The Art of Exotic Dancing For Everyday Women - dvd by Philadelphia Films - review by Lady Neshamah

A few months back, my husband had made a joke about me trying out some of the stripper workouts that are becoming very trendy right now. I had really been looking for a new workout after putting some weight after breaking my ribs around thanksgiving. I'm a curvy girl, and I like being a curvy girl, but I am wanting to get in better shape so that I can do that sixty mile long breast cancer walk next year. So, it's time to try some new things.

So my husband had almost picked up for me one of those TV DVDs with a stripper work out, but I talked him out of it. However, I did find The Art of Exotic Dancing For Everyday Women. It says on it's page that it's 48 minutes long, but in reality it runs closer to an hour. This is very basic stuff of sexy dancing. It goes over walking sexy, hip roles, floorwork and a version of the striptease.

Now, I do have a background in burlesque, but not in strip, so there was more than a few things on here that where new to me. And the fact that the instructor seems to have actually though about that she is also catering to women that aren't skinny makes it the perfect thing for a girl with my body type. It has been set up to go through the moves very slowly and with a lot more detail than most people would need. But I can see why it's set up that way because everyone learns at a different pace and in different ways. It's well thought out and put together.

The draw back is that it's kind of dated in the striptease itself. It was something that my stripper friends where doing over fifteen years ago. The music is also so bad that it's almost painful. No self respecting stripper would ever use that music to dance to. There is also way to much focus on the students talking about what the instructor did for them.

Over all, it was the right pace of a workout for someone that is coming back into the game after being down so hard. It's a good workout for anyone actually, woman or man. You can really feel it after you do the whole DVD.

I do still use The Art of Exotic Dancing For Everyday Women as a bit of a work out, but I have since started to actually learn the art of burlesque from some of the big gun dancers in the area.