Belly Dancing

Hi! I don't know if you are still interested in belly dancing or if you have already started but i am a brand new beginner (just did my first 60 mins today). I have been doing Arabic Belly Dance Basic Moves Parts 1-4 on youtube. If you are interested I can recommend a couple more I tried today!

I have veena and Neena, Rania, a couple of tribal fusion workouts (2 with Rachel Bryce, who I swear has no bones in her arms). My instructor can't stand V&N nor Rania, but is a huge fan of anything bellydance superstars.

Look on Amazon, they have TONS of belly dance workout DVDs. Search on fundamentals or beginners belly dance.

I'm a HUGE belly dance fan. Can't get enough. I practice daily, and take a class once a week, looking to take a second, more advanced class.

I have the Neena and Veena ones.. They are pretty niice.

Rachel Brices Isolation DVD is the one thats currently on my wishlist. Let me see..... The exact name is:

"Serpentine - Belly Dance With Rachel Brice DVD" If you go to youtube and type that right in.... It will bring up a mini-video about the DVD. It sounds really really good.

I'm in this one on youtube "Male Belly Dancing Wesley Gomes" I'm the girl with the blonde hair and blue skirt & burgundy top, kinda dancing behind him... That was a few years ago thou... With Cory Zamoras Troupe

I started in 1999 I took modern egyptian and then arabic, then fire classes with props and now, I may take the tribal stuff like you would see with the Rachel Brice DVD

Good Luck... And Have Alot OF Fun.. Because its really fun.

I've been belly dancing for eight years and I absolutely LOVE IT!. Personally, I don't think anything beats a live class with a great instructor, but there are a lot of good videos out there theses days.

I'm including the top three I usually recommend/loan to beginners. Numbers 2 & 3 are specific recommendations for belly dance fitness type videos. Let me know if you'd like more titles/names of belly dancers.

1. Veena and Neena's "Discover Belly Dance" series specifically for absolute beginners or anyone who hasn't worked out in a long while. I started with this series in 2004 because I was severly out of shape and had gained like 50lbs. These were the only videos that I could keep up with. They also help you learn some of the really basic moves and I thought they were easy to follow.

2. Oreet's "Sharqui - the Belly Dance Workout" is great for someone who has worked out for a bit.

3. If you REALLY want a work out, then I'd recommend Suhalia Salimpours "Fitness Fusion" series - all of them. Later on if you want to work on developing really good belly dance form and technique Suhalia teaches on-line. Rachel Brice studied under her for awhile.

NOTE: If you liked Rache Brice's DVDs Sharon Kihara has one out - you can rent it from Netflix.

You can find all of these on Amazon.
Netflix also offers a lot of Belly Dance DVDs, that way you can try before you buy and don't end up with a bunch of dud DVDs like I did in the beginning.

Shimmy on,
Jen

I've been bellydancing for a few years now, and I'd also recommend looking into dropping in on a local class, if you're interested. Not only does it give you better form, but your fellow classmates can be amazing supporters and are often on the road to a healthy lifestyle as well
And please, to anyone who has considered belly dancing, don't feel self-conscious about your body-type when you start off on that, you'll see results along the way

I did my first session of "Belly Dance for Beginners" with Leila today. Got it on Amazon. Love it! I like it because it's relaxing like yoga. I feel so energized.