Workout DVDs
My current favorite of the below workout videos is Shape Up N Hip Out with Jillina.
Bellydance Body for Beginners (Suhaila Salimpour) – Though the title says it is for beginners I would recommend this DVD for Intermediate and up. This DVD includes five 10-minute workouts which can be done individually or as one 50-minute workout. There is not much technique instruction or explanation, so a basic knowledge of the moves is necessary. The moves used include vertical and horizontal figure 8s, up-to-down and down-to-up undulations, basic Egyptian, segmented omis (called hip squares), ¾ shimmy on the up, ¾ shimmy on the down and ¾ twist. There are also a couple of traveling moves that you may need to look up on youtube or google as they are dance steps usually associated with ballet. The five workouts are the four bonus workouts from her Fitness Fusion series plus a dance combinations workout unique to this DVD. Purchase on Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs – (Neena and Veena) two basic workouts from the Bellytwins, each about a half hour. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Basic Moves and Fat Burning – (Neena and Veena) two basic workouts with the Bellytwins, each about a half hour. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Slim Down – (Neena and Veena) a basic half hour workout with the Bellytwins. Purchase at Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Bellydance Boogie (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute dancer’s legs and buns workout and two costumed performances. The work out uses up-to-down undulations, vertical and horizontal figure 8s. I would recommend this for my students who have started intermediate and up. My biggest complaint with this workout is the snake arms on the vast majority of the dancers look sloppy. This is because they are performed too large and/or too fast. My recommendation is to do the snake arms at half the speed they are presented, or to do them as arm ripples at the tempo presented. This will keep the movements controlled and graceful. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Cardio Shimmy (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute “waist cincher” workout (rib and hip slides, horizontal and vertical hip figure 8, up to down undulations and vertical rib cage circles) and two costumed performances. The workout uses Egyptian shimmy, shoulder shimmy, choochoo shimmy. Most of the moves are taught in my beginner level classes, the exceptions being the Egyptian shimmy and the gush (King Tut walk). Also, Rania does not name her hip shimmy, so beginner level students might not realize it is different from the hip lift shimmy taught in class. Beginner level students could use this video if they substituted the hip lift shimmy for the Egyptian shimmy. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Hip Drop Hip Hop (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute arms, chest and back workout and two costumed performances. The 30 minute workout is mostly based on what I consider beginner level moves. Unweighted hip lifts, unweighted hip drops, horizontal hip circles, chest drops, hip bumps and basic Egyptian. Combinations four and five start getting into intermediate level territory, but they are easy enough I think beginners, especially if they have a session or two under their hip scarves, could figure them out. Combination four uses a traveling hip drop. Combination five is drop-kicks. There is no mention of proper posture, so make sure you are checking your own. Some of the moves could hurt your back if your pelvis comes un-tucked. This DVD does not teach proper technique. In some instances it describes the easiest way to create the move, but not necessarily the one I think makes the most sense or would recommend using. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Pure Sweat (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute abs workout and two costumed performances This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Too Hip (Rania) – bonus features are a costumed performance and a 10 minute legs and buns workout. This workout DVD is probably best suited for intermediate level and up which makes sense as it is billed as level 2 or intermediate. The workout is slightly longer than the ones on the four previous DVDs. There is no explanation of how to generate the moves and she will say things like “shimmy” and it’s up to you to figure out what she is doing (3/4 shimmy on the down in the instance I remember). Some of the combinations used are interesting, some I didn’t care for. While the transitions from one combination to the next make sense if you do the whole sequence, there are a couple of instances where the transition is awkward when you haven’t learned the whole sequence yet and are going from the end of the last combination you have learned back to the beginning. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. Purchase on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Hipper than Hip (Rania) – bonus features are two costumed performances. This is, according to the description, a level 3 workout. However I think most intermediate level students would be fine with the moves used in the workout. Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Buns with Suhaila – (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD consists mostly of glute strengthening exercises. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well. Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Jazz with Suhaila – (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD includes a few glute strengthening exercises and then uses the glutes to generate bellydance and jazz fusion moves. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well. Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Pilates with Suhaila - (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well.Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Yoga with Suhaila - (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well. Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Abs – (Neon) three 15 minute workouts, a knowledge of the moves is needed. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Buns and Thighs – (Neon) three 15 minute workouts, a knowledge of the moves is needed. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Upper Body -- three 15 minute workouts, includes veil and cane technique instructions. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Floorwork -- three 15 minute workouts, includes floorwork technique instructions. Purchase at Amazon
Bellydance for Core Fitness (Ayshe) – includes a tutorial section that teaches the moves and then a warm up workout and cool down. Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Rhythms Workout (Neon) Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Shimmy Workout Purchase from Amazon
Cardio Bellydance Workout (Melissa) Purchase from Amazon
Cocktail Purchase from Amazon
Core Training for Belly Dancers (Fitness Pharaoh) works all groups of abdominal muscles as well as the back. Purchase at Amazon
Dancer’s Arms (Aruna) – covers arm positions for several different styles of dance as well as a work out to increase arm strength
Dancer’s Body (Aruna) – strength training workout using weights and dance moves.
