Product Description

'Ultimate Bellydance Fitness Workout' has emerged from the growing dance fitness trend. The workout consists of 7 segments, each led by a different professional New York bellydancer.

In 'Ultimate' the faces, mood, style and rhythm change every few minutes.

Modern original music: Worldbeat and New Age. Dynamic, entertaining and challenging.

The music, the spirit and the look of the fitness choreographies are young, modern, classy and sophisticated - not a whiff of stale air: Definitely not the old-fashioned kind of belly dancing.

Every move on this video can be put to use on a nightclub dance floor.

Dancers of all levels as well as non-dancers will benefit from taking on the challenge and moving up the learning curve to master the ULTIMATE workout. If you don't have any dance training, you will need sharp observation skills and focus to meet the challenge, but the prize is worth it: A shortcut entrance to the world of belly dance, doors flung wide open...for you.

CHAPTERS:

* WARMUP
* STRENGTH
* SENSUALITY
* JOY
* PASSION
* ENERGY
* COOLDOWN

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22034 in DVD
• Brand: STRATOSTREAM
• Released on: 2003-12-15
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .15 pounds
• Running time: 60 minutes

From the Actor
The Ultimate Bellydance Fitness Workout DVD routine is performed by 7 professional New York dance artists: Ayshe, Blanca, Elisha, Kim, Layla Isis, Neon, Tanna. They are in demand in New York nightclubs and at cultural events as individual performers and as a troupe of Jehan's off-Broadway "Goddessdance" show.

About the Actor
The Ultimate Bellydance Fitness Workout DVD routine is performed by 7 professional New York dance artists: Ayshe, Blanca, Elisha, Kim, Layla Isis, Neon, Tanna Valentine.

Customer Reviews

For Beginners who don't want lot of slow boring instruction
I have only been using dancing DVDs for 2 years with no prior attempt to dancing before that. I still lack the ability to grasp new dance techniques easily. I have most of Neena & Veena, the bellydance twins's DVDs, two of the Goddess Workout ones, and only one Rania since she is way too stiff. With that help, I had no trouble with this DVD at all. This DVD is meant for keeping your heart-rate up & keeping the music always present. The music is very beautiful with a nice beat, but light & spiritual as well with subtle female singing.

Every move is done in 1/2 time several times before moving on to normal speed w/naration over the music. Since most instructional DVDs are slow, most times w/o music & barely repeat more then a few times, this is a refreshing change for when you just want to practice & get your heart rate up w/o stopping. There were a few moves I had not previously been able to master, but have through this DVD such as pelvic lifts & pelvic rolls. There are some more advanced ones I have trouble on, but I just do the best I can & keeps me inspired to keep trying.

There are separate chapters by mood such as: joy, sensual that work on different body parts. The Ultimate on left side was distracting at first, but easy to get used to. They are always dressed in jeans or gothic wear, but you can still easily see how to move the body. Many of the dancers on this DVD went on to make their own or are well known & have performance DVDs.

The warm-up & cooldown are 16 min of very slow bellydancing moves & stretching. The warm-up & cooldown in only a FEW spots of the whole DVD lack naration for the forward bends, but that's it. The regular workout is 28 min but feels like longer since it never slows down to a crawl/break.

I wouldn't recommend this as a first bellydance DVD at all, but maybe a 3rd or 4th, try using the bellydance twins Neena & Veena (there are trailer's for their dvds at collagevideo.com

BTW, I don't mention the set or how people look, because I only care about the talent of the instructor, how well they teach & the content. Most directors & producers screw things up by putting up cheesy sets & almost all have camera zooms & angles that take away your ability to see/learn. This DVD at least has one of the least camera problems then most of my 20 yoga, 15 latin dancing, 5 hula & 14 bellydancing DVDs. I am especially agast at A. Kite's "boardgirl148" reviewer who has the audacity to complain about the dancers' facial beauty. That shouldn't matter, I'd rather learn from an ugly instructor w/talent then a gorgeous one who has none. If anyone really cares, I do think the makeup was put on way too heavily & it distracts from each dancer's unique beautiful facial features.

I recently found a link to their main site which has a trailer & screenshots for this & a couple other of their DVDs: worlddancenewyork com/catalog/wbfw html

Best Bellydance Cardio Around!
This is the finest bellydance cardio workout available to the mass market, and may be the finest available anywhere. The setup is the best I've ever seen, with the workout divided into seven distinct and progressively harder segments. This feature makes it easy to repeat a segment and to "mix-and-match" segments creating your own personal unique workout. The warmup is the best I've ever seen on ANY fitness video, and has become one I use every day even with other fitness videos. The moves are interesting, getting most of the cardio from layering rather than traveling steps like Rania's series uses, which is a boon for those of us with two left feet. The combinations are beautiful and elegant, and unlike the combinations on other cardio videos will quickly find their way into your personal dance routines. The music is an upbeat techno-Arabic world dance sound that has me wanting to buy Jehan's cds. There's a little dance routine included in the extras, and a useful talk from a fitness instructor on assessing your personal cardio needs.

The moves are called out but not really explained, so I wouldn't recommend this video to absolute beginners, although an absolute beginner could get a good workout buy just repeating the early segments and doing the cooldown. Two of the songs used in the segments have Goddess-positive lyrics, which is great for us Goddess-positive people. ;)

So go on and buy the DVD already! And Jehan, use the money to put your highly recommended instruction and performance videos on DVD for the benefit of those of us with toddlers and without VCRs!

Excellent workout DVD!
I'm not a dancer, but I buy dance workouts because I get bored with the regular ones. They don't keep me motivated to exercise. This DVD is the interest holding champion! It's a workout and a dance class combined, it's fast-paced, really the closest thing to real dance but still a workout.I particularly appreciate this DVD for teaching me to shimmy! It makes you try the shimmy at so many angles, that my body just found the position that works for me.It has a driving force that keeps me focused and intrigued with what I'm doing. Some weightloss videos are so monotonous that I lose alertness.I REALLY don't agree with the reviewers who criticize the instructors' makeup or the backdrop: If you are really working with this DVD (and it makes you work very hard!) you WON'T be thinking about that. It's all I can do to keep up the workout and TRY to do the moves as beautifully as the instructors do. The white floor and walls are just totally New York professional dance studio. You can see dance studios through their windows downtown in NYC that look exactly like this DVD. So doing the workout is like being in a pro class in New York - that's what it is for me every time. Those artificial "sultan's palace" videos are very colorful, but they're distracting. They show the background so much that sometimes you can hardly see the moves.