Belly dancing

I am trying to teach myself how to Hula dance.
I read somewhere that it is great exercise and I want to recreate my waist, at the moment I can't find it.
Anyway I bought a little book with the basic steps in it, looked easy enough, right , left, right, tap. left, right, left, tap.
And you push out the hip of the leg that your wait is on.
Ok, I though to myself , how hard can that be....for me, nearly impossible!!
I expected to be gracefully swaying my way to fitness, ha.
It's really hard work, after two minutes I was out of breath and have pulled a muscle in my leg!
To do it anyway gracefully and properly you must keep your knees slightly bent, which puts mighty pressure on your thighs.
So to see how it should look I went to youtube, and found Sandy belly dancing.
Isn't she amazing, the control is mind blowing, I am in awe and determined to master the Hula which suddenly looks do-able in comparison!