Hard Candy - The Bellydance Workout Review

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(More customer reviews)The series
Hard Candy joined its sister videos, Luscious and Love Potion, in my collection, a couple of weeks ago.
I love so many things about this series as a whole! First, a thorough welcome or preview tells you exactly what the instruction contains and will do for you. No false promises. Having worked with many fitness videos, I'm very grateful when an instructor takes the trouble to tell you what to focus on and what to expect rather than getting into that awful cheerleading mode that is so common.
The second thing I love is that there is a complete beginner's guide or tutorial to belly dance basics on each of the three videos. There are subtle differences and I know that many dancers have found these tutorials great to work with, even for those who've been dancing a while. The tutorials are led by Neon, whose brainchild this series happens to be. Teaching absolute basics is her specialty. You can access each set of basic movements separately. There is nothing rushed about these tutorials. There's detailed logical explanation, suggestions for replacement moves if you're a beginner, and friendly tips delivered in Neon's own gentle manner.
A practice flow segment adds practice basics and the combinations from the workout to music. There's also a music-only option.
The thing I love most about this series however is that there are just hundreds of small combinations, a whole treasure trove you can dip into any time. The moves are short enough for you to drill and get into your muscle memory. And yet, there's such a variety you can be sure you'll use them easily when you improvise.
Luscious, my favoritest of the three because I've worked with it the most so far, is the easiest. It involves doing beautiful moves with the bare basics, but maintaining good form so that there is much beauty in simplicity. Love Potion steps up the footwork and gets more dancy. And finally, Hard Candy has a lot of more intermediate moves such as the Arabic hip walk, pelvic tilts layered on footwork, lots of level changes with undulations and chest circles, etc. People with knee or back problems should probably stick with the previous two, while others who want to go to the net level should not miss out on Hard Candy.
Hard Candy
In the first segment of Hard Candy, led by Elisheva, you'll work with well-defined chest slides, pelvic tilts, hip pushes, hip downs and step touches. Anyone familiar with the previous two videos will see immediately that this involves more muscle work and is a bit tougher. It can even be a bit tiring if you're a beginner or don't dance very regularly. Elisheva has great range of motion and isolations show on her body perfectly. I'm personally not very fond of upper body moves, perhaps because too many chest moves won't fit in my culture too much, but it's quite a workout. In fact it has a more drilly feel than the counterpart first sections on the other two DVDs.
Neon leads the second segment and starts somewhat as she does in Love Potion. But again - tougher. There are arabesques with hip pushes and more footwork. You have deep lunges with chest circles on the wa up. There's a variety of moves in this segment - too many to list, actually. Lots of accents and footwork and building on some of the moves from the first segment. You can see she's not letting you off easy. There are also softer and sweeter moves though. The moves change much faster, so working with the flow and tutorial is highly recommended, no mater what level you're at.
And it's back to Elisheva for some sharp hip diamonds, and then some fast combinations that involve the hip diamond, pelvic tilts with chest ups and downs. Then there are more gooey fluid moves using undulations and pelvic circles. There are arabesques with level changes and undulations to follow. Phew. Neon is right when she says Hard Candy is both hard and sweet. This section moves really fast and speaking for myself, it will take me quite a while to keep up with it.
Sarah starts with some a fast combination of chest lifts and hip lifts with step touches. She goes on to a rich variety of sways, hip lifts and drops, figure eights and half figure eights. This segment is set to one of my favorite pieces of music, Zen Arabica. This is actually the section most reminiscent of Luscious - or it would be if it didn't have so many moves packed into it. Perhaps it can be thought of as Luscious on steroids.
Neon's second section begins with medium paced sharp hip work and slightly less footwork. And again, before you think you're getting Luscious-like, you find yourself doing combinations with Arabic hip walks and alternating hip lifts and rolls.
Sarah introduces shimmies in her segment. Not from the basics up though. In fact, you do some layering of the shimmy on basic moves and combine with chest shimmies. She also does some gooey moves before going back to shimmies. Reduced footwork here as well, so that the focus is wholly on the shimmy.
The seventh segment of the workout is iled by Elisheva again and she takes you through a challenging combination of deep pelvic circles and undulations with expansive chest circles. More work with reverse undulations, pelvic circles, chest circles and eights.
The eighth segment here in which Neon goes back to some of the moves already taught. She uses a refrain which you repeat every so often. More combinations done at quite a pace.
Hard Candy is much more difficult than Luscious and Love Potion because
1.A greater variety of moves is used
2.There some layering and level changes
3.There are big range upper body movements
4.There's faster hip work
5.The whole workout is faster
The setting and costumes are similar to the previous videos although they're most luscious on the Luscious DVD. The format is similar but Hard Candy is missing the themes used in the previous ones. This is all movement. The practice flow is specially good and much needed before you attempt the workout, unless you're advanced.
The music on Hard Candy is absolutely beautiful. Even the songs I already have and am very familiar with sound more beautiful on this video.
If you don't have the previous videos and are just starting out, I recommend you work with Luscious first. These three videos really are in increasing order of difficulty. You could, of course, choose to work with parts of any of the three, specially if you're otherwise taking classes and would like to pick out what you want at any given time.
A lovely series altogether, and quite topped off with Hard Candy.

