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Workout/Fitness
My current favorite of the below workout videos is Shape Up N Hip Out with
Jillina.
Bellydance Body for Beginners (Suhaila Salimpour) –
Though the title says it is for beginners I would recommend this DVD for
Intermediate and up. This DVD includes five 10-minute workouts which can be done
individually or as one 50-minute workout. There is not much technique
instruction or explanation, so a basic knowledge of the moves is necessary. The
moves used include vertical and horizontal figure 8s, up-to-down and down-to-up
undulations, basic Egyptian, segmented omis (called hip squares), ¾ shimmy on
the up, ¾ shimmy on the down and ¾ twist. There are also a couple of traveling
moves that you may need to look up on youtube or google as they are dance steps
usually associated with ballet. The five workouts are the four bonus workouts
from her Fitness Fusion series plus a dance combinations workout unique to this
DVD. Purchase on Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs – (Neena and
Veena)
two basic workouts from the Bellytwins, each about a half hour.
Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Basic Moves and Fat Burning – (Neena and
Veena)
two basic workouts with the Bellytwins, each about a half hour.
Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Slim Down – (Neena and Veena)
a basic half hour workout with the Bellytwins.
Purchase at Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Bellydance Boogie (Rania) –
bonus features are a 10 minute dancer’s legs and buns workout and two costumed
performances. The work out uses
up-to-down undulations, vertical and horizontal figure 8s. I would recommend
this for my students who have started intermediate and up. My biggest complaint
with this workout is the snake arms on the vast majority of the dancers look
sloppy. This is because they are performed too large and/or too fast. My
recommendation is to do the snake arms at half the speed they are presented, or
to do them as arm ripples at the tempo presented. This will keep the movements
controlled and graceful. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the
front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing
since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side.
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Cardio Shimmy (Rania) –
bonus features are a 10 minute “waist cincher” workout (rib and hip slides,
horizontal and vertical hip figure 8, up to down undulations and vertical rib
cage circles) and two costumed performances. The workout uses Egyptian shimmy,
shoulder shimmy, choochoo shimmy. Most of the moves are taught in my beginner
level classes, the exceptions being the Egyptian shimmy and the gush (King Tut
walk). Also, Rania does not name her hip shimmy, so beginner level students
might not realize it is different from the hip lift shimmy taught in class.
Beginner level students could use this video if they substituted the hip lift
shimmy for the Egyptian shimmy. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from
the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit
confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side.
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Hip Drop Hip Hop (Rania) –
bonus features are a 10 minute arms, chest and back workout and two costumed
performances. The 30 minute workout is mostly based on what I consider beginner
level moves. Unweighted hip lifts, unweighted hip drops, horizontal hip circles,
chest drops, hip bumps and basic Egyptian. Combinations four and five start
getting into intermediate level territory, but they are easy enough I think
beginners, especially if they have a session or two under their hip scarves,
could figure them out. Combination four uses a traveling hip drop. Combination
five is drop-kicks. There is no mention of proper posture, so make sure you are
checking your own. Some of the moves could hurt your back if your pelvis comes
un-tucked. This DVD does not teach
proper technique. In some instances it describes the easiest way to create the
move, but not necessarily the one I think makes the most sense or would
recommend using. Like all of her
DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It
makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use
the opposite side.
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Pure Sweat (Rania) –
bonus features are a 10 minute abs
workout and two costumed performances
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Too Hip (Rania)
– bonus features are a costumed performance and a 10 minute legs and buns
workout. This workout DVD is probably best suited for intermediate level and up
which makes sense as it is billed as level 2 or intermediate. The workout is
slightly longer than the ones on the four previous DVDs. There is no explanation
of how to generate the moves and she will say things like “shimmy” and it’s up
to you to figure out what she is doing (3/4 shimmy on the down in the instance I
remember). Some of the combinations used are interesting, some I didn’t care
for. While the transitions from one combination to the next make sense if you do
the whole sequence, there are a couple of instances where the transition is
awkward when you haven’t learned the whole sequence yet and are going from the
end of the last combination you have learned back to the beginning. Like all of
her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other
dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the
dancers or use the opposite side. Purchase on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Hipper than Hip (Rania)
– bonus features are two costumed performances. This is, according to the
description, a level 3 workout. However I think most intermediate level students
would be fine with the moves used in the workout. Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Buns with Suhaila
– (Suhaila Salimpour) not for
beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for
intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of
the glute muscles. This DVD consists mostly of glute strengthening exercises.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Jazz with Suhaila
– (Suhaila Salimpour) not for
beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for
intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of
the glute muscles. This DVD includes a few glute strengthening exercises and
then uses the glutes to generate bellydance and jazz fusion moves.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Pilates with Suhaila
- (Suhaila Salimpour) not for
beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for
intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of
the glute muscles.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Yoga with Suhaila
- (Suhaila Salimpour) not for
beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for
intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of
the glute muscles.
