Product Description

LOVE to bellydance?

Then this DVD is for you! And if you're not yet turned on to the magic, get ready to be enlightened by New York City's most sought-after bellydancer, MTV choreographer, and master teacher Shamira.

Due to the tremendous success of Bellydancing: The Sensuous Workout (tm), Goddess Visions now brings you Bellydancing: The Sensuous Workout 2 - "Pure Technique" - 92 minutes of gorgeous hiplocks, shimmies, undulations, turns, wiggle-steps, twists and much more - 22 chapters of fantastic ab-tightening, muscle-toning, beautiful technique. Want more? Shamira then puts the moves together into 3 different combinations of increasing challenge!

Bellydancing is hotter than ever now thanks partly to Shamira's choreography and performance with Christina Aguilera for the 2000 MTV Music Video Awards, seen around the world. Since then it has become an absolute craze. This ancient art is hardly just for the MTV generation, though. The skill and depth of this exquisite dance is for women of any age or body type. Whether you want a healthy, low-impact workout for your body or a joyful workout for your feminine soul, come explore the loveliness of bellydance. It will change your life!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83593 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-11-11
• Formats: Color, Digital Sound, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Full Screen, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

From the Actor
How to use this DVD

"Pure Technique"
I designed this DVD to make it easy for you to work on any move at any time. "Pure Technique" contains 22 gorgeous moves and variations for you to work on. You can do them in order, or you can pick and choose your own set on any given day. What do YOU feel like working on and how much of a workout are you up for? Go with the flow. They are short and sweet, but don't let them fool you, they will make you work it! And please repeat things. I can't stress this enough: The more you practice, the better you'll get.

Combinations
Each of the Combinations uses movements from "Pure Technique." I highly recommend you first study the list of movements used in each combination, listed on each menu in the DVD. Practice the movements separately. Get proficient at each one. Then put them together and have a blast! Before attempting a combination, you should watch it all the way through. This will get you familiar with my voice cues and what to expect.

It is my sincere wish to be your guide and to help you unlock the beauty that you already possess. Have fun, feel good, drink water, and breathe a lot!

About the Actor
Shamira performs and teaches in the NY/NJ area. She is the director of The Divine Divas of Oriental Bellydance - featured at Lincoln Center in New York City to a standing-room-only audience. She is also a well-known percussionist, keyboardist and RCA recording artist. Her band, "Shamband," a group of the hottest bellydance musicians in the country, play for Shamira regularly in and around New York and New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Quality And Quantity
I mostly wanted to thank the other reviewers for recommending this. It is the best one I've tried and the most used. And I feel myself improving each time I work with it. As a beginner I have seen everything from the impossible to the purely annoying. Shamira, a trully "sensuous" dancer, had a great idea in breaking down bellydance moves into many segments, to portion it out. And this is about learning the dance, not just doing a fitness workout with bellydance moves. First I must emphasize that I can't get over how much the mirror images helps one like me, who often gets dyslexic about rights and lefts. If you're a beginner too don't be intimidated. The mirror imaging makes it much, much easier. The camera is always where it belongs. You will be glad to have this in your collection. It's an invaluable encyclopedia of belly dance. I want to work on routines but also want something that's a reference. Each "chapter" has the move/moves broken down slowly, then Shamira picks up the tempo and lastly provides variations. She also incorporates arms and hands very gracefully with just about everything. I find this important since it makes the beginner look less amateurish. It's very user-friendly. With repetition you can work on a chapter until you've gotten it down. I go through the whole technique section then go back and repeat what needs work, varying it so it doesn't get boring or frustrating. I just know that between classes and this DVD I will get it. Her descriptions are inventive and tips helpful. She doesn't assume you know anything about what she's teaching but she also spices it up with variations which keep it interesting. And although it's no substitution for lessons she does cover a lot of ground and makes it accessable. You may get frustrated but you never feel like throwing in the towel. Then there's the carrots on the end of the stick -- the three dances merging what you've learned into 3 different routines of increasing challange. They are beautifully performed with clear instruction. These are really in the realm of possibility once you've mastered the moves (although the last, which is a drum solo looks light years away for me). It's also nice to be able to pick and choose what you need or want to work on. The other reviews have said it all nicely and I won't repeat. But since I appreciate it so much I thought I'd chime in with five more well-deserved stars. There's plenty for everyone whether you're just starting out or have been bellydancing for a while. Enough to keep busy with for a very long time. Even if I have to repeat and repeat a chapter it's shown and explained so that almost anyone can eventually get it. And Shamira is anything but robot-like. She's elegant and happy and creative. While the chapters could be considered drills it doesn't feel like you're drilling. It is fun and Shamira's joie de vive shines through. This is certainly worth every penny. It is quality and quantity.

