Amazon.com: This boxed set contains four 30-minute exercise videos from professional belly dancers Veena and Neena Bidasha:
Bellydance Fitness for Beginners: Hips, Buns, and Thighs: Most of this is a buttock and thigh workout starting with traditional leg lifts and lunges and leading to belly-dance-inspired moves like squeezing one buttock at a time or circling the hips. The fun begins later with "hip drops" and "hip lifts" with added leg and arm positions.
Bellydance Fitness for Beginners: Arms & Abs: This video helps you tone arms and abs with isolations that use smooth, flowing movements. Special motions of the wrists and fingers make the moves look dramatic and fluid, sometimes snakelike. Meanwhile, you're working your abdominals by lifting, shifting, and circling your ribcage. The workout includes some difficult abdominal moves done on the floor.
Bellydance Fitness for Beginners: Fat Burning: This is a belly-dance-inspired cardio workout done barefoot. The routine builds from simple foot movements that establish rhythm to more intense moves with hops and jumps. Don't expect your belly to do the dancing in this video--the legs and feet do all the work here, except for some hip moves during the cool down.
Bellydance Fitness for Beginners: Basic Moves teaches body isolations--head, arms, shoulders, ribcage, and hips--that are incorporated into dance movements later. It's not really an exercise routine as much as a class of basic belly-dancing moves, though your abs and hips will certainly get a workout from all that rib-pushing and hip-rolling action. --Joan Price
FOR BASIC BEGINNERS (skip this dvd if you've had any bellydance experience) REVIEW OF "BASIC MOVES" PORTION... This is a half hour dance *instruction* video. Some moves may tire out your shoulders and hips, but it isn't much of a "workout," and definitely not cardio or strenuous.
~10min of head/neck & shoulder/arm movements . ~10min of rib/hip movements. ~5min of basic steps. ~5min of floor moves (Cleopatra/outer thigh lift, cat, leg stretch)
They introduce individual isolated moves, and repeat them several times for users to practice; most moves were easy to pick up (but will take time & practice to make it look graceful). I don't know if it's the instructors or if it's because they are demonstrated isolated motions, but they look a bit robotic/jerky. This seems is an Intro to belly dance for total beginners.
I think people with previous belly dance experience will find this basic video too slow/boring and stiff.
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This review refers to the "HIPS BUNS THIGH" portion. As the title promises, this video focuses specifically on working butt and legs for beginners.
Overall the workout isn't strenuous, except I found the hip drops & hip lifts section really worked my butt tough in a way that non-bellydance workouts haven't targeted.
The 25min workout includes the following: leg stretchs, inner thigh lifts, outer thigh lifts, knee bends (like mini-lunges), butt squeezes (I wish they explained these a little more), lots of hip circles, hip drop & hip lifts (these definitely were tiring), walk on balls of feet, thigh stretch (unless you're agile & have strong abs, skip this cause it's easy to hurt your back and knees), cat stretch.
I like how the instructors wore simple outfits that weren't distracting.
This video is for people new to belly dancing who want to learn individual moves and practice their strength & coordination in doing those moves. But don't except a super-tough workout or a dance routine.
I would much rather RECOMMEND "BELLYDANCE BASICS AND BEYOND: Technique for a Solid Foundation" BY JENNA, which is a 2.5hr DVD with much better technique and practice options; it provides a teaching portion of all the major belly dance moves, as well as a drill/practice section.
I love these tapes and I have had them for more than three years I started taking ballet when I was three and continued to study ballet along with some jazz and tap classes through college. I did bellydance and folkdance while in highschool. These tapes made me want to dance again. When I graduated I was depressed and busy working full time and taking extra course work that I needed for grad school. I felt very isolated because I don't live in an area with a lot of young single friend I had also moved away from the school where I graduated. I needed a cheap and quick way to work out and I didn't have money for new shoes or equipment. I saw the twins on a TV news magizine show, they were so nice and fun and I liked their dancing so I decided to by their tapes. I bought them fun and I became addicted to belly dance. My favorite tapes are the arms and abs and the hips and buns. THey are a bit more challenging in the toning department then the basic moves. I like to use the basic moves to warm up for dancing. The fat burning is the reason I gave the tapes four stars. It definatly does the job of getting me huffing and puffing but the moves should have alternated with other moves so that you do not overwork your calves. I was so thrilled I did all four on the first day and the next day I was so sore
BellyDance Fitness For Beginners Neena and Veena are so great! Excellent teaching and exercise. Not very high impact, but still a great workout. Plus special features of the twins dancing. I really liked this.
Overall, a good workout set... I lead a group of women who are learning belly dance through videos and here are what we have said about this set...
Basic moves: Great for stretching and learning the very basics. Wonderful starter video.
Arms and Abs: A definite workout for the abs and arms. We are very glad that it is only a 30 min video!
Buns and thighs: Great video for working out those glutes. I know that mine are getting solid.
Fat Burning: Very intense! You may need to work up to this one.
Love these sisters Great exercise tapes for someone who doesn't like to exercise and loves to belly dance. Tones important muscles used in dance. These are not belly dancing but you do refine some movements. More like drills. And learn some hand techniques. They are fun and fast. The fat burner one was too much bouncing for me. I need aerobic without impact. 30 minute of pleasure. I like to use these and have all their tapes.
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