Discover Bellydance: My Personal Trainer (Rania) – includes seven ten minute target specific workouts, a 30 minute cardio workout and a guide on how to combine them into a weekly plan based on your goals. Also includes a performance by Rania and a video library of some belly dance moves. The cardio workout is combinations pulled from Rania’s other workout DVDs with no change in the voice over, so if you haven’t used the other DVDs it could be confusing when she refers to a move “we learned earlier”. Legs 1 workout is the bonus workout from “Too Hip”, Legs 2 workout is the bonus from “Bellydance Boogie”, Abs 2 workout is the bonus from “Pure Sweat” and the Flexibility workout can also be found on the “Daily Quickies” DVD. The Arms, Chest & Back, Hips & Waist and Abs 1 workouts are all new for this DVD. This DVD is nice for being able to create your own workout using the 10 minute workouts, but you could do the same thing using the “Daily Quickies” DVD I would say you need only one or the other of them and not both. Of the two I would pick this one since it has more 10 minute workouts on it than the “Daily Quickies” which has five. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. Purchase from Amazon
Goddess Workout – Introduction – (Dolphina) breakdown of beginning and intermediate level belly dance moves. Her names for some of the moves are unique to her (the dolphin for an undulation), if you already know what she is talking about and can recognize the move and go with the flow you should be ok, but I definitely don’t recommend this one for beginners. Purchase at Amazon
Goddess Workout – Warrior – (Dolphina) workout using beginning and intermediate level belly dance moves. Her names for some of the moves are unique to her (the dolphin for an undulation), if you already know what she is talking about and can recognize the move and go with the flow you should be ok, but I definitely don’t recommend this one for beginners. Purchase at Amazon
Hard Candy Purchase from Amazon
Killer Drillz (Zoe Jakes) - DVD includes a warm up which uses a lot of stretches, she then covers the techniques that will be used later with a focus on what muscles are used. She then teaches a drills class in front of a group of students where you drill all the moves she broke down. This is not billed as a workout DVD, but could certainly be used that way. Purchase from Amazon
Love Potion Purchase from Amazon
Luscious Purchase from Amazon
Shape Up N’ Hip Out (Jillina) – DVD includes a warm up, three 20 minute workouts, a cool down and a solo performances by each of the dancers in the video. Purchase from Amazon
Ultimate Belly Dance Fitness Workout – 45 minute workout including warm up and cool down. The workout uses belly dance moves including hip lifts, drops, shimmies, pelvic locks, vertical figure 8s, horizontal figure 8s and undulations. You need to know the moves since there is minimum explanation. I also recommend watching this one once before trying it since their is also minimum verbal cues as to what you are doing, so being somewhat familiar with the routine will help. Each section is lead by one of seven different belly dancers. Purchase at Amazon
Woman Power Workout (Aruna) – combination of cardio, strength training and stretching
Bellydance Body for Beginners (Suhaila Salimpour) – Though the title says it is for beginners I would recommend this DVD for Intermediate and up. This DVD includes five 10-minute workouts which can be done individually or as one 50-minute workout. There is not much technique instruction or explanation, so a basic knowledge of the moves is necessary. The moves used include vertical and horizontal figure 8s, up-to-down and down-to-up undulations, basic Egyptian, segmented omis (called hip squares), ¾ shimmy on the up, ¾ shimmy on the down and ¾ twist. There are also a couple of traveling moves that you may need to look up on youtube or google as they are dance steps usually associated with ballet. The five workouts are the four bonus workouts from her Fitness Fusion series plus a dance combinations workout unique to this DVD. Purchase on Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs – (Neena and Veena) two basic workouts from the Bellytwins, each about a half hour. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Basic Moves and Fat Burning – (Neena and Veena) two basic workouts with the Bellytwins, each about a half hour. