Customer Reviews

Bellydance for Beginners with Suhaila: Fitness Fusion Buns [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought these after I took a seminar with Rachel Brice who firmly recommended them, since she is a Suhaila student.

The good parts of this: It IS a challenge--ignore the 'beginner' label on it. And once you get the quick, rapid fire rlr-lrl glute squeeze down, and can do it standing, your shimmies will move from knee shimmies to glute shimmies. The benefit of this is that your legs are therefore free to walk, kick, whatever, b/c it's all in your glutes. It's also great for emphasis on locks and building up the precision. This is geared towards the more serious dancer.

The bads: People who purchase this thinking they'll learn bellydance are often mislead. This, like Brice's practice companion, is really for enhancing the precision of those of us who already know basic moves, or for people who want a glute workout that's not Tammy Faye or Kathy Smith. The other bad is that several of these exercises repeat in her other DVD's, which can lead to a sigh of "this AGAIN?"

This series is strongly recommended for those who are going for certification and for her workshops, and I truly see why!

Suhaila has a great knowledge of the muscles involved in the movements, and doing this DVD, you will feel like a bellydance athlete-in-training!

Is this DVD too tough for beginners? No. Don't feel daunted if you have never bellydanced before. Any new movement is going to feel awkward at first. Keep practicing. Eventually your "muscle memory" will kick in and it will start to make sense to your body. I wish I had started bellydance by learning Suhaila's technique first. It's much easier to learn proper technique first, than to unlearn what you've been taught incorrectly. It's like learning to bellydance all over again!

Suhaila teaches you a more effective way to execute bellydance movements. For example, instead of "pumping your knees" to create a hip shimmy, you flex and isolate your glute muscles. Shimmying isn't just wildly throwing your arse around. It's controlled movement. By using your glut muscles to execute a shimmy, your legs are then free to perform other movements - and as you become more advanced, you can layer many different moves, even at different tempos.

I've been doing this video for a few weeks, and I can already see the improvement in the precision and fluidity of my dancing. And it does really tone your buns, no joke! I still can't get through the whole toning section without gripping my buns in agony. LOL!

If your serious about learning bellydance TECHNIQUE, then you will enjoy this series.

What I did not know about this series of fitness DVDs, until I took a weekend workshop in the Suhaila Salimpour technique with Suhaila Salimpour, was that the individual workouts are designed to work certain muscle combinations to strengthen specific muscle groups for defined movements in Suhaila Salimpour's technique for bellydance.

The DVDs seem to be marketed more as a "bellydance version of this or that exercise," and that is not the case.

Suhaila breaks down for the viewer each muscle group that she utilizes to layer her moves and uses a different exercise technique to isolate and strengthen that muscle or group of muscles.

There is a lot of repetition. There is even more in her classes.

Some directions were not detailed enough for me before the workshop, but the DVDs are the perfect amount of direction after taking a workshop with Suhaila.

While these exercises are great for general fitness, they are really geared toward learning muscle isolation for the Suhaila Salimpour technique for bellydance.

The workouts are akin to doing drills in a ballet class or a martial arts class, which is the approach that Suhaila takes to Bellydance.

I have read the other reviews of this dvd, and I would like to first make some clarifications about some of the comments in them, so that prospective buyers might be a little more informed:

~In the end of the video, there is a sword dance by Suhaila's performing company. They are not wearing "brown outfits". They are wearing costumes made from black assuit fabric, which is fabric that has intricate designs put into them with small bits of silver metal.

~One of the special features is a bonus "circle dance". While someone who is not familiar with belly dance may find this odd, it is a supportive dance often done in belly dance troupes, or at belly dance related events. The dancers get into a circle, and the dancers take turns coming out and dancing (unchoreographed) for the other women in the group. When they are finished, they step back into the circle, bringing out the next dancer. It is sometimes called "Bal Anat improvisation" because this is a dance that was often used by the troupe Bal Anat, that was started by Jamilla Salimpour, Suhaila's mother. The young lady at the very end, is Suhaila's daughter. :)

That being said, this is a GREAT dvd to help improve not only the condition of your buns, but it will greatly improve your belly dancing hip work.
There are some traditional floorwork bun moves, but there are also specific movements that will "train" your buns to execute better hip work.
The section where you are sitting on the floor in a straddled position really works! Suhaila DOES explain how to do this-you squeeze your glutes! Basically, think about trying to hold an imaginary quarter between your buns by squeezing them tight, then release. This is the general idea. There are various exercises in this segment-alternating the squeezes, different speeds, squeezing them in a 3/4 shimmy pattern, and so forth.
The standing dance segment basically has you doing choo-choos flat footed, on your toes, and then in tribal style (one foot flat, one foot on the toe) except you are isolating your glutes more for the hipwork, rather than pumping your knees.
All in all...it is an excellent companion to your belly dance training.

This video is taught by bellydancer Suhaila Salimpour, who instructs a large class of women. There are four sections to the workout: warm-up, floor work, dance, and cool-down. The 9-minute warm-up starts with some stretches for the neck, shoulders, and hips, moves into some static leg stretches, and then ends with a pelvic tuck segment from a crouched position. The floor work starts in a seated stradle position, and the first half consists of a variety of glute contractions. Suhaila did not really explain how to perform this movement, and I was unable to do it. The second half of the floor work consists of more traditional moves such as side-lying leg lifts and rear leg lifts from an all-fours position; this segment was about 13 minutes long.

The 6.5-minute dance section didn't feel much like dancing, as you are standing in place almost the entire time. Here, you do glute contractions at varying speeds and with varying arms, adding some forward-back and side-to-side movement at the very end. The 2.5-minute cool-down consists of several floor stretches, bringing the entire time for the workout in at about 31 minutes. Following the workout, there is also a short (4 minutes) group sword dance. The DVD includes a bonus 10 minute workout that was more of a dance than the one included in the actual workout. Here Suhaila is alone and teaching via voiceover. She begins by doing glute isolations in a stradle squat position and then does standing glute isolations, but this time, there is a greater variety in how the moves are executed (up-down in addition to forward-back, feet in plie, etc.). Unfortunately, the voiceover doesn't always match up with Suhaila's on screen performance, making the workout difficult to follow. Other DVD extras include a solo performance by Suhaila, the same circle performance that was on the Fitness Fusion Pilates video (one performer dancing in the center of a circle with the others sitting around and clapping; I found this to be a little odd, although the little girl who danced at the end was cute), a workout without narration option, trailers of the other three videos in the "Fitness Fusion" series, and a photo gallery (I can't understand why Natural Journeys always includes these--why would I want to see still photos of Suhaila?).

Because I was unable to perform the glute isolations, I got very little out of this workout. It seems that knowing how to do this move is a prerequisite for the workout, and thus I feel that previous bellydancing experience is a necessity. If you already know how to do basic bellydance isolations and are looking for an opportunity to strengthen your skills, you might like this video, but those who are new to bellydance should definitely look elsewhere.

I have been rotating this workout in my routine since it came out 5 years ago, and I'd have to say that it still works! I'm actually able to feel every muscle gripping back there and continue to be surprised that the movements don't get boring to me. Although the movements aren't extensively broken down beforehand, Suhaila does a great job with cueing and counting down repititions (love that).

The dvd lasts for a bit over 30 minutes which is enough time for the gluts,the hamstrings, quads, lower abs and other assisting muscles to get a workout too. There is a flow to the workout with a warmup, floorwork, standing position, and travelling so there is definite caloric burn involved.

I think beginners should also try this workout; don't forget you can always start in 'quarter time' to get your glut muscles use to gripping AND releasing on your instant command. I can genuinely say 5 years later that I definitely will not let go of this buns dvd!

This dvd is great. You will not learn a bunch of belly dance moves. You will learn how to isolate your glutes and that helps with your hip shimmy etc. I highly recommend this dvd to anyone who wants to get a great bun workout, and also to anyone who wants to learn to control belly dance movements better. You will NOT get it perfect the first time or probably at least the first ten times. That's what I find intriguing. I wanted to quit the first time I tried it but now I'm on my 4th attempt and while the improvements are minimal, they are happening!

Another awesome workout from a dance genius. There's a reason why Suhaila is world renowned and the best of the bunch. She shows the practitioner the basics of her moves. The background music isn't annoying and there's a performance at the end. Highly recommended.

I think this is one of Suhaila Salimpour's best workouts! I now have five of her bellydance DVD workouts and love them all. This one really helps to get you moving and toning 'trouble spots' all the while having fun! I'm amazed at how much more energized I feel after this workout! I've tried just about every type of workout, and can honestly say that I've finally found something that is fun to learn and does give me results! I've got a new-found sense of self confidence since discovering bellydancing....try it....it feels great!!

This is #4 for me, my other reviews are on each dvd. This one I didn't like. I loved the other one, but this one had the least amount of content & the pace seemed slow & boring.
You have 5 min of basic stretching & yoga stretching. Then another 5 min of you standing like you're about to sit in a chair & doing like a modified cat stretching. It really works your legs, butt & abs in a isometric way, but could be more interesting.
Then you have 4 min of you sitting with your legs spread to as wide a split as you can & doing glut contractions. This is on her pilates & jazz DVDs as well.
You then have 4 min of laying on your side doing normal leg lifts. The next 5 min you are on your hands & knees doing leg lifts as well.
After that, you have 8 min of hip bumps/glut contracts at diff speeds & while walking. This is also on at least one of her other better DVDs of this series.
The last is 2 min of yoga & other basic stretching.
After the workout you see all of the dancers except for Suhaila dancing in brown outfits while balancing swords doing splits & touching their toes & other moves.
The bonus solo dance is Suhaila in an orange outfit that looked great.
The bonus workout is Suhaila in a saddle squat doing for glut isolations for 1.5 min, then hip bumps which you do by contracting gluts as move knees slightly & walk for 3 min, then 3/5 contractions of gluts for each step for 2 min, then full shimmy for 4.5 min with diff arm movements, which all are on other DVDs.

You can see previews on youtube com