Customer Reviews

Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss featuring Rania (Cardio Shimmy/Bellydance Boogie/Hip Drop Hip Hop/Pure Sweat)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this set before I read the reviews here. I am a personal trainer/fitness instructor, and I thought these workouts were well written, well-produced, and well executed. One of the most difficult things to do as an instructor is break down a new dance style without stopping the workout. Rania did an amazing job of starting techniques slowly, repeating them, layering them, then speeding them up to tempo. After watching the performances at the end, I realised why she left the more strenuous or potentially dangerous moves out of the fitness programs. I was really impressed with the whole set.

When I read through the reviews I noticed that most of the negative reviews came from people proclaiming to be belly dancers. I was a jazz dancer before becoming a fitness professional. There is a big difference between teaching dance for fitness than for teaching dance as an art form. When teaching for fitness, you have to use only the moves that are effective in terms of fitness, safe, and ones that target a range of muscles groups for a well-rounded workout. If you are expecting to learn to really dance, buy a dance instruction tape. If you want to work out safely and effectively using bellydance moves, this set is first class. Congratulations to Rania.

If you're not familiar with the Bellydancer Rania and her Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss series, she is an AFAA certified Fitness Instructor and internationally renowned bellydancer. Her four part workout series fuses bellydance moves with a variety of different Western musical rhythms in her belief that bellydance can be done to any kind of music. With soundtracks not always coming off as authentic sounding as one may like -- you'll have to use your imagination a bit when you hear the `Disneyesque' and sometimes cartoonish sounding strains of Hip Hop, Salsa, and R & B. The Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss series are a set of fun workouts and a great way to interject life into a dull and stale workout routine.

Before beginning each workout it's important to keep in mind what these are -- workouts. Although you will learn some bellydance, as all of the routines are nearly completely comprised of bellydance moves, don't expect to buy this set and have it be your one-stop shopping for instruction and workout. They haven't made anything like that yet. The pacing required for instruction is way too slow to get your heart rate up for a cardiovascular or fat burning workout. Rania does a very good job of creating routines with moves using similar muscle groups, starting with a slower tempo to teach the move and then returning quickly to full tempo, layering all the movements together to create an interesting routine. Lots of repetition will give you plenty of great bellydance practice.

Each one of the four follows a similar format and vary only in specific content and theme. One thing that's nice about the whole set is the variety in movement that each will offer you. Rania selected moves for each of the four workouts to work different areas of the body. With the whole set, you'll get the most rounded workout.

Cardio Shimmy features the signature shimmies that are the hallmark all good bellydance performances. This workout uses a variety of these high-tempo, and high-energy bellydance moves. It also highlights a calf-building move known as a chu chu. It's one workout guaranteed to get your heart-rate up as quickly as you can wiggle your hips, buns, thighs, and shoulders. The Bonus section of this disc includes two performances, Rania's Techno Drum Solo and Rania's veil dance in traditional style, that later helped to form the "Bellydance Divas" CD as well as the "Waist Sculpting" workout that later became one 10 minute segment of "Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Daily Quickies...5 Ten Minute Workouts."

Bellydance Boogie is supposed to fuse the sounds of Hip Hop and R&B with bellydance but once again you have to use your imagination here. It's the slowest of the four workouts, tempo wise, but not the easiest. The smoother and more undulating bellydance moves featured here will work your muscles in surprising ways considering its slower pace -- further proof that a faster, higher impact workout isn't always a better one. The Bonus section of this disc includes Rania's sword dance and Rania's improvisation dance from "Divas" and The 10 minute long Dancer's Legs & Buns workout from "Bellydance Quickies."

Hip Drop Hip Hop - Not exactly street style Hip Hop sounds here, but if you work your imagination a bit, urban dance-esque in feel. This workout is a bellydance routine set to 80's style hip hop instrumental music. The Bonus section has Rania's Wings of Isis dance as well as one other from "Divas" and the Arms, Chest, and Back workout from "10 Minute Bellydance Quickies."

