Dance and exercise hasn’t been going as well I’d have liked since I developed pain in my left heel. And once you slow down, you start to insidiously lose stamina. But today I clocked 3 hrs and 45 mins and loved every minute of it. Well, except the last 15 or so.
Funny thing is I didn’t do what I’d planned, which was trying out the new Ballet for Belly Dancers DVD, working with some chunk of Autumn Ward’s Beautiful Technique, and going a few dozen rounds of Ranya’s Modern Egyptian beginner choreography. But in the end, I enjoyed whatever I did choose to do. All of it intense stuff.
First, I went through Asharah’s warm up and conditioning section. I worked at this carefully, deeply, thoroughly. That’s despite the fact that I do this workout very often. It was quite rejeuvenating. I wondered whether to go on to the isolations with her next, specially my rusty 3/4 shimmy, but I opted for Anasma’s Liquid Fusion instead. This was good fun. I reached the 4th drill set and I kept stopping the program to do some extra drilling using Pete List’s Songs for Kassar. Very enjoyable. And very tough. I find I can only work with this DVD in little chunks.
I next went on to Luscious and did the entire workout and little choreography. I realized I hadn’t actually worked with the whole DVD from start to finish before. Well, most of it anyway, since I’m not about to work witht he basics tutorial. Blanca’s bodyline section still poses a challenge for me. I wish I had asked her to teach it to me in person when I had the chance!
I tried a quick round of Ranya’s Layalina choreography before going on to the next chunk I now wanted to do, but I looked terrible doing it. Not smooth at all. I have to work at this. So, I went straight on to Flow 1 of Bellydance Rhythms. But halfway through, I did begin to feel a bit tired. More worryingly, my lower back began to feel a bit sore. Sigh. I also remembered I hadn’t eaten any lunch. So I decided to wind down and forget about reaching a goal of 4 full hours. How sad. So I cooled down with the Arabian Spices choreo, and breathed a bit and called it a day.
After relaxing for a while I do feel I could do some more…
you re out of your mind Mala!!! more than THREE hours of dance exercise – phew!! that s like you re an athlete at the very least!! last time I did 3 hours of exercise a day was during a lovely vacation to Greece YEARS ago with 1,5 hours of swimming and 1,5 hours of weight exercises. I ll never be close to that shape again
Hi Mala! I stumbled across your blog a few days ago. I love it! Your reviews are excellent and I really appreciate your comments about your experiences working with the different DVDs.
I’m new to bellydance although I’ve enjoyed yoga for several years…I’m really enjoying the new to me movements. I’m amazed how bellydance and yoga complement each other- I couldn’t believe it when I saw Ariellah’s Yoga and Bellydance DVD. Right now I’m working with Jenna’s Basics and Beyond and the tutorial sections on Luscious and having a great time.
Thanks so much for what you’re doing- I’m really enjoying reading about it.
Sara, welcome! Thanks for all your appreciation! I love, love, love it when someone reads my blog and finds it a nice place to be.
You’ll find a lot of the deeper warm ups and workouts on belly dance DVDs bring in yoga poses and stretches. I used Ariellah’s DVD for a long while earlier and looking back, I’d say her selection of exercises is really pretty good. I’d also say Ariellah, Jenna and Luscious is a pretty good mix. Ariellah gives you conditioning and rock-solid isolations, Jenna breaks down oriental technique and gives you safety tips – and a lot of variety – and Luscious helps you put it all together as a dance and gives you some sustained exercise as well. So yes, it really is a balanced mix.
Dina… my dad tells me I should stop clocking my dance and exercise.
But I’ll probably find myself doing that anyway. After 3 hours, one does indeed begin to dream of butterscotch or something.
Incredibly, no increase in heel pain from that session!
Now… what shall I do today… ?