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47 of 48 found the following review helpful:
 Bellydance Workout/practice session for experienced dancers Jun 18, 2009
By Shannon B Davis
"Nepenthe"
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.
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 Awesome! Jun 09, 2009
By K. Smith
"Belly Dansah"
This is a wonderful DVD! I love the beautiful and creative combos and the quality of the DVD is very very good! These women are very skilled and talented dancers. The instructional section is very informative and clear. I like how she really explains and drills the movements and adding modififation options. This is my new fav DVD. I hope to take a class with these ladies someday!
ps
whatever you do...purchase this DVD. You don't have to think twice about it. You will be satisfied!
15 of 16 found the following review helpful:
entrancing! Jun 01, 2009
By Seir
World Dance New York returns with this enchanting "Love Potion" dance instructional/workout program. If you are a fan of "Luscious" you will absolutely love this program! Beautiful 100% belly dance moves layered on triple steps on releve, grapevines and beautiful turns, rocking steps, all a bit more challenging!
This program options has voice cues or music only and is about two hours and a twenty minutes total.
The selections are:
The Love Potion Workout-40 minutes, practice flow for beginners-50 minutes, and tutorial-50 minutes.
You will definetly feel the work out as you shift from grapevines to releves, and hip movement. Best of all you will increase in dance vocabulary and learn posture, isolation, arms frames, a huge variety of hip movement, and traveling steps. From beginner to intermediate student, the tutorial and practice section allows most to follow along very well.
Neon instructs the key elements in the dance structure section; the purpose of slower dance movement allowing the muscles to get a longer work out, the technqiue of isolation, body posture, stylized movement in contrast to everyday life movement. Dancing can help alleviate the symptoms of sedentary lifestyle by elongating muscles and fixing improper posture.
Each segment below focuses on upper and lower body basics focusing on circles, undulations, shimmies, hip movement and traveling steps, working every muscle group. Once past the welcome section, prepare to be taken in by beautiful music, choreography and dancers of course!
Neon, Sarah, and Blanca lead you into the following trajectories of
The Love Potion workout: (The combos are broken down quite simply with footwork, arms patterns, hipwork added gradually and repeated.
Eternal Feminine- a rotations workout, grapevine, hip accents.
Mystery-pelvic circles, hip pushes, chest lifts and circles,hip infinity loops.
Desire-horizontal infinity loops, undulations, triplet steps, and yet more hip accents.
Creative Flame- emphasis on hip work, lifts drops
Free Spirit-emphasis on shimmies, shoulder and vertical hips and 3/4 up and down shimmies.
Priestess- a beautiful dance flow empahsing grace, body alignment, coordination, and fluidity
Goddess-beautiful sways, turns, hip work, all combined in a "dancer's prayer" flow.
Each segment offers much variety using organic belly dance moves. When combined differently, these work different muscle groups as a fantastic workout. The tutorial section and practice flow are suberbly defined with extensive vocablulary for dancers of all levels making this one of the best dance instructional videos I have reviewed. Neon is a thorough and precise instructor as you will see in the tutorial and practice flow segment. I especially commend the footwork section so well broken down, beautifully narrated, carefully guding into proper posture and framing! Arms patterns added are beautiful decorations to the hip movement and traveling steps.
The music is spell-binding with several selections from DJZen, Hossam Ramzy and others.The stage backdrop is soft and soothing to the eye. If you are new to belly dance or have loved it for a spell, the "Love Potion" program will simply mesmerize you!
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
love this workout Aug 07, 2010
By Marianne Letitia
"cha chi"
I have quite a few belly dance workouts and so far this is my favourite. I love luscious as well but much prefer Love Potion, probably as I am a gymnastics coach and have done many different dance styles, and Love Potion is a stronger workout, I actually feel it in my waist when I do it, the dance is more fun and the music in it is sensational.
I am going to purchase Hard Candy next as I really like the way these dvds are formulated. I am always happy to do this dance workout, it makes me sweat and feel good.
Marianne
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Great dance workout for Beginner - Intermediate Dec 30, 2009
By Natasya Katsikaris
"Bellydance Teacher"
Love Potion provides great non-stop drills for intermediate dancers. There are also tutorials and "practice flow" for beginners. I don't think a pure beginner could learn to dance only from this DVD, but it would make a great practice for "between" classes.
The style is "classic" bellydance. Nothing specialized - just graceful universal moves suitable to all styles.
This DVD gets 5 stars for a menu that is easy to navigate. The camera angles and voice-overs are well-done and you even have the option to skip the voice-over once you learn the routine/s.
The costumes are lovely, but not "overdone" so you can see the dancers' movements. All 3 dancers are in synch and all have a pleasant style. The choreography is excellent for a beginner-intermediate DVD. Simple & elegant - not dumbed-down. This DVD is one of the few that actually delivers exactly what it says on the box.
Happy Dancing!
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