Pure Sweat - Pure Sweat is the "Latin-esque" flavored bellydance workout and, of the four in this series, is by far the lightest workout. Try this one first if you're really out of shape. If you're no stranger to excercise, save this one for your 'light' excercise day. The music is more `tropical' sounding than Salsa as it claims; you could imagine the soundtrack being written by Disney. A couple of the bellydance moves featured here are similar to Salsa moves and with slight styling variations could easily be transposed -- further proof that learning one dance will help you in the learning process for another. The Bonus section features Rania's veil and cane dance as well as her Turkish 9/8 count Rompi Rompi dance from "Divas" and has the 10 minute Abs Isolation segment from "Quickies."

The workouts are set in a studio and Rania is backed up by a small group of dancers in matching workout attire w/ hip scarves -- similar in look and feel of the Crunch workout series but without all those annoying logos. The back up dancer's bodies are all variations on different female body types with some being curvy and some skinny, and at least one should look how your body could look if it were in a little better, but not rock hard, shape.

Each of the four workouts has a warm up of roughly 5 minutes. 20 minutes is spent on each disc devoted to instruction and routines. All four finish with a cool down and stretch segment of approximately 5 minutes in length. My biggest complaint is that I wish workouts were longer in length. 30 minutes just isn't enough for me to keep the fat molecules at bay. I would rather the workout be an hour in length and I could always quit part way through on days I have only 30-40 minutes to workout. Also, studies show that the body does not even begin to burn fat until after 20-30 minutes of sustained cardiovascular activity. If you're not loosing weight, consider doing more than one in a row for a great, results-getting workout. Then once you reach your target shape, one a day can be used as a maintenance program.

Not a lot of explanation is given to the individual bellydance moves but nearly everything is done in half-time to start before moving up to full tempo. Rania's voiceover often gives pointers as to how the moves are done but one would need to either be a little bit familiar with bellydance, or have a dance friendly set of coordination skills. Nearly anyone could eventually pick up most of the bellydance being done on these DVDs with enough patience and practice. Even without doing the moves perfectly you'll still have fun and get a good workout. Only the beginner absolutely new to all forms of dance would be truly lost. Some of the names Rania gives to certain Bellydance moves are different than I've heard them called before but this is common in the dance world where dancers come up with a move and patent the only part people can't `steal' -- the name. Don't let this bother you; it happens in Bellydance, Hip Hop, Salsa, et all. The move is probably the same thing you learned in class just with a different name.

Probably the biggest complaints about Rania's DVDs are concerning her stiffness, often vacant look, and inability to sustain a heartfelt smile. The look and smile I just consider window dressing for a video; I'm certainly more concerned with her ability to dance and teach. As far as her stiffness goes, it does have one advantage here -- a slightly stiff body is actually easier for a beginner to follow because lots of extra movement is distracting to the beginner who is merely trying to get the essence of a move down pat. While it may irritate an intermediate to professional dancer to watch, the beginner will benefit, and although Rania is certainly not the most fluid of dancers, the routines in the bonus section will attest that some, but not all, of her stiffness comes from making the workout moves look simpler. This is, of course, a fitness video for beginners.

In all, each of the four workouts are fun and you'll learn a little bit of dance. I just wish they all were longer.

