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Cocktail: The Classic Cabaret Bellydance Workout is a dance-based fitness program created by the New-York-based star bellydance performer and instructor Tanna Valentine. It features 100% bellydance movement and authentic bellydance performance music. bdwk

If you are new to belly dancing, the 60-minute Tutorial section explains the moves in detail and demonstrates every bellydance step used in the program. You can practice by following Tanna in the Beginner Practice Flow. While in the workout section belly dance moves are arranged in full-fledged dance combinations, the Practice Flow allows you to work on each step individually through a series of simple repetitions to music.

The 30-minute Cocktail workout section is presented by by Tanna and her fellow NYC dancers Giselle and Yoshina. It is designed as both a fitness and an educational experience where you will sample and practice the classic belly dance moves and combinations of cabaret belly dance while working to improve your muscle tone and flexibility, and adding variety to your weight loss or weight maintenance regimen.

The workout structure follows the layout of a typical cabaret belly dancing show: An uptempo opening, a moderate-paced lyrical section, a dynamic party-style dance, an expressive and sultry slow cifte-telli, an upbeat sparkling drum solo, and a brief finale. This cycle is repeated twice in the course of the workout to two different soundtracks of classic bellydance music, with the second cycle offering an extra segment featuring the rhythm and steps of Turkish karsilama.

This organic structure of the American Cabaret belly dance show, alternating higher and lower intensity sections, mirrors the interval method of fitness training and makes a great dance-based workout with a focus on muscle conditioning and toning. The variety of dance steps challenges your body to quickly switch between muscle groups and results in an effective and fun fitness experience.

"Making time in your life for planned physical fitness is not a luxury, it is an absolute necessity," says Tanna Valentine, "While many women lead busy lives and are not always motivated to go to the gym, dance-based fitness is highly-motivating because it is more than sweating and burning calories. Along with fitness benefits it provides a vehicle for artistic expression, and also has a strong emotional and spiritual component that brings a release from stress and physical apathy through inspiration and a burst of creative energy. You have to make time for this in your daily life."

Whether you are looking to improve your physical conditioning and enhance your shape, or to learn and practice a wide range of classic cabaret belly dance combinations in preparation for performing on stage or at a night life venue, Tanna's Cocktail workout will support and entertain you on your way toward these goals.

The Cocktail workout DVD (not available in instant video) offers 2 soundtrack options: with voice cues and with music only.

The Cocktail Belly Dance Workout video / DVD also features a number of performances by Tanna Valentine, Giselle and Yoshina.

Do you already own World Dance New York's "Luscious," "Love Potion" or "Hard Candy" belly dance workout video / DVDs, and are you wondering 'what's different' about Cocktail? The answer is that you will find the steps -- and the spirit -- here are more 'old-fashioned' belly dance. This is belly dance with a vintage twist: '60s and '70s "classic" movement....the core vocabulary of that era...still emulated every day in clubs and restaurants around the world. Anywhere you see bellydancers in a traditional setting, you see this kind of performance....to this kind of music.

The structure also emulates the 6-part bellydance show: Entrance, slow dance, fast dance, chiftetelli, drum solo, karsilama, and exit. Throughout the workout this structure is present and presents two whole times, each time with a different movement vocabulary. So running Cocktail: The Classic Cabaret Belly Dance Workout is like doing a real restaurant belly dance show. Understanding this classic show structure, which is used worldwide, is absolutely indispensable awareness for any dancer who is planning to perform as a professional belly dancer -- so making it your workout, it will become 'part of you', even aid you in developing both rhythmic and mood improvisations within the context of the classic show structure.
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