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Abs – (Neon)
three 15 minute workouts, a knowledge of the moves is needed.
Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Buns and Thighs – (Neon)
three 15 minute workouts, a knowledge of the moves is needed.
Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Upper Body --
three 15 minute workouts, includes veil and cane technique instructions.
Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Floorwork --
three 15 minute workouts, includes floorwork technique instructions.
Purchase at Amazon
Bellydance
for Core Fitness (Ayshe) –
includes a tutorial section that teaches the moves and then a warm up workout
and cool down. Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Rhythms Workout (Neon) Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Shimmy Workout Purchase from Amazon
Cardio Bellydance Workout (Melissa) Purchase from Amazon
Cocktail Purchase from Amazon
Core
Training for Belly Dancers
– (Fitness Pharaoh) works all groups
of abdominal muscles as well as the back.
Purchase at Amazon
Dancer’s Arms (Aruna)
– covers arm positions for several different styles of dance as well as a work
out to increase arm strength
Dancer’s Body (Aruna)
– strength training workout using weights and dance moves.
Discover Bellydance: My Personal Trainer (Rania) –
includes seven ten minute target specific workouts, a 30 minute cardio workout
and a guide on how to combine them into a weekly plan based on your goals. Also
includes a performance by Rania and a video library of some belly dance moves.
The cardio workout is combinations pulled from Rania’s other workout DVDs with
no change in the voice over, so if you haven’t used the other DVDs it could be
confusing when she refers to a move “we learned earlier”. Legs 1 workout is the
bonus workout from “Too Hip”, Legs 2 workout is the bonus from “Bellydance
Boogie”, Abs 2 workout is the bonus from “Pure Sweat” and the Flexibility
workout can also be found on the “Daily Quickies” DVD. The Arms, Chest & Back,
Hips & Waist and Abs 1 workouts are all new for this DVD. This DVD is nice for
being able to create your own workout using the 10 minute workouts, but you
could do the same thing using the “Daily Quickies” DVD I would say you need only
one or the other of them and not both. Of the two I would pick this one since it
has more 10 minute workouts on it than the “Daily Quickies” which has five. Like
all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front. It makes right and left a
bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. Purchase from Amazon
Goddess Workout – Introduction – (Dolphina)
breakdown of beginning and intermediate level belly dance moves. Her names for
some of the moves are unique to her (the dolphin for an undulation), if you
already know what she is talking about and can recognize the move and go with
the flow you should be ok, but I definitely don’t recommend this one for
beginners. Purchase
at Amazon
Goddess Workout – Warrior – (Dolphina)
workout using beginning and
intermediate level belly dance moves. Her names for some of the moves are unique
to her (the dolphin for an undulation), if you already know what she is talking
about and can recognize the move and go with the flow you should be ok, but I
definitely don’t recommend this one for beginners.
Purchase
at Amazon
Hard Candy
Killer Drillz (Zoe Jakes) - DVD
includes a warm up which uses a lot of stretches, she then covers the techniques
that will be used later with a focus on what muscles are used. She then teaches
a drills class in front of a group of students where you drill all the moves she
broke down. This is not billed as a workout DVD, but could certainly be used
that way. Purchase from Amazon
Love Potion Purchase from Amazon
Luscious Purchase from Amazon
Shape Up N’ Hip Out (Jillina)
– DVD includes a warm up, three 20 minute workouts, a cool down and a solo
performances by each of the dancers in the video. Purchase from Amazon
Ultimate Belly Dance Fitness Workout –
workout using belly dance moves, you need to know the moves since there is
minimum explanation, each section is lead by one of seven different belly
dancers.
Purchase at Amazon
Woman Power Workout (Aruna) –
combination of
cardio, strength training and stretching
E-mail Huraiva at huraiva@huraivaalimah.com