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Hard Candy, The Bellydance Workout is two candies in one wrapper: A fitness experience with an artistic edge, and a dance learning experience with powerful fitness benefits. It's 'hard' only if you are a total beginner in bellydance, but don't worry: We soften it up for you by teaching every move, step-by-step, in a complete Bellydance Basics Tutorial section.

Hard Candy is a three-part program:

The 40-minute Hard Candy Workout;
A 55-minute Bellydance Basics Tutorial, breaking down every move used in the program in complete detail;
A 45-minute Beginners' Practice Flow: A non-stop practice-to-the-music for every step you learned in the Bellydance Basics Tutorial section. The Beginners' Practice Flow moves at a slower pace than the Hard Candy Workout, offering more repetitions of individual moves before developing them into combinations.

Hard Candy, The Bellydance Workout is a toning, sculpting and muscle-conditioning workout (not a cardio program) focusing on the hips, thighs, lower body, and waist. It consists of 100% bellydance steps. Undiluted by any non-dance fitness movement, Hard Candy retains the full aesthetics, rich textures, and musicality of bellydance.

The Hard Candy Workout is made of sequences of bellydance combinations built gradually from basic steps and interwoven to give you a real dance experience. They follow the music just like real dance, reflecting the flow of melody, rhythm, and percussive accents.

The first section of the Beginners' Practice Flow offers a breakdown and practice of all footwork patterns used in the program. The closing section of the Hard Candy Workout is a review of combinations taught in the previous sections.

Both the Hard Candy Workout and the Hard Candy Beginners' Practice Flow are offered with two soundtrack options:
With voice cues
With music only

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Love Potion - The Bellydance Workout Review

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(More customer reviews)Love Potion from World Dance New York is the unofficial sequel to Luscious, a previous entry into the bellydance fitness market with the same instructors: Neon, Blanca and Sarah Skinner. Using American bellydance technique, they put together a drill session and workout. In addition to drilling the movements, the instructors make note of head angles, posture, and grace - the little details that make the dancer. As always, beautiful and flattering costumes are worn by the three instructors, varying by each section, and each of them trade off leading. The DVD is split into 7 different sections, each with a different inspiring name such as "Creative Flame" or "Goddess". There is a feel-good element to the DVD as well, little mantras uttered at the beginning of each section about loving yourself, talking about how shimmies give us joy. So, if you need a bit of a psychological boost, this DVD may just give you one. If not, these sentiments easily fade into the background.
It is more advanced than Luscious, as few movements are drilled consecutively and everything is mapped quickly into a combination. The viewer is expected to pick up on the combinations quickly and follow them, which is the reason why this is more of an intermediate/advanced DVD. There is, however, a beginner's practice flow, which goes through each of the sequences slower.I actually consider this to be a good thing, as the DVD will keep me entertained even if I repeat it over and over, which as a fitness DVD, I intend to do.
The movements themselves are not advanced - ranging from smooth moves like pelvic circles and infinity loops to hip accents and shimmies. You will get a core workout if you are utilizing proper posture, maintaining your core, and - as my teacher says - squeezing your princess. After the 40 minutes, I'm actually feeling it! For the cardio aspect, it's hard to gauge, since I'm 8 months pregnant and we don't seem to have the air conditioning on. I was sweating, but I don't know if the average person would. You might even see it as a "interval" workout, since the sections varied from undulating and circling movements to the more intense hip drops, accents, and shimmies, and back again.
The DVD is set to new-agey music. Most of it was OK. As a huge fan of Arabic music, the music on this DVD didn't really get going. It did make for nice backdrop music, but I wouldn't run out and buy the CD. The last section, where many of the combinations are joined into a dance, is set to a composition "Goddess". I found myself a little embarrassed - I just don't go in for this sort of thing, sung in English. It's very goddess-power type stuff. I don't object to the message, but it's not really my thing either. Luckily I was alone in the dance studio because otherwise I would feel pretty silly dancing around to "I'm a Goddess, Set me Free" if anyone could see me. That said, it's really nice to see the combinations and movements displayed in a dance, that was obviously connected to the music (as dance should be), and the dancers/instructors on this DVD display grace and, well, a goddess-quality when they demonstrate this section.
I should also mention that either of the two workouts on this DVD, Love Potion and Beginner Flow, can be done without voice cues, with the music only.
Overall, I got exactly what I ordered, a fitness dvd that works my core, drills my bellydance vocabulary, and keeps me entertained as I do it.

