Customer Reviews

Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss featuring Rania: Bellydance Boogie

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't know who came up with the title, but it is so dumb it made me apprehensive to buy the product. Anyway, I am glad I bought the dvd because it is really good, an instant favorite. It uses heavy rhythmn & blues music and the moves and combinations are gorgeous. The teacher Rania is easy to understand and follow. There are two performances that are very different from each other and both really excellent. For me the performances are a big help in understanding what learning the basics can evolve into. I am happy with this product and have ordered the other ones by Rania.

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.

1) Bellydance Boogie is a slow-tempoed, low-impact workout. However, like yoga, if you are conscientious about keeping good form, you'll be working your muscles. Boogie concentrates on the "camel", a torso undulation that will give you 6-pack abs if practiced regularly.
2) The choreography is no great work of art, but will give you the strengthening exercises you need to gracefully get through a real, live bellydance classes. She covers:
- upper and lower body undulations (camels)
- travelling with undulations
- snake arms
- horizontal and vertical figure 8s
- turns, which are easy to combine with spotting
- 4-cornered hip circle
- basic descent as a prelude to floorwork
At the end is a nicely-executed sword routine which incorporate the moves that are introduced, which you'll be able to analyze after you've done this tape.
Remember, tapes are no substitute for class. But they are a valuable tool for practice. Rania's tapes have so far been the easiest for me to introduce non-dancing gym buddies to belly dance moves in a way that's not too weird for their taste, and allows me to get the dance workout I need.

I got this dvd as a gift and I love it. I feel more fluid and graceful in my dancing, I never moved my body like this before, having a ballet background which is totally different. Now I am undulating all the time. The only thing I questioned was the head-tossing movement in the bellydance combinations at the end, but I asked my trainer and he said that they are fine as long as you do them in a relaxed, loose way and not stiff or thrashing. The two performances were amazing; Rania is a brilliant dancer. Like I said, I am officially hooked.

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 DVD 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. 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 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 "Bellydance Divas" and The 10 minute long Dancer's Legs & Buns workout from "Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Daily Quickies...5 Ten Minute Workouts."

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.

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 am a workout video junkie; I workout every day and don't live anywhere near a gym, so, I am always on the hunt for new videos. At first I thought this one was a bit slower paced, but I felt the movements were beautiful and I decided I wanted to learn them. Once I focused on learning the moves, and I am pleased with the results: I have considerably less stiffness in my back, and I have gained strength in my lower abdominals. I am for the first time able to do the rib cage isolations, and I feel it working my obliques and waistline. The repetitive snake-arms was definitely good for my arms and shoulders.

I am half Lebanese and have been bellydancing all my life. I am fully aware what great health benefits it has (I have 3 kids and it does not show). Also I am a big fan of Rania and of Veena and Neena (the same company produces their videos and I have all of them!). I think Rania's new videos are dynamite. She is responding to people who want to learn bellydance without having to hear Middle Eastern music, so all the workouts have different type of music. She is a real bellydancer and great teacher. I read some of the negative reviews and all I can think is that they are expecting the bellydance looking set and music, whereas this set is more high-tech. If you can just look at the quality of instruction and the moves and combinations, you will be very happy, she teaches a lot. You will be doing bellydance combinations by the end of the tape.You will learn alot and not realise you had a workout.

After doing all the Neena and Veena tapes I was excited to see this new Rania series. The moves will take longer to learn if you've never done any bellydancing before (the Neena and Veena tapes are a good start), but no bellydance experience is needed. The production quality and music is good. I found the voice over helpful in doing the moves. The workout was fun; the 30 minutes passed by quickly. Rania does an interesting sword balancing dance at the end. The reason I didn't rank the video higher was because I think the title "Fitness for Weight Loss" is misleading. The workout is good, but slow paced. I'm a workout newbie and I didn't come close to breaking a sweat. By the title I thought it would be more cardio. This is more of a relaxing slowdance.

I really enjoyed working out with Rania and think this video is terrific. I have been doing it for two weeks now, the moves are great, and I have lost over ten pounds. This video has changed my life. I never thought an exercise video could be so much fun. It took a couple of viewings to get the steps down, but now my workouts go by so quickly and it hardly seems like I am exercising. The music is terrific and Rania is a great instructor. I look forward to trying your other tapes, but in the meantime I will continue to enjoy this one.

I loved this video! The moves and choreography were beautiful, and Rania's teaching style was so easy to follow. I definitely felt my muscles being worked, but the workout was well-paced I wasn't over-exerting. And afterward I kicked back and watched Rania's performance.