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance Fitness for Beginners: Slim Down – (Neena and Veena) a basic half hour workout with the Bellytwins. Purchase at Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Bellydance Boogie (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute dancer’s legs and buns workout and two costumed performances. The work out uses up-to-down undulations, vertical and horizontal figure 8s. I would recommend this for my students who have started intermediate and up. My biggest complaint with this workout is the snake arms on the vast majority of the dancers look sloppy. This is because they are performed too large and/or too fast. My recommendation is to do the snake arms at half the speed they are presented, or to do them as arm ripples at the tempo presented. This will keep the movements controlled and graceful. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Cardio Shimmy (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute “waist cincher” workout (rib and hip slides, horizontal and vertical hip figure 8, up to down undulations and vertical rib cage circles) and two costumed performances. The workout uses Egyptian shimmy, shoulder shimmy, choochoo shimmy. Most of the moves are taught in my beginner level classes, the exceptions being the Egyptian shimmy and the gush (King Tut walk). Also, Rania does not name her hip shimmy, so beginner level students might not realize it is different from the hip lift shimmy taught in class. Beginner level students could use this video if they substituted the hip lift shimmy for the Egyptian shimmy. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Hip Drop Hip Hop (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute arms, chest and back workout and two costumed performances. The 30 minute workout is mostly based on what I consider beginner level moves. Unweighted hip lifts, unweighted hip drops, horizontal hip circles, chest drops, hip bumps and basic Egyptian. Combinations four and five start getting into intermediate level territory, but they are easy enough I think beginners, especially if they have a session or two under their hip scarves, could figure them out. Combination four uses a traveling hip drop. Combination five is drop-kicks. There is no mention of proper posture, so make sure you are checking your own. Some of the moves could hurt your back if your pelvis comes un-tucked. This DVD does not teach proper technique. In some instances it describes the easiest way to create the move, but not necessarily the one I think makes the most sense or would recommend using. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Pure Sweat (Rania) – bonus features are a 10 minute abs workout and two costumed performances This is part of a box set of four DVD. Purchase the box set on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Too Hip (Rania) – bonus features are a costumed performance and a 10 minute legs and buns workout. This workout DVD is probably best suited for intermediate level and up which makes sense as it is billed as level 2 or intermediate. The workout is slightly longer than the ones on the four previous DVDs. There is no explanation of how to generate the moves and she will say things like “shimmy” and it’s up to you to figure out what she is doing (3/4 shimmy on the down in the instance I remember). Some of the combinations used are interesting, some I didn’t care for. While the transitions from one combination to the next make sense if you do the whole sequence, there are a couple of instances where the transition is awkward when you haven’t learned the whole sequence yet and are going from the end of the last combination you have learned back to the beginning. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front with Rania and four other dancers. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. Purchase on Amazon
Bellydance Fitness for Weight Loss: Hipper than Hip (Rania) – bonus features are two costumed performances. This is, according to the description, a level 3 workout. However I think most intermediate level students would be fine with the moves used in the workout. Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Buns with Suhaila – (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD consists mostly of glute strengthening exercises. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well. Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Jazz with Suhaila – (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD includes a few glute strengthening exercises and then uses the glutes to generate bellydance and jazz fusion moves. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well. Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Pilates with Suhaila - (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well.Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Bellydance Fitness Fusion: Yoga with Suhaila - (Suhaila Salimpour) not for beginners even though the cover says it is, I would say this is best for intermediate to advanced level dancer as it requires a fairly good control of the glute muscles. This DVD is part of a box set and can be purchased separately as well. Purchase just this DVD from Amazon or Purchase the box set from Amazon.
