I’m reviewing this after having done it a few times a while ago.
General workout breakdown: 5 minute warm-up, about 20 minutes of cardio with a little “toning,” 3 minute cool-down, and 3 minute stretch for a total of 30 minutes
Level: I’d recommend this to mid-beginner to low-intermediate exercisers. You can modify the moves for low or mid impact by adding or taking away jumps and bounces. The choreography is fairly basic, although you’ll need to be able to shake your hips. Some cardio parts of his workout may be too rigorous for true beginners if they don’t know to modify, but more intermediate exercisers might find the repetitive movements too dull. This workout is best for those who want more variety among their dance videos (bellydance, hula, Latin, or whatever) or who want to kick their beginning cardio up a notch.
Class: Veena & Neena only with voiceover
Music / Set / Other Production Notes: The non-vocal music is Middle Eastern-inspired. The set is brightly lit, with carpet, rich-colored curtains, and pillows scattered around the back. You’ll recognize the basic set from other Natural Journeys videos. Because this is a Natural Journeys production, the picture and sound quality are very high.
Equipment: none. Neena and Veena do this barefoot.
Comments: There are few pointers for form and little instruction. I don’t have the introductory volume of this series, so I don’t know if that’s where technique is discussed. I would have liked to see form tips included in either case.
You don’t need a lot of space for this workout. You should be able to take one good sized step forward and back and two steps to each size.
This isn’t a true belly dance routine. You will learn a few bellydance-type moves, but most are derived or just inspired by various Egyptian or Middle Eastern dances, or so I’ve read.
DVD Notes: The DVD allows you to select your chapter and choose to work out without the narration. There are photos of Neena and Veena from their other bellydance videos, trailers for Natural Journey’s other bellydance videos, a performance clip by a bellydancer named Marina, and a segment called “Flexibility Training” by Rania (I believe), whose form bothers me for some reason.
Conclusion: This was the first video I ever traded away. I got it part as a joke (bf had once mentioned belly dancing), part out of curiosity, so perhaps it’s no surprise I couldn’t warm up to it. While others might enjoy this non-intimidating approach to fitness, it just isn’t for me. I like dancing, but I much prefer ballet or even jazz to more hip-shaking forms of dance. This workout was a little too slow for me when I felt comfortable doing intermediate cardio, much less the high intermediate / low advanced cardio exerciser I am now. The lack of focus on form means I felt sore and achy after doing it.

Instructor Comments:
Veena and Neena Badisha (known as the “Bellydance Twins”) are fairly non-intimidating in appearance; they appear to be normal woman who get most of their working out through their dancing. They smile through the entire workout, with the disembodied voiceover chirping away, as others have mentioned. The voiceover (I’ve always wondered which one it is, if it’s even one of them) is encouraging and cues move changes.

KL