Customer Reviews

Discover Bellydance: Mystic Dance

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Identical twins, Veena and Neena, introduce a sensuous way to exercise that is much more like learning a choreographed routine. The sensuous movements are introduced in slow flowing motions and then you learn the entire dance. I was surprised at how easy this was to learn and how much the moves worked my stomach from every angle.

Your arms will also feel this workout because you seem to constantly have your arms in position or swirling the veils. So, technically, this does seem to almost be an abdominal and arm workout. You might also feel like you are massaging your entire body from the inside out.

The set is gorgeous with candles, curtains flowing from the ceiling and pillows everywhere on the floor in the background.

If you consider yourself to be an intermediate belly dancer, then you will be able to enjoy this immediately. If you are just learning belly dance this might also be a good place to start because the moves are slow and the dance routine is less complicated and more sensuous and slow.

Truthfully, this might become one of my favorite ways to relax in the evening. I've love to be able to do this entire routine on my own at some point. Belly dancing is relaxing, healing and takes me to sensual places no other workout can.

~The Rebecca Review

I think this one isn't very useful. It does provide some instructions on some isolations, and allows you to practice them, but there are more solid programs than this. This video also teaches basic veilwork and turns, but for people looking for a fun workout or for ways to improve their party dancing this is hardly interesting, and for those considering becoming a professional dancer it might be too rudimentary. And perhaps for everybody it will be somewhat annoying due to the nonsensical editing and few other issues.

The isolations are:
- rib cage: horizontal circles
- upper body camel
- hips: horizontal figure 8's (both forward and backward)
- hips: vertical figure 8's (both upward and downward)
- hips: bicycle figure 8's
- shoulder rolls
- head slides (just demo, no instruction)

Lovely arm positions and movements are introduced too (Aladdin, mummy, temple, goddess, genie, candle, snake, and several variations of the Nile).

Two types of steps are briefly touched as well:
- 4-count walk back and forth with a leg lift on each 4th count
- toe-walking sideward while cameling

The issues are:

1. The ridiculous editing. It gets especially annoying during turns' demonstration: what you need to watch most closely (the feet) is only shown for a few brief moments, sometimes at an awkward angle, and with the camera that keeps moving!!! And throughout the video, the editor's favorite angle is the one that is the least useful for a student: from above!

2. Voiceover during the steps' teaching is misleading. It says "flat, flat, toe, toe", but the girls are doing "flat, toe, toe, toe" (with the last "toe" gradually becoming "flat"). By the way, you may find the voiceover's intonation to be silly (it's like a kindergarten teacher). On the other hand, non-native English speakers will likely appreciate all those exaggerations (every word is pronounced super-clearly).

3. The twins should have spent more time demonstrating (and maybe should have tried to explain) how to combine camel and traveling steps. This is the most mystifying part of their mystic dance, and they are kind of reluctant to unveil the mystery for you.

4. One of the sisters doesn't seem highly experienced. She also looks aloof. The other sister adds some playful bouncing to her moves, which I like, but a total beginner might find it confusing.

I like the chosen music and appreciate the DVD's feature "music without narration".

I would be better to buy the Discover Bellydance box set, as this video is not for beginners, but it is an exceptional work. Focused at the beginning dancer, rather than someone more interested in a workout video, each tape in this series is an excellent learning experience from a pair of dance instructors that has never let us down yet.

I was very disappointed by this video, and glad that I'd checked it out of the library, rather than bought it. They did a horrible job of explaining and demonstrating the harder moves. I'm thinking here of the turns and the camel undulations. Spotting wasn't working for me, and there was no further instruction other than to do it. As for camel undulations, how many undulations was I supposed to be doing per step? Flat, flat, toe, toe? Really? That's not what I saw them doing (when the camera deigned to actually show me their feet).
The other issue, even with the easier moves, was how little time there was to practice each one. I've said this before about their DVDs, even the ones I liked: just as I start to feel more confident about a move, they are moving on to a new one with no further practice at that one until it's time to put it all together.
Finally, there is such thing as going too slow. During the instruction on the four step move, they paused so long with the foot lifted, that I started to lose my balance! And that is a move I can do relatively well at regular time. I also found some of the figure eight moves to be very hard to do at such a slow speed.
I'm an absolute beginner at bellydance, and I found this DVD neither helpful nor enjoyable.

Great workout for you upper arms. Get a large piece of material and have fun with it. These moves don't take a lot of coordination or stamina but the moves are graceful and easily accomplished.

Some bellydance videos are as hard as walking and chewing gum while rubbing your tummy and patting your head...not this one!

This is a great confidence builder. I own three of these videos and I had wished I had started with this one, but I'm glad I have it now. This is my morning workout and I am NOT a person that likes to work out in the morning!

It was detailed and infomative enough to be able to follow before taking my actual classes.

I have a collections of their dvd,s and cd's. Beginners bellydance and basic steps to go back on, easy to follow. Also have slim down and fat burning tapes that will make you sweat!

Veena and Neena are at it again! More beautiful than ever, they provide a wonderful workout that's easy to follow and fun to do! Highly reccomended!

I got this in 2002 which was one of the first with great production quality. Neena & Veena still have more personality & friendlier & have great humor then almost all belly dance dvds. They make you feel relaxed & enjoy dancing & you have a little fun w/their voice over humor. A lot of other ones are very serious about perfecting & doing it right, while Neena & Veena use great analogies & go slow the first couple of times & then normal speed so you can feel it in your body better.
I liked the pace better & more repetition in their Belly dance Fitness for Beginners, but that does not have a routine like this one.

You can see previews of this dvd & their other ones at
collagevideo com
youtube under the titles of their dvds, "belly dance twins" or "Neena & Veena"

Neena and Veena, while very sweet and pretty to watch, are not exactly "floatin' my boat" with their dancing. This was the very first belly dance DVD I ever purchased and even as a complete beginner I was not overawed with it. They are competent dancers however, and present a simple choreography which will suit someone who just wants to learn one routine for fun.