Shake Ya Body like a Belly Dancer
First of, let me say that as much as I LOVE belly dancing, it will not help you lose weight or get in shape unless you are such a couch potato that you never move. Ever. I bought into the hype that you can get in shape by swaying your hips. You can’t. There are exercise tapes with a belly dance inspired theme, and those may work if you include them in with a regular cardiovascular routine. But if you just do belly dance class once a week or do belly dance instructional tapes, do them for fun, not for fitness.
Belly Dancing for Fitness? Probably Not.
So first decide if you are a belly dance purist, and only want instruction, OR if you want belly dance inspired exercise. We'll start there first:
Belly Dance Inspired Fitness
Discover Belly Dance with Veena & Neena
Veena & Neena are very likeable, despite the whole "Belly Twins" thing.
They have about 10 tapes. Some are Belly Dance instructional and some are more fitness geared.
My first introduction to Belly Dance was their Fat Burning tape. This tape in particular is NOTHING like belly dance at all. I don’t suggest you get this tape if you want a taste of Belly Dance. The moves are nothing like a belly dance class and if you have weak shins, you will not make it through this tape.
But the other ones are pretty good.
Belly Dance Fitness with Rania Bosonis
Rania may not be the greatest fitness instructor, but she is a wonderful dancer. Each of her tapes and DVDs includes one of her performances at the end. She is fantastic to watch. Rania has lots of other performance tapes that are worth getting if you are interested in belly dancing.
At first watching, I didn’t like this southern Californian blonde, Enya listening, meditating, tree hugging, charka talking freak. But she changed my mind. She’s nice to look at, but beware of the camera shots in the first workout. The camera man is so fixated with this woman that he forgets to film the actually moves! Most of the time it is a close-up of her face or her stomach. Get a grip, guy. The second workout is much more professional and clean looking. I like them both and I dare say it does feel like a workout.
PSA: I magically ended up pregnant while taking Belly Dancing classes. You've been warned.
Say tuned for part 2!
