The movie
Apparently bellydancing is
becoming a popular exercise; at least, the sudden appearance of entire sets of
bellydancing exercise DVDs would seem to suggest a growing audience. Faced with
this new frontier of exotic exercise, this intrepid DVD reviewer took on the
task of reviewing Goddess Workout: Introduction to Bellydance. Yes, I
actually did the workout. I admit that I felt a bit silly, but at least I fit
the bill as a bellydance beginner, presumably the target audience of this DVD.
The DVD opens with a
five-minute warm-up, in which the host, Dolphina, leads the viewer through a
series of gentle movements designed to prepare for the main workout session.
This section offers a nice stretch and warm up for the back and arms, which
turns out to be rather odd, since most of the workout itself focuses on the
hips and belly. During this warm-up, we get a brief introduction to bellydance
by Dolphina. A lot of New Age phrases are tossed around, like "the
Goddess" and "ancient female rituals" and "revitalizing
your spirit," but this introduction stays completely clear of any actual
historical or cultural context for bellydance. Which is too bad, really: I
would have been interested in the real origins of the dance, and the material
that's presented here struck me as rather silly.
The main portion of the DVD is
a thirty-minute workout, broken down into different sections based on what move
was being taught (hip movements, the shimmy, serpentines, and so on). After
this, Dolphina leads a dance routine using the movements taught in the workout,
followed by a five-minute cool down. I'm reasonably fit (I'm a competitive
fencer) though not in great shape at the moment, and I didn't find any of the
actions particularly strenuous, though my arms did get some good exercise from
holding them in the correct positions throughout the workout. My pulse never
got above "walking around the house" rate, and I certainly didn't
break a sweat, though I concede that if I practiced the bellydancing moves
enough to actually do the dance routine, it would probably provide a bit more
exercise.
There are two main problems
with the instruction here: Dolphina herself, and the camera work. Dolphina
seems to be quite good at the actual bellydancing moves (at least to my
uneducated eye), but she is much less convincing in her verbal explanations of
how to do the moves. Instruction in a physical activity is much more
complicated that many people realize; I teach fencing (similar to bellydance in
its complex moves, in a way) and I know very well that I can't just tell a new
student "look what I'm doing, and do the same thing." It's necessary
to lead the student through exact steps of what to do with what part of the
body... and Dolphina doesn't really do that. She sets up the basics reasonably
well, such as overall posture, but too quickly moves to "and this is what
the move looks like" without properly leading the viewer through how to
get there. Some of the postures are easy to emulate without much help, but
others are evidently more subtle and surprisingly difficult to do in any way
that looks like what Dolphina's doing on-screen.
But I could live with
Dolphina's "do as I do" method, if it weren't for the camera work,
which is downright irritating. The cameraman (and it was a camera man, as I
noticed in the credits) seems to be fascinated with various parts of Dolphina's
anatomy... but not necessarily the parts that I, as a bellydance learner,
wanted to see. We get a lot of close-up shots of Dolphina's smiling face and
jiggling bosom, and loving shots of her gyrating hips, but not all that many
that consistently leave her entire body in the frame. On many occasions, the
camera would cut off exactly the part of her body that I needed to see to model
my own motions after, or jump erratically from one shot to the next.
While the focus only on
Dolphina is perhaps more aesthetically pleasing, it would actually have been
helpful to have had other bellydance beginners included in the picture, with
Dolphina offering them corrections or advice as they tried the moves. Sometimes
it's easier to understand a move when you see someone else do it incorrectly
and then be corrected.
All in all, my impression of Goddess
Workout: Introduction to Bellydance is that it's not a very well thought
out workout program. While I can certainly appreciate the fact that the moves
take practice, and that the combinations of different moves probably take a lot
of practice to do correctly, the problem here is that the demonstration of how
to do the moves to begin with is inadequate, due to both Dolphina's instruction
and the viewer-unfriendly camera work.
The DVD
Video
Goddess Workout:
Introduction to Bellydance is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Image
quality is satisfactory for its purpose; this is an exercise program, not a
film, after all. Colors are bright (and we see a lot of them in Dolphina's
numerous costume changes!) and the image is clean and noise-free. The image is
not necessarily particularly clear, but as most of it is very close up, it's
not a problem.
Audio
The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is
adequate for the program. Dolphina's voice is clear throughout the workout, and
the Indian-themed background music is generally appealing and pleasant
sounding.
Extras
The only "bonus
feature" is a listing of other Goddess workout programs. The menu is easy
to navigate, and each of the individual moves has its own chapter, making it
easy to return to specific parts of the workout.
Final thoughts
As this is so far the only
bellydance workout DVD I've seen, I don't have much material for a comparison.
Given that, I think that Goddess Workout: Introduction to Bellydance is
less than stellar as a workout program. Dolphina may look nice in her various
sequined bras and filmy skirts, but she doesn't do a particularly great job of
explaining the moves in a way that's understandable for bellydance beginners.
I'd suggest that potential bellydancers only rent this one.
Buy: