Product Details

• Actors: Suhaila Salimpour
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Cerebellum Corporation
• DVD Release Date: January 18, 2005
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006H31QC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,712 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Suhaila Salimpour is a renowned, international performer and teacher of bellydance. Her Suhaila Salimpour School of Dance was the first to offer a progressive, five-level certification program in Middle Eastern dance. She is director of the Suhaila Dance Company, and has performed in 16 instructional and performance videos.

Power your way to a sexy, shapely body!
Combine two of the hottest fitness routines for a challenging workout. Suhaila fuses Pilates stretching routines and bellydance moves to strengthen and tone the body. You’ll learn to isolate different muscle groups to work the abs, buns and arms. Feel more confident and increase stamina with this dynamic program.

Program Features:

- Stretching routines increase flexibility
- Challenging program for all abilities
- Get motivated to achieve maximum results
- Powerful workout energizes mind and body
- Firm buns and tone stomach
- Fuse 2 fitness routines to strengthen and tone

Special Features:

- Dolby Digital 5.1
- Bonus Workout
- Chapter Selections
- Photo Gallery

Also available in series: Bellydance Fussion For Beginners: Buns, Jazz, and Yoga

Presented in Normal and Widescreen (Anamorphic Widescreen)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Isolations gallore, March 5, 2005

By 

L. Rha "Elated" (Los Angeles, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bellydance for Beginners with Suhaila: Fitness Fusion Pilates (DVD)

This dvd and the whole series are great for working on isolations. She works on stomach isolations and glutes in this particular workout. You'll learn how to do stomach rolls properly as well as hips lifts and thrusts. I'm an intermediate bellydance student and it was challenging yet do-able. It's a great workout and my stomach was sore for 3 days after the first time I did the dvd.
The dvd comes with special features which includes a bonus mini workout, a trio 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.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're looking for Pilates..., March 21, 2005

By 

shimi subramaniam "shimarella" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bellydance for Beginners with Suhaila: Fitness Fusion Pilates (DVD)

..this isn't the video for you! However if you want a peek at the kind of training Suhaila puts her dancers through then you'll feel like you're in a workshop with her. she puts you through the paces of her infamous glute isolations and then her tummy isolations that lead to forward and reverse undulations whilst propped up on your elbows will be quite a challenge! Be careful doing her muscle-burning series of endless tiny squats: she does these bent over, back parallel with legs in a "straddle position": I wasn't sure how safe that was for my knees. She also teaches rib slides and circles in the straddle position, which I find rather odd. The odd segue to an interview with her about post-partum body blues is a little weird but touching and the performances are typical of her work. No solos though, except in the dance circle at the end, which I liked. Mostly a good, challenging addition to a serious dancer's toolbox of drills.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Those with bellydance experience will get a good workout, July 29, 2005

By 

Beth Cholette "doctor_beth" (Upstate NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bellydance for Beginners with Suhaila: Fitness Fusion Pilates (DVD)

The main workout on this DVD is divided into 5 chapters: warm-up, core toning, dance workout, cool-down, and group dance. During the 7-minute warm-up, instuctor Suhaila leads a large class of women through mostly static stretches without warming up the muscles first; she includes a few yoga moves such as plank and child's pose. The core segment begins with a series of standing pulses in a plie position; this part challenged my legs as well as my shoulders, as the arms were held in the air the entire time. Suhaila then moves to a seated straddle position for glute isolations, which I absolutely could not do--anyone who has not learned this move through prior bellydance experience will struggle here. Suhaila finally starts doing some actual core work with traditional abs crunches done to a pulse count. She also does a series of seated abs isolations; again, my lack of bellydance experience made these moves virtually impossible to execute. Returning to a standing position, Suhaila continues the isolation moves, this time with somewhat easier rib and chest isolations, eventually blending them into a circle. This ends the core segment at about 22 minutes total.

The 7-minute dance section doesn't feel much like dancing, as you are standing in place the entire time doing a range of abs and glutes isolations. Suhaila does a few quick stretches to finish, bringing the entire time for the workout in at about 38 minutes. Following the workout, there is also a short (2 1/2 minutes) group dance. The DVD includes a bonus 9 minute workout; this was very similar to the dance section of the main workout except that the isolation exercises are performed while moving from front to back and side to side, which did little to make the workout more interesting. Other DVD extras include trio and circle performances (the latter has 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?).

You may have noticed that I did not mention Pilates--that's because there is absolutely NONE in this video! Yes, there is some minimal core work, but I wouldn't even go so far to call it Pilates-inspired. It's things like this that make you understand why there were those who wanted the Pilates name to remain trademarked; use of the name here is really an outrage. Overall, I felt that my inability to perform many of the movements--based on my lack of previous bellydancing experience--made me unable to enjoy this workout. 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.