Rating: 
Summary: a must have in your dance library
Review: a friend of mine lent it to me to watch. I have been dancing since 1996 and I got a great workout.
Rating: 
Summary: I'd skip this one
Review: All I can say is I really really loved it and cannot wait to go home and go through it over and over again. I am hunting for costumes, shimmies and belts now :-) It is worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Very good DVD for Belly Dancing
Review: All I can say is I really really loved it and cannot wait to go home and go through it over and over again. I am hunting for costumes, shimmies and belts now :-) It is worth the money!
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, but pay attention!
Review: First, the bad things about this DVD:
1. The graphic on the side is annoying and makes it look like a commercial the whole way through.
2. The chanting can get a little annoying for some people.
3. It looks a little low-budget, but this has very little to do with the content.
4. The lack of cuing when unable to look at the screen and sudden changes in movement.Now, the good:
1. The music fits perfectly and changes with each section.
2. The moves demonstrated look great and are shown in detail.
3. It's fun and never gets boring!
4. They have one girl for each section teaching the move, and then others are added to show variations. The workout/dance on this DVD is very complicated, and there is little to no instruction. They don't start at slow tempo so you can work your way up. They just do it and expect you to follow. It makes it difficult the first time, but after a few viewings you will begin to get the hang of it. Their entire bodies are shown, so you can see the detail of each move. If they were to include an instructional section for each one it would just be showing the exact same thing in a slower motion. Instead you have to either watch in slow motion or press rewind. The cuing problems can be annoying, but they weren't that bothersome for me. I love all the moves performed on this DVD, and it was really fun to do as well as a pretty decent workout. The only big complaint I have is that lack of instruction because it could definitely be very discouraging for some, but if you keep with it, it's really rather easy to pick up.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: I LOVE THIS DVD. It keeps you moving without doing the same thing over & over. I have the Twins "SLIM DOWN" & that got old after about 4-6 months. Each chapter last about 5-8 min so you are never bored & there are tons of moves to learn from.
My ONLY suggestion is that if you know nothing about bellydance, get a beginner DVD before becuase this does not explain how to do the moves it just tells you when & how many to do. The instruction is good, comstumes are awesome. The music is nice & it matches to each chapter very well. I have several workout DVD's (Veena & Neena Slim Down) & this one is by far a better workout & it taught me a ton of moves that I have never seen before.
My advice...
BUY THIS DVD, you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Not totally bad, but...
Review: I own about 10 different bellydance DVD's, some of which I'd recommend to beginners, but this isn't one of them. There are a lot of problems with this workout video, and I can't quite understand why four people have given it 5 stars each, but... to each his/her own. Here's my take on it: The small problems - during the stretching session, the voiceover sometimes doesn't prompt you to move from one position to the other, and if you're not looking at the screen (hard to do when hanging your head), you end up behind. The camerawork is sometimes shoddy as well - the dancers are performing a foot movement, but the camera is pointed at the dancer from the hips up. Also, there's this weird "cutting" thing that happens - sometimes there are three women on screen, and then - oops - only one, which is irritating when you like one woman's hand movements better than the center dancer, and then suddenly, she disappears. Along the same lines, please note that the production values are poor overall - this looks like digital video to me, and the "set" is a stark white room. That wouldn't bother me so much, except there's an annoying graphic (the word "ultimate") that appears vertically on one side of the screen through the entire workout - very annoying. Some people commented that they liked the music. Anything that chants - feel the goddess inside you, feel the chemical reaction - is NOT for me. The bigger problems - this isn't a "workout" DVD so as much as a "dance" DVD. Jehan does a better job than say, Rania, of introducing true bellydance dance technique and terms, but if your goal is a fun cardio workout, this isn't for you. Some of the costumes the dancers wear - particularly the dark skirts - obscure the legs so it's hard to see proper position - you can hurt yourself this way during the faster segments. Also, while the workout is separated into 7 sections (warmup, strength, sensuality, joy, passion, energy, cooldown), you can't really do one or two sections and feel like you've worked out. It's all or nothing - not the best if you're in a time crunch. Final note: although I'm coordinated enough for my other bellydance DVD's, I get lost every so often with this one, so you might not want to start your bellydance career with this DVD. I can understand why people like Ultimate Fitness in terms of learning bellydancing - it's truer to the art than Rania or the Goddess series. But it also seems to take the goddess bit a little too seriously. If you're bent on buying this, just be clear that DANCING is your goal because it's not the best out there for a cardio workout. Beginners looking for a fun new way to exercise might be better off with Bellyqueen.
Rating:
Summary: I'd skip this one
Review: I personally won't use this DVD again. I'm not a beginner, but I hate not having verbal commands (when hanging heads, etc.). I thought it looked cheap (from make-up to costumes to set). I found that side graphic quite annoying. The people hardly smiled. Overall bad experience for me.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, but pay attention!
Review: I still rate it 4 stars because I really enjoyed this DVD. I have been to Jehan's school and her instructors are excellent. The DVD showcases a lot of the dancers who were in her NYC show Goddessdance. For those of you who are familiar with Jehan, she composes and performs her own music and that is what you are hearing on the DVD. My only real complaint with the DVD is that the cuing could have been better especially during the warmup when your head is down and you are facing the floor, but after doing it a few times, you are familiar with the moves and it's not a problem. I am able to complete the DVD without any problems and I definitely break a sweat especially after all those shimmies towards the end. I would recommend this DVD to dancers who are not absolute beginners as it does not break down the moves. But this is a much better bellydancing instructional DVD than Rania, Neena and Veena and the Goddess workout.
Rating:
Summary: I agree with cuing complaints...however
Review: I still rate it 4 stars because I really enjoyed this DVD. I have been to Jehan's school and her instructors are excellent. The DVD showcases a lot of the dancers who were in her NYC show Goddessdance. For those of you who are familiar with Jehan, she composes and performs her own music and that is what you are hearing on the DVD. My only real complaint with the DVD is that the cuing could have been better especially during the warmup when your head is down and you are facing the floor, but after doing it a few times, you are familiar with the moves and it's not a problem. I am able to complete the DVD without any problems and I definitely break a sweat especially after all those shimmies towards the end. I would recommend this DVD to dancers who are not absolute beginners as it does not break down the moves. But this is a much better bellydancing instructional DVD than Rania, Neena and Veena and the Goddess workout.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent workout DVD!
Review: I'm not a dancer, but I buy dance workouts because I get bored with the regular ones. They don't keep me motivated to exercise. This DVD is the interest holding champion! It's a workout and a dance class combined, it's fast-paced, really the closest thing to real dance but still a workout.I particularly appreciate this DVD for teaching me to shimmy! It makes you try the shimmy at so many angles, that my body just found the position that works for me.It has a driving force that keeps me focused and intrigued with what I'm doing. Some weightloss videos are so monotonous that I lose alertness.I REALLY don't agree with the reviewers who criticize the instructors' makeup or the backdrop: If you are really working with this DVD (and it makes you work very hard!) you WON'T be thinking about that. It's all I can do to keep up the workout and TRY to do the moves as beautifully as the instructors do. The white floor and walls are just totally New York professional dance studio. You can see dance studios through their windows downtown in NYC that look exactly like this DVD. So doing the workout is like being in a pro class in New York - that's what it is for me every time. Those artificial "sultan's palace" videos are very colorful, but they're distracting. They show the background so much that sometimes you can hardly see the moves.
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