Belly Dance for Core Fitness

Leading two other bellydancers in this workout routine, Ayshe began the warmup with head lifts followed by standing curls (pulling the stomach back toward the spine while moving the hips and shoulders forward) and arches (reversing this move.) “Cheek clenches” and “inner thigh pulses” followed -- this is off-point, but she made a peculiar face while performing these moves, enough to distract me from the moves themselves. While she clenched either her left or right fist to indicate which “cheek” to clench or thigh to pulse, she didn't really articulate how to do the move or what you should be feeling while performing these moves. I think I was doing it correctly, but I guess I’ll never know! :-)

** Edited to add: I read there is a tutorial on this DVD. If so, I completely missed it! Maybe she talks about this in that section. **

Next came standing Turkish pelvic rocks and forward undulations, followed by Arabic hip walks. We practiced this move for a while (step, hip lift) before adding the Moroccan folk step (hip, twist, step – I didn't care for this step much, as I felt like I might twist my ankle.) This was followed by the Karsh step, and we performed a combination of jumps, step backs, hip slides, and hip circles. The entire workout, including cooldown, was about 25-30 minutes.

This workout was performed via voiceover; I know some people don’t care for this style of instruction, but I don’t mind. The lead performer was dressed okay, nothing special, but the two side performers were wearing some really ugly leggings which alternating bands of purple, yellow, and some other icky colors that reminded me of bruises. I also want to mention the music -- I don’t mind (and I sometimes enjoy) soothing chanting in the music, but the music here included vocals that interfered with the verbal instruction. All-in-all, I don’t see myself reaching for this one very often.

Instructor Comments:
Ayshe seemed to know her stuff, but was a bit stiff during the instruction.

Debbie J