Sexy workout!
This is an excellent dance workout. This dance workout contained Pure Technique with 22 chapters of movements, dance workout routines/combinations: Chiftitelli (beginner to advance). This is a slow sexy number and it runs over 9 mins. Second is Saiide (intermediate to advanced but I think beginner can do it too as well). This one is a bit upbeat tempo and it runs over 7 mins. And the last one (my most favorite) is the Maksoum Drum Solo (intermediate to advance but beginner can do it too). The drum solo runs over 7 minutes. I like this the most because I like drum background music personally. All the dance movements in the routine(with a variation) are in pure technique chapters.
Shamira delivers a clear voice over that match the movement. I never get confused plus Shamira has you mirror her movements. Unlike other workouts which they tell you right but they are doing left on the screen. The background is simple and not distracting.
For the first week, I practiced the pure technique part then the second week I combined a pure technique then a routine. Now, I just skipped the pure technique and I just combined the three dance routine and when I finished my heart beat is accelerated and I am sweating!
One can practice and combine any part of the DVD and you will get a good nice dance workout.
The music soundtrack (Shamira is the model on the cover!) of the DVD is one of the best also. I actually bought the CD first before the workout and love it that I listened to it in my vehicle when I am on my way to work.
I love this one and will keep it along with some of my bellydance collections. Highly recommended!

Beginner / Intermediate level workout
The Good: Don't let the title or cheesy cover art fool you; this is a serious drill-oriented workout designed to let you focus on which of the 22 addressed movements you most need to perfect. The production quality isn't all slick and professional looking, like some of the newer videos out today, but is definitely sufficient for our needs here. Each of the 22 movements has its own chapter on the DVD, making it very easy to skip around within the movement. Shamira gives very concise explanations for each movement, and demonstrates clearly first in ½ time, then in full time. You are working to music throughout the instruction, which gives you an idea of how the tempo of your movements with the same music can give you a totally different look. The movements are also demonstrated from both the front and the back, and even early on she is moving towards building combinations; something you don't see enough of in instructional videos without a complete choreography. She also offers some arm movement variations for most of the traveling movements.

Next, Shamira links these 22 movements together into 3 different combinations named after the rhythm to which they're performed. Each combination tells you which movements will be used in it. The Chiftitelli is noted as "beginner / intermediate level," the Saidi is "intermediate / advanced," and the Maksoum drum solo is "advanced." Each of these "combinations" gives about 7-8 mins of drilling on different movements, although with the absence of any upper body work or layering I'd hesitate to call any of it "advanced."

The Bad: For the most part, Shamira's movements are fluid and completed, although she does have a tendency to lose the "isolation" of the movement. I see her ribcage and shoulders moving quite a bit during the "Hip Circle" demo. Having this problem myself, I'm inclined to be understanding about it. ; ) She also uses a more skeletal movement than muscular. You won't find anything relating to upper body movements here; no chest or ribcage circles or locks, no snake arms (except as an accent), no shoulder shimmies.

The Ugly: Shamira teaches a shimmy technique that she calls "her famous Buns of Jello;" aside from the icky visual I got when she said that, her standard Egyptian shimmy lacks any isolation whatsoever. It could have been called the Egyptian Seizure. She also demonstrates something she calls a diagonal shimmy (posed on the diagonal, weighted-leg shimmies) and the choo-choo shimmy. Also in the "ugly" category - Shamira performs the individual techniques in workout gear and a hip scarf, which is great - but she changes into a lovely lavender bedlah for the Chifitelli which she layers over - black lycra capris. No, I'm serious. The Saidi outfit is cute, but she does the same "bra and belt over lycra stretch pants" to us again for the drum solo workout.

All in all - definitely worth what I spent, regardless of the unintended humor in costuming and technique names. I'll be using this video to practice zilling while dancing.