I've taught fitness for over 15 years. I was a jazz dance major in college and have also started studying various forms of Middle Eastern Dance. My review of Rania's videos will incorporate all three points of view.
In terms of fitness, this is where they rate the best. The Cardio Shimmy is the most challenging, at about a beg-intermediate low-impact workout level. They are safe moves, although I believe Rania left out some key verbal cues for proper technique and alignment. The verbal cuing on the DVDs is also either not aligned properly with the video, or Rania cues late. A participant needs time to react to verbal cuing, thus the instructor needs to cue a couple beats ahead of a new move in order for it to be effective. A good amount of the cues were also completely off beat with the music. Once you know the moves, play the DVD with only the music. Rania and her team are in very good shape, so in this way are inspiring.
From a dance perspective I find Rania's style to be very stiff. This stiff style works very well with her performance of the Phaeronic Temple dance (bonus feature). Her delivery, smile and arm movements are wooden, maybe she was nervous. Her "back-up" dancers were pleasant to watch, as they exhibited more grace, extension and ease.
From a Middle Eastern Dance background I've most commonly seen a different method of doing hip isolations. Rania initiates the movement by straightening the leg. While this can be a good way to help beginners, it also needs to be emphasized that most hip isolations are not meant to rely on the leg movement, the legs are just "carried along". This difference in technique shows greatest when Rania looses her hip shimmy a few times (in Cardio Shimmy), with lots of movement still going on in her legs.
I recommend this series to beginners who wants a light, different workout at home, or someone who wants to get an idea of beginner belly dance moves at home before going out to study somewhere. More exprienced dancers can also use the simple combinations to brush up on their technique or practice zill drills (although it's not Middle Eastern Music) along with their dancing.
The special features were enjoyable. I've watched Sohaila over and over again. She has impeccable, inspiring technique, elegance and grace. Marina is a little firecracker with lots of energy. Her drum solo and cane dance are lovely. Lochia shows folk inspired dance with interesting combinations of folk inspired costuming in cabaret style fabrics. Rania's temple dance was well executed, the costume beautiful.

I have built up a library of bellydance videos over the last few months (both purely instructional and fitness oriented) and I have to say that I really LOVE this set. If you dabble in bellydance or are a student (I would say up to advance-beginner) then I think you'll really enjoy these DVDs. The workouts are all roughly 30 minutes long with lots of fun moves (I'm a BEGINNER and I learned a lot!). They are short enough to remain fun and still get you moving. I'm sorry, but I just can't handle hour long workouts yet. Sure, you may want to watch the Workout all the way through before you try it, but any new set of movements and steps takes practice. Few fitness videos are perfect in regards to camerawork and perfect cueing. But besides all that, each DVD comes with a "bonus" workout, which I believe are all gathered on another DVD sold separately. I like to do the bonus workouts with some stretching in the morning and then the full workouts at night. It's great that there are four DVDs to choose from. I change up between the different workouts and my purely instructional videos each night. Even with just the four and a couple of Veena & Neena's workouts I can workout all week and not repeat myself. Some people complain about Rania's lack of smile and seeming stiffness, but really it isn't so extreme as to be distracting. She moves so beautifully so who cares? The voice over is upbeat and the dancers look like they're having fun. The music can get a little cheesy though, but that hardly qualifies as a strike. I say ignore any bad reviews and go for it. You get four DVDs for under $30! It's a great value, I swear it.

What a great way to work out! Not to mention practicing bellydance moves! This will get your heart rate up and put a smile on your face!

Some of the other reviewers say Rania is stiff. But she's not stiff at all. However, I think I can figure out why people would say that!

After watching the workouts before I did them, I realized that Rania has VERY slim hips. And since so much of belly dance involves hip movement, it appears that she is not moving her hips very much.

So don't hesitate to spice up your boring old workout with some fun, not to mention sexy, dance moves!

Update: I've been working out on a consistent basis for about two months now. I'm doing the Cardio Shimmy at this point in time and I've lost a dress size! So ladies shake your shimmy, have a blast and lose weight!

Update and info for my disabled Sisters: I have Secondary-Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and have very bad balance. Even with my issues, I am able to do all of the moves, except one, plus the parts of the cool down where you have to stand on one foot. So I simply substitute another movement which I can do and for the parts of the cool down where I am supposed to stand on one foot, I use a piece of furniture for balance. So the moral of this story is, just because you have balance problems, and you want to bellydance, adapt whatever you need to and GO FOR IT!!! BECAUSE BELLYDANCING WORKOUTS ARE FUN!!! So...have fun with the workout I'm currently doing and Hip Drop to Hip Hop!!! WOO-HOO!!!

