Hi Morgaine!

I have been taking bellydance classes for the past year or so. It is great! I can only speak from my own experience as I am not a fitness expert. To me bellydancing is as follows:

1. Good cardio workout without stress on knees.

2. Exercises most of your body, legs, hips,butt, thighs,abs, arms but I have never felt hurt after a class just limber and invigorated.

3. My problem areas are my butt and thighs and I have lost 2 skirt sizes already! I have always had a problem losing inches in these areas.

4. It teaches you to stand tall and lift your sternum, hold head up level, gives you better posture and balance which is great for your spine.

5. No special equipment required, a flowing skirt or leggings and a scarf to tie around your hips are all that is needed-most people dance in barefeet, socks or ballet slippers.

6. Empowering! There are women of all ages shapes and sizes in my classes. People seem to be selfconscious for the first 2 classes and then just get into and lose themselves in the music.

7. Enlightning.. it makes you feel very womanly and sexy no matter what your size and you carry that over into your daily life.. I feel much more confident about myself.

8. Classes are fun so I rarely miss a class.. I am not motivated when it comes to going to a gym.

9. It also exposes you to another culture and some very beautiful music.. good for the mind and soul.

10. Once you learn the moves you can practice at home whenever you feel like it and to most types of music that has a good beat to it.

Enough of my rambling...I love belly dancing that's all there is to it! Hope this has helped a bit.

Mauvaisroux

Hi there guys!! I just love any kind of dance!! From bellydance, hula, samba, salsa, Tango to jazz!! I think that's one of the most feminine forms of expression, and why not to lose weight or get fit!! What tapes do you guys have??? Well, I'll check the thread later.. gotta go workout!!! See ya later!!!

Hi Ladies!

Br@z!l!@n_ch!ck

whew! hope I got that right! Thanks for making me think too hard!

I don't have any instuctional tapes on dancing but I do have a set of three fitness tapes put out by two Dancers named Veena and Neena Bidasha. They are areobic workouts based on bellydance moves. They are worth a look if you are interested.

I take classes and I can't seem to find any tapes where I live.

I do have some great cd's though:
Arabic Top DJ #10
All the Best of Belly Dancing
Amarain
Oriental Belly Dance with Amany and Bassem Yazbek
Also my guy has made me a mixed cd of stuff he downloaded from the net.

Morgaine-
There are tons of Bellydance websites if you need instructions, advice, ideas, some even have patterns and instructions for making costumes. If you need something to dance in at first one of those Indian cotton hippie/broomstick skirts works great.
Have Fun!
p.s. I like your choice of name!

Mauvaisroux

MorgaineFey How's everyone doing? I am not doing any bellydancing right now, always loved it, though. I've borrowed some tapes at the local library, but only did it once or twice. Now that I found this thread I might get more tapes and start doing some. The tapes they have at the library are by Veena and Neena and some by Atea. But I think only Veena and Neena's are workouts, Atea's more for instructors, bellydance teachers, it just shows different moves but not organized in a workout routine... Man, my back hurts, my neck hurts... I started doing yoga again, and I think I've been pushing myself too hard, twisting more than I should, and that's bad... Alright.. gotta go grocery shopping... Happy I found this thread.. see ya folks later!!! Peace!!

Hey Brazil!
Hey Morgaine!

I got the Ali Mcgraw yoga tape for Christmas 2 years ago and I finally opened the plastic wrap last month

I tried it but it is soooo not for beginners! I hurt all over afterward.
Nice desert scenes (mmm...dessert.. whoops! ) but the guy doing the voice over sounds like that comedian Steven Wright, low tones, monotonous, depressed....if it weren't for the pain inducing poses I would have fallen asleep. Hmm...Next time I have insomnia I could play the tape and....

I can't think of any bellydance sites off the top of my head but I usually just surf until I find something useful. If I find anything good I will let you know. Likewise if I find any video tapes.

Talk to you soon!
Mauvaisroux

Hi ladies!

I found a couple of sites you might want to check out...
www.joyofbellydancing.com
www.zilltech.com

both have useful info and links to other sites.

Mauvaisroux

Hi Ladies,

At last I found some people who like Bellydancing!!!

I adore it. Someone wrote futher up the list that it is a most feminine form of expression!!! bravo bravo!! I really have to agree.

I have never seen a video or taken classes but I would love to take a class some day.

My mother inlaw is Egyptian, when we go to Egypt for holidays I get to watch all her neices etc. and join in alot. All the women there do it some not so great others beautifully.... like someone wrote the music does just take over.

A great song for dancing ..not Middle Eastern but great nonetheless I was just doing it the other day is Bob Marleys Stir it up. Man I had fun! Try it you will know what I mean.

I feel alot going on in my abs when I dance this way and my thighs!!

So happy to have found you all!! You sexy thangs!

Isnt it fun to enjoy.. I mean really enjoy your exercise...isnt it great to celebrate your body?!

Its great fun here when women get together they always get up to dance this way, most would never do so in front of men except their husbands or at a family party, but when they dance WOOOO look out, Ya Salaam, Ya Salaam!

Im off to check out the two above mentioned websites.

Have fun!! Kriss