songs!). Turns out that Les Mills is now affiliated with Dance4Life, the global campaign against HIV/AIDS, and that this release has a special track mixed by DJ Tiesto, who is the campaign’s ambassador and a famous club music DJ. The style of the main cardio block (Dance4Life) might be “contemporary club,” like we had in BodyJam 38 because it doesn’t look like there’s a strong hiphop component aside from the “Sexy Back” and “S.O.S.” dance rehearsal tracks. Fellow BodyJam fanatics surmise that the moves set to this music in BodyJam choreographer Gandalf Archer‘s YouTube video of their Euro Summit demo could be very similar to what we’ll encounter in release 39.

For more about BodyJam 39, check out the official Les Mills sizzler. I’ve also found some videos on YouTube of BodyJam master trainers Kylie Gates and Tracy Minnoch at a Les Mills workshop showing off the new moves. Check out the isolation track and the BollyJam track: they look like fun! I’ll be studying these clips in preparation for Kylie Gates’ special class at Fitness First Ortigas on Wednesday; I’ve been told we’ll get a taste of this release there. Ü I can’t wait!

UPDATE (December 13, 2006): BodyJam with Kylie was awesome! After starting us off with the warm-up combo from release 38, she said, “Let’s do something different.” And then the strains of Punjabi MC’s “Mundian To Bach Ke” started blasting through the speakers. BollyJam! We also did the two Latin tracks off release 39, and after the recovery track (Gwen Stefani’s “Luxurious” from release 37), Kylie taught us the Dance4Life block. Our groove-down, “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac, came from release 38.

My initial reaction to what we sampled from release 39 was excitement and delight, particularly when we were doing BollyJam. It brought back my memories of the Nike Rockstar Workout Bollywood competition, even more so because I had just received a CD of our pictures from there.

The BollyJam block ended rather abruptly, though. The Latin block was also too short, building up but then failing to hit a climax before ending. I guess we’ve been spoiled by the long and elaborate Latin block from release 38. As for the Dance4Life cardio block, it was fun to learn, but I think it’ll take me a few more classes before I can actually party to the music. I love the spins and turns in the choreo, though. The “London Bridge” crump segment in the middle of the Dance4Life block was puzzling because it didn’t really add anything to the choreography and felt like it was tacked-on just to have one more Top 40 song in the mix.

I’m glad I was able to keep up with the choreography and minimized any mess-ups; I was in the second row right in front of Kylie and didn’t want to embarrass myself. Ü I’m excited for the launch so I can see the release in its entirety.

SPECIAL UPDATE: I noticed I’m getting a lot of hits not just for BodyJam tracklist search queries, but also for the tracklists of other Les Mills programs. There’s a fantastic resource out there called Totally Les Mills, an unofficial site run by Mel, a certified LM instructor. It not only has the tracklists of all LM programs (BodyJam, BodyCombat, BodyPump, BodyStep, BodyAttack, BodyFlow/BodyBalance, RPM) from the time they went international with their releases, but also has news about these programs and information on how to become an instructor.

Tags: BodyJam, Dance Workout, Fitness First Philippines, Les Mills

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