CTS Belly Dance Workouts

Dr. Robin practices and teaches CTS Belly Dance Workouts. As one of the oldest forms of dance, the benefits of belly dance are undeniable …

Belly Dancing promotes balance, strength, digestion, coordination and confidence as well as being a fun and highly-expressive dance form.

Practicing belly dance can help you burn calories, tone your back, hips and abs … and get both sides of your brain working together … sometimes even helping you form new neural pathways.

I believe everyBODY DANCES! There’s no limit to size, shape, age, background, or even rhythm. This dance form actually has a name for dancing without paying attention to rhythm … it is called taksim. You can practice solo in small spaces, in class, online, or with friends. It is highly flexible to fit your life.

Belly dance is a low-impact dance form and the CTS Belly Dance workout format is sneaky effective … you’ll learn core moves, timing and technique to a wide range of ethnic and contemporary music. Yes, like all dance forms there can be technique involved, but I’ve come up with a workout format that emphasizes repeated, easy, natural movements that get you moving now.

Click on one of the videos below to follow a sample belly dance class or workout. The videos in each playlist will play one after the other as we would do in a class.

• The CTS Intro class has nine (9) videos that will take less than 30 minutes to follow.
• The CTS Workout | Core class has eleven (11) dance videos with about 38 minutes of dancing, plus an interview video at the end.
• The Workout Intense 1 video starts with a standing yoga-ish belly dance warmup, followed by a foot drill that is helpful for managing turns. It also includes routines that cover all the core CTS combos, familiarizes you with a number of common MENAHT rhythms, and starts you dancing with finger cymbals (zils) and balancing a sword (or basket if you prefer). There are 11 videos for about 55 minutes of dancing.
• After an easy warm up that blends standing yoga, a bit of tai chi, and belly dance isolations, the 13 videos in Workout Intense 2 add more ethnic dance variety, play some more with finger cymbals and tai chi fans, and close the 53 minutes of movement with a cool down to an Egyptian rhythm song.
• Workout – RJ | These are the songs I’m currently dancing to in my daily practice. It has nine songs including the Crystal Cavern warmup and Sand cool down (42 minutes). There’s a range of MENAHT rhythms, including a 9/8 in Serpentine, plus a drum solo and contemporary song. You’re welcome to follow along with or without finger cymbals. While you’ll hear my voice over cues for the combos, it is not an instructional playlist. So if you’d like to learn the dances, let Pam or me know.

Whichever playlist you choose to watch and follow, don’t worry about technique – just keep moving. And even if you cannot do all the routines now, keep watching the videos. This will train your brain. When you imagine yourself doing these natural moves, you will be able to do them in a way that works for your body.

Have fun, get fit, and unleash your inner Goddess!

Enjoy!

FYI: “Belly Dance” is aka Raqs Sharqui, Tribal Fusion, MENAHT (Middle Eastern North African Hellas Turkish) Dance, Transcultural Fusion Dance and formats / variations include ATS, ITS, CTS, Datura Style, Egyptian, Cabaret, Folkloric, etc.