Search - Belly Dancing Cardio on DVD

Fun workout, fast-paced, but little instruction

Lena, LMT | Nassau, NY | 05/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first DVD I tried from Amira though I have like 30 other bellydance dvds. This starts with recommending you start with Vol 1: Bellydance your way to fitness, 2:... your way to energy 3: .. your way to your soul 4: ... your way to your soul mate 5: your way to a feminine total body work out. Wow, that's a lot of dvds!
Amira starts with intro talking about how much exercise you should have, drink water, keeping your stomach tight, etc. for two min. There is no warm-up.
The set is a wood floor with colorful scarves hanging from the celing & pillows under them. There are 7 backup dancers, all young except one who looks to be in her late 30s in black shirts/bra tops & black pants with bead hip scarves.
Amira seems very nice, perfect aerobics instructor feel to her teaching, no breaks, gonig slow at first & then normal speed soon after, teaching as she goes, so it doens't get too slow/boring. She counts a little, but mostly calls out what to do next & reminders about keeping muscles tight & not rolling spine & how to keep your balance best.
She starts right into hip shimmies, up & down, left/right, leaning in diff directions, circles, figure 8s, etc. She also does pelvic thrusts/shimmies which I haven't seen teaching before in my other 30 bellydance dvds. This goes on for 5 min with no rest.
Shoulder shimmies are next for 5 min doing them leaning, etc. She has a sense of humor saying, "Ok, let's do ear shimmies!"
More hip shimmies with hip drops, hip trusts back & hip twists & travling for 8 min for a total of 18 min.
Next is cheorgraphy mostly of what she taught here, but a few other things probably from other dvds.
Routine 1: She teaches you slow at first, a few moves at once, she doesn't fill up the dvd by always starting from the beginning each time. She goes through it from begining calling out what comes next 2x & then 1x w/o speaking.
Routine 2: The same thing, then the whole thing 3x w/ & w/o her.
After is just dancing on your own, her dancing w/backup watching & her just getting into the music. She dances like a good latin dancer, not structured like the good bellydancers like Neon or Neena & Veena, the bellydance twins, but she helps you to relax & just get into it w/o thinking too much. She's not the best dancer, a bit sloppy, but she's not too bad. This is a great addition when you already own a few dvds & need to just do it w/o the slow instruction pace of many of the other dvds.
Take off 2 stars if you expect to learn to be more poised & perfect your moves.

There are video clips on her site at amirmor com"

Shimmy Intensive

Rebecca Johnson | Washington State | 12/30/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Amira Mor has created so many Bellydance workouts and this is the second one I've tried in her series. Her personality is cute and she has some especially sexy moves that I haven't seen on any other bellydance workouts.

One or two of the "ecstatic" moves on this workout is worth the price of the DVD! The way she teaches the choreography ensures you will remember the moves and the routine she teaches will be enjoyed by intermediate dancers.

Bellydancing Cardio is "shimmy intensive" and you will be using shimmies throughout the exercises. At first, you start with basics to enhance your feminine radiance and then move to dancing to loosen hips and shoulders. Shoulder shimmies relax the upper body, while hip shimmies burn calories and relax your entire body.

If you are intermediate, this will be fun. If you are a beginner, it may take a few times through the workout to get into the shimmy aspect. Once you learn to shimmy, it is especially fun and very challenging to also incorporate shimmies into the choreography.

~The Rebecca Review

"

Decent DVD

Rachel Elwood | 04/05/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I would reccomend that you only buy this DVD if you have used the others in the series. It's pretty advanced, and you need to be able to do the shoulder and hip shimmy with no problem. I thought it was good, but I'll have to use it a lot to make it be an actual workout."

What cardio?

Cayenne | 12/16/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I was expecting this dvd to have cardio movements that increased the heart rate. However, most of the moves seemed to have been made up on the spot and were not helpful cardio-wise. Even as a bellydance dvd, I was not inspired. Someone else had mentioned the set was 'cheesy' which may not seem important, but setting the mood for dance can provide additional motivation. Sometimes Amira's instruction didn't match what she was doing. However much I tried to get into this dvd, I could not find anything beneficial to it. Maybe someone else will.
Suhaila's "Bellydance Fitness Fusion Jazz" does an excellent job with getting the body going. Plus the music Suhaila chooses is better.


Update 6/21/09
Even months later as I'm going through another rotation of DVDs, my thoughts about this DVD have not changed. The Rania series from the early 2000s were more beneficial to me. To each his/her own - good luck anyway!"