Shape up ‘n hip out!

Jillina’s workout is meant to get you fit while you learn to belly dance. It lets the beginner start slow and work upward to faster and more complex movements. For the already-dancer, it’s a warm up and drill. There’s no separate technique section, so a beginner will need to spend time on the detailed mechanics of belly dance isolations and movements elsewhere – but work them out here.

Shape Up n’ Hip Out is rather well conceptualized. Which is why it has many, many strengths.

But before we get to those, here’s a description of what’s on the DVD:Jillina introduces belly dancing and the programme briefly and causally. Here the sound seems a bit low, for some reason. But only here. I would have been more impressed with an introduction which took up exactly how the dance and fitness will tie up. Or some tips on where to learn the basics in detail. This was just off the cuff  – a bit like it’s part of some interview.

The programme on this video is divided into three neat chunks. Well, five if you count the warm up and final cool down. The warm up is slow and calm. With a group of four other dancers, Jillina leads you through stretches, reaches, bends, and lunges. And then it’s on to the first workout chunk – Slow & Smooth.

This is the section that’s obviously the most beginner-friendly. You go through the basic chest and hip circle, eights, camels, hip bumps, snake arms, hip lifts and drops. There are no real safety tips here and that’s another reason a beginner should not barge into this programme without the support of classes or a more detailed basics video.

In this, and each of the other sections, Jillina works with one set of moves and then adds another chunk. This slowly ends up in a nice long sequence of about 18 minutes.

The next segment is Rhythm Hips. The speed picks up, obviously. You start with a chunk of moves and add on more and more chunks. You work with medium hip circles, hip drop-kicks, hip bumps and touch-lifts, chest lifts, camels, extends, shoulder shimmies in a grapevine, twists, and eights. You use your arms throughout and this really adds to the intensity of the workout. You also travel – regular steps, circles, grapevine – and that too intensifies the workout.

The Turbo Hips section is where things get tough. Now you handle shimmies, extends with shimmies layered, a fast hagalla, choo choos, and more. You move move move. If anyone’s looking for a good cardio belly dance session – try this for several rounds. That should do it.

Each section, by the way, has a with-instructions and with-music-only option. Try both for an extended and solid workout!

A gentle stretchy cool down takes you to the floor to relax and rest your back and thoroughly worked muscles. Nice cool down. In fact I’m going to adopt it for other workouts.

Now there’s a whole bunch of performances on this video. Quite a treat of them, in fact. Six. The first is in her Pop Choreo style. She sizzles. It has a drum solo-ish segment. The second IS a drum solo — on top of a drum! So there. That’s beyond incredible. There’s next a performance by Heather Quinn. She does a veil piece to some very dramatic music and then a drum solo. She’s very graceful. Then a wings item from Louchia Tchoukri. I don’t much like them so I can’t quite say whether it was nice or not. They all look the same to me. Then a dancer named Ahava does a pretty Egyptian piece which I think is challenging in its slowness. It’s one of those emotive, tense ones. And then finally a joyful performance from Denise Arias. Very lively and yet very graceful. And then! She goes into using double swords! Quite stunning.

A behind-the-scenes section ends this action filled video.

Multi-level
One of this workout’s strengths is that it actually can be used by different levels of dancers. For a beginner, it’s not okay as the only introduction to belly dancing, but it would make a good add on to other basic videos or classes. Here’s what a reviewer on Amazon said: “If you’re looking to learn how to belly dance at the same time as you get your exercise though, this video probably will disappoint you. To fully understand how to perform a specific exercise from this video, you do have to know at least the basics of belly dance before you start so that you can concentrate more on the exercise than what exactly it is you’re trying to do.” There are no break ups of moves and no detailed explanations and safety tips. You just get right into it. For the advanced dancer, the whole programme makes one giant drill of standard moves. You can use it to build speed, stamina, and exercise.

Dance along
I was able to pick this video up and start right off on it. Many workouts need to be watched several times before you figure out what’s what. I’d put Jehan’s Ultimate Fitness in that category. Also Jenna’s drills on all her videos. But with this one, you just start right off. Perhaps the Turbo section should be watched once, but the rest of it is easy to follow along. There’s plenty of patterned repetition, so even if you miss something once, you catch up on it next time.

Choices
I like that you can choose your intensity and activity level as well as the length of workout. All you have to do to extend any section is to do both instruction and music options and you have longer workouts.

Dance moves
Another nice thing is that the workout moves are also danceable. You can take any of the moves and put just mix them all up for a rousing dance session. Except for a big plie she does with a deep breath in and out, the rest is not really “workouty.? It’s danceable.

There are other strengths too! The workout has unbroken flow and momentum. It’s not over the top with the usual cardio instructor noises. For belly dancers, it’s familiar! It’s a good guided workout for when you feel you absolutely must put in your hour or so of dancing but are preoccupied with other things and don’t want to do anything complicated.

But it isn’t that nothing at bothers me about it. I find the calling out of the moves a little off. She may say “take it back” but not be moving backward. I look and then find she probably meant tuck back for an undulation. I strongly believe workouts and drills should be created to be look-free. If you’re busy sweatily moving around at top speed you’re not going to be able to keep your eye on the video all the time. You get to know it once and then you use the music and call out of moves to focus on the workout itself. In this video, I find that a bit difficult. Very often I had to stop and say huh? And go up and look carefully. But the pluses outweigh the negatives.