Search - Bellydance for Beginners with Suhaila: Fitness Fusion Jazz on DVD

Michelle L. (keyi) from YUKON, OK
Reviewed on 8/25/2008...

Love Suhalias troop and her dvd series. I wouldn't really say this involves any Jazz, per se.....just great belly dancing instruction. Good for beginners and intermediate dancers.

An Exercise in Frustration

katie | Illinois | 03/03/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"To begin, Suhaila does not bother to explain each of her movements. I attempted to mimic her actions, but her inability to break a move down, and her unwillingness to call out the next action made this an unattainable goal. At one point, she was calling out moves that she had never discussed. I have had four years of college dance courses, but still couldn't follow along.

Next, while the dance pants the women chose to wear may be very flattering and fashionable, it is impossible to see their feet in order to follow their movements. There was no way to distinguish between each movement, because there was no visual cue. If at least one member on screen had kept her legs visible, the video may have been somewhat more comprehensible.

Also, Suhaila never bothered to break down the "routines" into smaller steps. Going over the dance once, using moves she hasn't explained, and refusing to call out the next movement is hard enough. Throwing the entire routine out at once without breaking it down and then bringing it together made it even worse. The only thing continuing to follow along did for me, was to frustrate me and ensure that practice lead to more mistakes rather than familiarity.

The first music video had me excited about the workout. The l-e-n-g-t-h-y warm-up had me anticipating a challenging 40 minutes. The end video merely added insult by demonstrating what she didn't bother to teach us. I'm glad that Suhaila has a video that's all about her. How about creating a dvd for the rest of us?"

Great glut isolations & strengthening & awarness of hip flui

Lena, LMT | Nassau, NY | 07/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It starts with 9 minutes of stretching: torso bends, flat back & wide legged, touching toes at diff angles, squatting with flat back, lunges: runner & side, shoulder rolls, chest stretches, then large uladations that use standing on tip toes, bending knees & hips.
The gluteus contractions for hip bumps really make you aware to strengthen your gluts & more fluidity in hips without relying on bending your knees stiffly so much. You walk & step & do circles & really get into it for 14 min until your butt feels like it's hard as concrete.
After you do two routines which she starts out showing very slowly, little too slow to teach then speeds up doing about 5x each. Then a quick neck stretch & you're done in 34 min. After is performance of her & her students for 5 minutes & her talking about how hard it is to be a partent for one minute.
The bonus 10 min workout of her voiceover of a student was easier & fun to follow.
The special features features a student performance who must have gymastics in her background because she does one-handed flips, jumps with split in air, can twist around while maintaining a split, and fall on the floor & reach her feet almost over her head.
The routines were a little hard to follow for me as well, but with practice I'm sure anyone can do it. She could give more cues for that, which is my only critism except for the pants of the students were too long in my opinion as well to follow the feet of the students as you can see by the picture on the box. I would not suggest you use these DVDs as a first bellydance workout, Neena & Veena still are the best for beginers who don't have previous extensive dance experience. These DVDs are better for building on the basics you already know."

Challenging

L. Rha | Los Angeles, Ca United States | 03/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This dvd and the whole series are great for working on isolations. This particular workout was the most difficult for me to follow. I'm an intermediate bellydancer and was able to do most of the workouts until she does some combinations towards the end that just got too confusing and she didn't really explain what she was doing. Other than that, she works on the hip isolations which really refine doing the maia (figure 8). This video is challenging yet do-able. The dvd comes with special features which includes a bonus mini workout, a solo performance, a performance by her entire troupe and circle dance. Her students in the video are very talented and the workout motivates you to get to their level. Oh, and strangely there is a random part where she talks about her pregnancy.
I recommend her pilates or yoga dvd over this one."