Product Details

• Actors: Veena Bidasha, Neena Bidasha
• Directors: David Nakahara
• 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: December 11, 2001
• Run Time: 70 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005N8AL
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,655 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

BELLYDANCE FITNESS FOR BEGINNERS:ARMS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

167 of 174 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I love both these routines, February 11, 2003

By 

Jennifer M. Morse (Long Island, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bellydance Fitness for Beginners - Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs (DVD)

I don't technically have the DVD yet (it's in transit as I post this), but, I have both routines on video.

If this is a direct transfer, it can't help but be wonderful :).

Neena and Veena have made my boring exercise maintenance into a fun and muchly-anticipated part of my week. I did these routines near daily for 3 months, and then transitioned them to once or twice a week (doing other things, also). But, during that three months I improved my flexibility (I can reach *past* my toes!), my muscle tone, and learned to pinpoint my muscle isolations.

These two workouts have a good mix of "traditional" exercise movements (squats, lunges, crunches, etc.) and movements unique to belly dance. I think the twins provide an almost flawless method to learn the movements, as the routines are slow enough that you don't need a separate teaching segment, but, fast enough to keep you improving once you know what you're doing. I really appreciate their teaching style. They wear snug spandex workout clothes with dainty scarves, so, you can clearly see what they're doing. Plus, there's two of them, so, if the camera angle is a little "off" on one, you can see what to do from looking at the other.

The arms and abs routine is dedicated to strengthening your arms, rotating through a variety of arm movements, and an almost yoga or pilates style ab workout. These seem to be a bit more general, in the sense that you're working your full arms and shoulders for the arm routine, and most of your abdominals at the same time, for the ab routine.

The hips, buns and thighs routine is more focused on isolated movements. There's also a good stretching section that I really like.

What's particularly nice is that they teach you "real" belly dance movements but in the structured environment of exercise routines. So, you can enjoy these workouts if you're looking for something a little different, or, to build up a basic collection of movements. However, if you want to learn to dance properly, you'll have to look elsewhere. These are exercise routines, not dance lessons.

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Workout, October 29, 2004

By 

Laura De Giorgio "hypnotherapist" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bellydance Fitness for Beginners - Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs (DVD)

This series of videos contains workout videos which incorporate belly-dancing moves, rather than belly-dancing itself. You could say that it is a workout that will benefit you to develop greater stamina for belly-dancing as well as give you a chance to exercise and improve your health, whether you desire to pursue belly-dancing or not - in a fun and enjoyable way.

It is one of my favorite workout videos.

72 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy it on video!!, January 24, 2005

By 

Eibhinn (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bellydance Fitness for Beginners - Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs (DVD)

A caveat to begin:
I bought two (defective - skipping straight out of the case) copies of the DVD before getting it on video. Emails to Natural Journeys Customer service went unanswered. The "extras" on the DVD consist of bonus performance footage (the same footage at the end of each of the videos), benefits of bellydance (goes on for pages and pages - essentially every positive benefit you could ever want) and commentary. Pretty useless. Buy it on video.

I'll start with the negatives... and with the aforementioned commentary.
- Most of the bellydance exercises are ineffective if you use improper posture and form. Unfortunately, there is very little guidance as to proper form. I was hoping the commentary would provide this, but it is mostly dead air interspersed with the twins talking about buying costumes in Egypt, and saying "this exercise is great for toning...."
- The routines are very slow-paced, and could be quite boring for many people.
- Although the twins have wonderful form for dance moves, I wince watching them perform the more standard exercise moves. Ex. lunges where knees go far past the toes, bad form on crunches..
- The twins have distracting "stage smiles," and the voice-over narrator keeps making reference to how "sensuuual" everything is.

The Good:
- These are great, short exercise routines for the beginner. For someone with an interest in bellydance who doesn't mind a slow pace, they could be quite fun. The only exception to this is that the end of the ab tape is WAAAYY harder than the rest of the videos. My abs hurt for days.
- The twins have great dance form, and are cheerful. The cueing is pretty good.
- On an interesting note, one of the twins appears to be a far better dancer than the other. The camera work focusses on her, however.

A tip: when doing bellydance you should have very upright posture, with the shoulders back. If you do not do this with the arm exercises you will only work your shoulders. With the shoulders back, some of the work is shared with triceps/biceps etc.