UPDATE: Well, I'm currently doing Pure Sweat and I just want to say, that is is QUITE an intense workout! Very fast-paced and I'm having a bit of trouble learning some of the moves. But...it's getting easier and it's loads of fun, like the other two I've learnt so far! What a gift to have a workout I don't have to make myself do. I do it for the pure pleasure of moving my body to music.

UPDATE: I've been doing Bellydance Boogie, and it's a LOT harder than it looks. It's really more of a strength training workout than an aerobic workout. Due to my balance problems and vertigo, I can't do a few of the movements, I simply do other things. I'd say that this workout is my least favorite of all of them. However, it does teach some essential bellydance movements.

I lead a group of women who are learning belly dance through videos, here is some of what we've had to say...

Hip-Hop Hip-Drop, Belly Dance Boogie, Pure Sweat:
We like that these coordinated the moves into a routine that builds, however she has a tendancy to not warn you that you are switching to something else. Also when the camera angle changes it sometimes gets you off step from the video.

Cardio Shimmy:
Remember what I said about her not telling you what was coming up? This video is so fast paced that the lack of warning caused us to nearly run into eachother. I suggest watching this one first before you try it.

If you are interested in her style and the DVDs, I recommend you buy only one of the four. The rest will be all the same. Many repetitions, and little creativity of movement. The bonuses are good, both the performance and the workout. I bought all four, and now I'm selling them all on ebay. I could not even do all four at least once, since I realized after three that they are all the same. Save your money, there are much better belly dancing videos out there.

I originally purchased this set since I was getting bored of regular cardio workouts. Overall, I enjoy doing the workouts. The first time I couldn't quite get all of the steps, but after the second time it's easy to catch on. It is definitely not as strenous as say tae bo, but it's fun so I am more motivated to do it. Plus I feel like I am standing up straighter since I'm working my back and abs more. I absolutely love the bonus workouts on each DVD, they definitely made me sore the next day--I love that feeling!

I am now a new fan of Rania's dancing after watching her performances at the end of the videos but I am sorry to say I cannot give positive reviews for most of this series. I own many bellydancing videos and have enjoyed all of them up until I bought this set. The only one worth keeping to me is the Cardio Shimmy, only because it will help strengthen the legs and improve the shimmy. Rania is an absolute beautiful dancer but these tapes were extremely uninspiring. These have some bellydance instruction to them but none of the moves are broken down and they are way too repetative--which is even worse because I didn't like the moves we had to keep repeating. The combinations weren't smooth and flowing. Ok, so I read the reviews and was warned that there was no Middle Eastern music used for the exercising, but thought that would be interesting and fun--WRONG!! Well, it would have been if it was great Latin, or Great Hip-Hop music as Rania said a couple of the videos were going to be worked out with. That music was dreadful. ... I also was very much annoyed by the facial expressions of many of the ones on the video, including Rania's. Rania does a bellydance routine of her own at the end of each tape and they are absolutely gorgeous to watch and I loved them. I am now a huge fan of Rania's dancing and would love to see more of her performances. I certainly hope she learns from this and tries to create some new videos. I believe she will be able to create a great bellydancing program to workout to. If she does try some new tapes I will probably purchase them hoping she has chosen better music and a more variety of bellydancing moves that string together more beautifully. So, all in all... I would definitely recommend getting "Cardio Shimmy" and accompany it with other bellydancing tapes. "The Sensual Art of Bellydance" for beginners and then "The Goddess Workout" set for intermediate and a bit more are great videos. For more advanced, Suzanna DelVecchio has wonderful videos out but you will have to find them online on bellydance websites as they are not sold here. I wish they were. She gives complete instruction and then a good workout with those new moves learned. The audio is not that great, but the instruction and moves are so great I can forgive it.

I didn't have time to go out every week to a studio and take classes. This is the best set of bellydance dvds i've ever had. Great for beginers, or people that want to loose weight in fun ways. Great abb workouts. Each dvd has two or more work outs and a bunch of extras. This total package is very reasonbely priced! Makes you feel more confident and gives you energy afterword.