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The Love Potion Bellydance Workout combines dance fitness with dance instruction. The program consists of three sections:The Love Potion Workout - 40 min.Practice Flow for beginners - 50 min.Tutorial section for beginners - 50 min.

Love Potion is a muscle-conditioning and sculpting workout made of 100% bellydance steps and designed to give you a true dance experience through sequences of real dance combinations set to rich, evocative music. It is a non-stop movement program: The step-by-step technique instruction is offered in a separate 50-minute Tutorial section. Exploring all major areas of the bellydance vocabulary, the Love Potion dance movement combinations are introduced gradually; each section of the workout adds new material and builds on the steps and combinations featured in previous sections.

Love Potion is choreographed to express the music as real dance. It teaches real dance skills, never sacrificing the artistic and expressive nature of bellydance movement. The technique instruction and practice woven into the workout will benefit dancers of all levels. You will work through all types of coordination and muscle control used in bellydance and practice the techniques that create the look of depth and connectedness in dance movement.

A Tutorial section explains the mechanics of every move: You will learn the core bellydance vocabulary, and develop beautiful form, muscle control and precise technique. Each step is explained in detail, and followed by an option to practice it with music in the corresponding section from the Practice Flow at first a slow and then a faster tempo.

The Practice Flow is a separate beginner-level program that introduces and drills each bellydance step and all the major Love Potion combinations. This section features 50-minutes of non-stop dance practice. It moves at a slower pace than the Love Potion workout and offers more repetitions of individual moves before developing them into combinations.

As a fitness program Love Potion will help define and elongate the muscles of your abs, thighs, and hips, strengthen the muscles of your upper and lower back, increase your flexibility and the fluidity of your dance and regular daily movement. This program pays special attention to the muscle groups responsible for giving you a confident, graceful carriage. It will stretch, release and strengthen your muscles providing a good base for healthy and graceful posture - both in dance and in your everyday life.

The Love Potion workout and the Practice Flow have 2 soundtrack options:
with voice cues
and
with music only.
The last section of the workout extends the Love Potion combinations into a choreographed dance. Enjoy the Love Potion!

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Luscious - The Bellydance Workout for Beginners Review

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(More customer reviews)Did we really need another bellydance-based workout? I wouldn't have thought so, but Neon, as usual, has gone and proven my expectations wrong.
"Luscious" is an exquisitely made program, with more good qualities than I can enumerate. The costumes and setting are gorgeous -- nothing like the typical brightly-lit aerobics studio -- and Neon advises you at the beginning to dress up for it and join the three dancers here in making the movement special. This is the kind of thing that sounds cheesy, but I did it, and it makes sense: how will you forget about bad body image or those extra pounds if you're wearing ugly workout wear? Dressing up makes you feel like you're dancing, not punishing yourself.
The instruction itself is taught in sections themed "Circles," "Infinity Loops," "Undulations," "Hip Accents," "Shimmy," and "Body Line." Each dancer leads two of the sections: she stands at the front and her voiceover describes the movements to be done. What I really like about this is that the sections weren't assigned randomly; instead, each section bears the particular dancer's imprint, and showcases her strengths. It's subtle, but you start to notice that Neon leads complicated, quick-changing combinations, Blanca shows her wonderful, large, and sensuous movements, and Sarah Skinner adds an upbeat Turkish feel to the shimmy section. This made the instructors seem much less like exchangeable dancing bodies, and much more like teachers with particular areas of expertise.
The movements are varied, and quite a few combinations are introduced and repeated from two to six times. This is not a "four of this and four of that" drill. In fact, I would suggest that complete beginners start with a different video. This would be great for advanced beginners like me, who are not expert enough for a complicated choreo with tons of layering, but get bored when everything comes in fours and is repeated ad infinitum.
All along, the dancers offer tips on putting emotion into the steps, on maintaining form, and on making movements deeper and stronger. While the dancing is rarely fast-paced, the slowness of the movements is often more challenging and grueling. The workout made me sweat (though it might not make everyone), but more importantly, it challenged me to maintain grace, form, and muscle control while learning the combinations. I couldn't believe it when the forty-five minutes were over -- it felt like fifteen!
If you have weak knees, you might want to be careful with some of the lunges and plies; on the other hand, there aren't a lot of them, and they're done slowly enough that you can be careful. I'll also repeat the warning that this might be a little hard for complete beginners who aren't already good at picking up choreography. However, the video does have a well-indexed instructional section which describes all the movements used in the workout. As a step up, there's a version of the workout with music alone, and no voice over.
In case my enthusiasm wasn't clear enough, I really think WDNY has a winner with this video. It's simple, but also simple enough to do regularly and to grow into. At the same time, even once you have learned the step combinations, adding graceful arm and handwork (to say nothing of being aware of facial expressions, head positions, and dancer's poise) poses an extra layer of difficulty. And finally, the movements are, quite simply, beautiful. You will be happy to be dancing.

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Lavish and overflowing with deep, rich, feminine movement, Luscious: The Bellydance Workout is made of 100% of bellydance moves and steps It is gentle, but it will work your body to enhance your muscle tone, flexibility, and fluidity, and promote weight loss. With a special focus on muscle conditioning and elongation, the program works each group of muscles deeply - using carefully built combinations to switch between muscle groups and add intensity to the workout.Lusscious: The Bellydance Workout features gorgeous music and a beautiful flow undiluted by conventional exercises. Systematically addressing each group of muscles to deliver a total body workout, it creates an entertaining and aesthetically fulfilling dance experience inspiring you to do your best in executing each move with the proper depth, range of motion, and articulation.A true dance experience as much as a fitness experience, Luscious is beginner level, but it offers you a perspective of challenge and growth. The workout consists of 7 sections, each building consistently upon the dance vocabulary covered in the previous sections through its own series of combinations. The combinations include classic bellydance transitions between steps to help you create the muscle memory to ingrain dance in your body. Luscious is an instructional workout. It introduces the dance vocabulary in a careful, systematic way and contains an extensive tutorial section breaking down each move used in the workout.If this is one of your first steps in bellydance, this program will be a fun introduction to all the basic groups of bellydance moves and transitions. If you are a dancer, it s a great way to practice the core of the bellydance technique and vocabulary through functional drills performed in the context of dance combinations and transitions creating an extra layer of muscle memory that isolated drills do not provide.Workout duration - 45 min.Tutorial section - 50 min.The Circles section explores circular bellydance moves. It follows a slow-to-moderate tempo, working both the lower and upper body through isolations.Next is the Infinity Loops section. Together with the stretching and toning impact of every move in this section, infinity loops are the ultimate exercise in fluidity.Undulations maintain flexibiilty of your spine and help develop deep awareness of your core. They are also a challenging full-body muscle-conditioning exercise.The bellydance hipwork section exercises your thighs, glutes, and abdominal muscles. In the Hip Accents section we ll perform traditional bellydance hip moves and then weave them together with the fluid movements: circles, infinity loops and undulations. Hipwork is what gives bellydance such vibrancy and party appeal - these steps look great on any dance floor.The Shimmy - that effortless shaking of the hips - is actually hard work! Join us to shake your way through a few styles of shimmy, and enjoy the wide range of shimmy flavors.The Body Line section is built of moves involving your total body. It shifts focus from working individual body parts to dance steps that offer the most stretching and give you a dancerly posture and carriage.The last section is a short dance routine choreographed entirely of the bellydance moves featured in the workout.

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