I am very familiar with bellydance-I am a beginning student in class, but I have been learning about bellydance through book and video for quite a while now. Bellydance Fitness for Beginners Basic Moves is a great video for someone who wants an exercise program that is a little more graceful, or someone who wants a beginner video to learn some basic bellydance moves.

The video starts out with the twins (Veena and Neena) coming out doing a little dance, and then introducing themselves. They have been dancing professionally for years, studying bellydance, ballet, and folk dances. They are very friendly, and their attire makes it easy to see the movement they are doing-sports bras, lycra pants, and a coined hip scarf. When the 30 minute workout begins, the twins demonstrate the moves, and a voice over technique is used rather than having the twins talk. Some viewers do not like this method, but it was purposely done in this and in a lot of other dance instruction videos, so that you are watching the twins bodies and their form, rather than looking at their face if they were speaking. After a soothing warmup consisting of head and neck rolls and other basics, you begin to learn some basic bellydance movements such as snake arms, shoulder shimmies, ribcage isolations, hip circles, and hip drops. Some viewers have found this video very repetitive and boring, but to properly teach the dance movements, they use the most effective way of learning-they start with doing the move slowly and broken down, and repeat it until the movement feels natural, and then the pace is quickened and repeated again. Bellydance is a dance of control using precise movements, and it is best learned this way to be properly executed at a higher speed. The workout ends with a few leg extensions while lying on your side, for your outer thighs.

The cool down consists of some cat stretches for your back, and then some more traditional cool down moves. If you get the dvd version, there is some nice extra dance footage of the girls dancing with props such as a veil, finger cymbals(zils), a cane, and a sword.

This workout is not a very aerobic workout, and if all you are interested in is getting your heart rate up to its target level, I do not recommend it. If you are wanting a graceful workout to tone spots that normally go underworked in other videos, such as your ribcage, middle back, and chest-then this is for you. I also recommend it if you want to learn the basic moves of bellydance, because although it is not a dance instruction video, it does teach you the basics, and would also be great to practice at home with if you are taking a class. It has nice middleeastern style music in the backgroud, and there is are cd's available by Veena and Neena that go with their video/dvd series.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older