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Abs – (Neon) three 15 minute workouts, a knowledge of the moves is needed. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Buns and Thighs – (Neon) three 15 minute workouts, a knowledge of the moves is needed. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Upper Body -- three 15 minute workouts, includes veil and cane technique instructions. Purchase at Amazon
Belly Dance for Body Shaping: Floorwork -- three 15 minute workouts, includes floorwork technique instructions. Purchase at Amazon
Bellydance for Core Fitness (Ayshe) – includes a tutorial section that teaches the moves and then a warm up workout and cool down. Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Rhythms Workout (Neon) Purchase from Amazon
Bellydance Shimmy Workout Purchase from Amazon
Cardio Bellydance Workout (Melissa) Purchase from Amazon
Cocktail Purchase from Amazon
Core Training for Belly Dancers (Fitness Pharaoh) works all groups of abdominal muscles as well as the back. Purchase at Amazon
Dancer’s Arms (Aruna) – covers arm positions for several different styles of dance as well as a work out to increase arm strength
Dancer’s Body (Aruna) – strength training workout using weights and dance moves.
Discover Bellydance: My Personal Trainer (Rania) – includes seven ten minute target specific workouts, a 30 minute cardio workout and a guide on how to combine them into a weekly plan based on your goals. Also includes a performance by Rania and a video library of some belly dance moves. The cardio workout is combinations pulled from Rania’s other workout DVDs with no change in the voice over, so if you haven’t used the other DVDs it could be confusing when she refers to a move “we learned earlier”. Legs 1 workout is the bonus workout from “Too Hip”, Legs 2 workout is the bonus from “Bellydance Boogie”, Abs 2 workout is the bonus from “Pure Sweat” and the Flexibility workout can also be found on the “Daily Quickies” DVD. The Arms, Chest & Back, Hips & Waist and Abs 1 workouts are all new for this DVD. This DVD is nice for being able to create your own workout using the 10 minute workouts, but you could do the same thing using the “Daily Quickies” DVD I would say you need only one or the other of them and not both. Of the two I would pick this one since it has more 10 minute workouts on it than the “Daily Quickies” which has five. Like all of her DVDs, this one was recorded from the front. It makes right and left a bit confusing since you have to mirror the dancers or use the opposite side. Purchase from Amazon
Goddess Workout – Introduction – (Dolphina) breakdown of beginning and intermediate level belly dance moves. Her names for some of the moves are unique to her (the dolphin for an undulation), if you already know what she is talking about and can recognize the move and go with the flow you should be ok, but I definitely don’t recommend this one for beginners. Purchase at Amazon
Goddess Workout – Warrior – (Dolphina) workout using beginning and intermediate level belly dance moves. Her names for some of the moves are unique to her (the dolphin for an undulation), if you already know what she is talking about and can recognize the move and go with the flow you should be ok, but I definitely don’t recommend this one for beginners. Purchase at Amazon
Hard Candy Purchase from Amazon
Killer Drillz (Zoe Jakes) - DVD includes a warm up which uses a lot of stretches, she then covers the techniques that will be used later with a focus on what muscles are used. She then teaches a drills class in front of a group of students where you drill all the moves she broke down. This is not billed as a workout DVD, but could certainly be used that way. Purchase from Amazon
Love Potion Purchase from Amazon
Luscious Purchase from Amazon
Shape Up N’ Hip Out (Jillina) – DVD includes a warm up, three 20 minute workouts, a cool down and a solo performances by each of the dancers in the video. Purchase from Amazon
Ultimate Belly Dance Fitness Workout – 45 minute workout including warm up and cool down. The workout uses belly dance moves including hip lifts, drops, shimmies, pelvic locks, vertical figure 8s, horizontal figure 8s and undulations. You need to know the moves since there is minimum explanation. I also recommend watching this one once before trying it since their is also minimum verbal cues as to what you are doing, so being somewhat familiar with the routine will help. Each section is lead by one of seven different belly dancers. Purchase at Amazon
Woman Power Workout (Aruna) – combination of cardio, strength training and stretching