The Celebration Bellydance Workout: Mood-Lifting Bellydance Flow & Workout

ITEMS NEEDED:Heavily Padded MatKnee Pads (If you have bad knees)Balancing tray (optional)PRECAUTION: If you have lower back or knee problems, please be cautious with the Muscle Conditioning SectionSarah does a great job of explaining movement and terminology. If you are a beginner, some sections may be challenging if you are not yet familiar with myas, upward figure 8's, and yoga practices. Sarah does a great job with the conditioning portion. I must say, she stepped it up. I really love that she is taking more time to stretch the neck and back. She also incorporates new moves that aren't repeats from other workouts.The program was not quite as upbeat as I anticipated (due to the title), but overall, it's a workout that I will keep in my library. I must say that although she used props(canes, and trays)she does not explain in detail the correct way to utilize them which I thought was quite odd.MUSCLE CONDITIONING SECTION:I really liked this yoga inspired warm up. By the end, you will absolutely feel a total body workout that delivers.I do caution those with bad knees or back issues to modify the seated exercises to preserve your knees and avoid lower back injury.Here are the specific movements:Neck stretches,wrist circles,standing roll ups,shoulder rolls/lifts,fierce poses,squats with prayer hands,goddess pose,back arches while on knees,twist shimmies while on knees,figure 8's on knees,hip circles,abdominals,lying glute shimmies,LEG RAISES,childs pose,plank with leg up,lower back strengthening,downward dog,split training,and flying pigeon.THE WORKOUT*****Section 1*****Wrist circles, hand petals, shoulder rolls, snake arms, water arms, facial caresses, figure 8's with arms.MOVES WITH TURNS:gypsy turns, hip circles , chest circles WITH 1/4 AND 1/2 TURNS, hip circles with 1/2 & 1/4 turns, body waves, and hand petals.*****Section 2*****HIPSsingle hip drops, shimmies on releve, shimmies with weight shifts, choo choo shimmies, shimmies layered with circles, bending shimmiesHIP DROPShip twists with foot release, twist shimmies, vertical fig 8's up and down,Cleopatra pose,side plank with flourishes, hand flourishes, body waves on the floor,harem girl rolls, harem kicks, plank belly rolls.Plie and clap, step hip drop, pelvic circles, choo chimmies in a circle, shimmy drop down, snakes, hip drops, twists, 3/4 shimmy, undulations traveling to both sides, mayas down, figure 8's*****Section 3*****FLOOR WORKFlying pigeon, snake arms, harem girl rolls forward, plank belly rolls, figure 8/s on knees, hip twists, snake, mermaid rolls, traveling undulations, fig 8 down, hip circles, half gypsy turns with arms included.ENTRYchest drop,folk steps in 4 directions,triple steps, hip circle body hip drops,snakes,undulations with tucks in a circle ,push with 3 step turns and hips, folk step, arabesque with steps, hip circles, body hip drop,undulations up/down, push push 3 step turn and hit,body hip drops,shimmies,arabesque.COOL DOWNforward fold, knees to chest with circles for back stretch, happy baby, lying stretchSarah includes 3 artist in the 3 performances. One with candles, the other with fans,and lastly canes. I can't say that I loved the music and some of the dancers musicality is a bit immature. The costumes were beautiful in the fan piece, but their cohesiveness and connection to the music was lacking.However, I will keep because the conditioning has a nice balance of yoga influence and great stretches. Sarah is very warm and encouraging. She allows her guests dancers to take center stage periodically which I think is great.Enjoy Guys, It's a keeper :)Thanks again!!

I recently ordered this DVD to add to my "dance-exercise" collection. What differentiates The Celebration Bellydance Workout from other titles from the same publisher? A lot. First, in many cases, traditional music is used.Secondly, it has a focus on folkloric dances! There are several sections to this dance, including slow circles and hand articulations, circles, floorwork, Zeffa and Saidi - the last two being the folkloric dances. Of course you don't need a cane or a balancing prop to do the workout, but if you have one, you can give yourself an extra challenge. If you're up for learning some new Saidi movements, the Zeffa rhythm, or floorwork, then this DVD offers all that in small tidbits. You wouldThis DVD actually contains TWO workouts. First you have the 30 minute dance workout, which I was amazed to see is actually done as a troupe choreography in the Performance section of the DVD. It looked unexpectedly great, since usually exercise choreography doesn't lend itself well to stage. Secondly, you have a 20 minute strengthen and stretch workout using some of the floorwork moves, light yoga, and some abdominal strengthening.Is this DVD for beginners? Yes, you can follow along as a beginner with the simple choreography and all the movements are explained in detail by Sarah in a tutorial section. You may also enjoy Sarah Skinner's Shimmy Workout DVD and Tanna Valentine's Silk.Is this DVD for advanced dancers? Sure, for exercise and strengthening, you will enjoy this DVD. If you want to work on your floorwork and balancing, add a sword, tray or shamadan to the workout. If you want to work on your cane, challenge yourself to use your cane while following the Saidi section.At the end of this workout, I do feel happy. I feel as if I've worked out, gotten stronger (especially abdominals and quadriceps), and I drilled some bellydance movements at the same time. I would recommend this DVD to anyone who enjoys dancing to work out. It's not a blood-pumping sweatfest like Jillian Michaels, of course. No bellydance DVD ever could be (although the Shimmy Workout comes close). What it is is a chance to burn some calories while learning/practicing dance movements.If it's been a while since you've been inspired to dance, try this video - it may be the spark to get you dancing again.

I chose this DVD because I liked the idea of getting into floor work, as Neon as yet does not get into the floor stuff, I really wanted to diversify and Sarah seemed to be the one to go with to do this. First off she and her troop look great, I found the workout it'self, for the most part, to be fairly easy.The "how to" section I tried to go through and ended up just skipping. I did not like that I could not go to a certain section or move that I didn't know. I had to run through the whole tutorial and that was both time consuming and annoying. I also didn't like that she didn't really give any tips in the yoga style workout. I hurt my neck a bit the first time going through it. I've since done different Yoga instruction and figured out what exactly I did wrong and can do the Yoga part just fine now.I only gave this three stars because I didn't find Sarah to be as good a teacher as Neon, I need the extra tips and reminders as well as "remember to breathe" or "hold your chest up." not because i'm a beginner but because I forget and things start to look odd. I didn't like that Sarah gave almost no tips in the yoga section. She just expected you to know what all the moves were. Which lead to neck pain for me. I would recommend if you have bad knees to get some knee pads or braces for them.

good moves lift your spirit

I like the way warmups are spaced throughout, so that this can be used as one major workout/practice session, or several mini-sessions through the day. Very good instruction. No complaints.