I’ve performed to it as well – I occasionally get hired to belly dance at a Desi club night in Boston, and I was thrilled when they asked me to use that song.

Both Asharah and Areillah are wonderful to work with. I think in both cases, their figures are a matter of heredity — on top of which they exercise, of course. I know that Asharah is actually an athlete and is probably just as fit as Ariellah, but she just happens to be built differently. So anyway, if you have Asharah’s video, you’ve covered everything that Ariellah has on hers. I’ve actually graduated from Ariellah’s do Asharah’s and don’t use Ariellah’s DVD any longer. I tend to stick with one of these programs for a good long time, which is when I think you really see some benefits. With Asharah’s workout (essentially Suhaila-inspired), I’m totally thrilled with the increase in flexibility.

The thing with “authentic” – I’d like to dance like in the old movies I watched as a child, not understanding much of them (I m bilingual with French, my knowing Arabic only poorly is an “open wound” to be dramatic . So while I did not understand much, I understood the dancing
So my primary motivation is to learn the classic Arab dance.. But you are right for getting the movements any good American dancer is a great reference, since they all place emphasis on the right muscles and mechanics, and I do not care much about whether I d love watching their performance or not, personally, as long as I can get something from them technique-wise. I have my Amira Mor cardio video waiting for me which looks SOO undoable right now my shimmy being “out of command”. I can do them while dancing at parties – pretty well when in the mood, but do you think I could get him going in class or in my living room? Nope :-s
So I will give her teaching a try, as well as all the tribal isolists – it will be a long way for me though

Do you have performance videos too by the way? Or do you just keep in shape dance-wise with bellydance?
Take care Mala

Dina, I’m not too fond of Amira’s videos. While I think she’s energetic, I don’t much like her teaching style. But she dances well and I’m sure is as qualified in Middle Eastern dance as any American or anyone else in the world for that matter. Not sure what the Middle Easterners think of all this, of course. I’d say don’t bother with “authentic” . As long as you like it, you like it.

Anyways, I think it s good you give me the push of progressing to something else. I might be too much of a coward at this point. It s just soo nice to go through something without feeling like an untalented idiot but not much of a challenge of course!
With the arms workout you are right.. I think I liked the idea of having this one video healing my shoulders and neck after a long day at the computer. You see I m a bit too much after the easy solutions – buy loads of dvds, and they will magically transform you into a dancer (while you stick with the easiest and have them shove off their glamour just from being there on the shelf ; buy THE magical shoulders dvd to ease back/shoulder pain etc.

It s great to have someone more focused and realistic to counsel
by the way, I was surprised to see you are actually a fair-haired lady!
I should really know better not everyone in India will be dark haired – how many times have I heard “you re from Austria, I thought you were all blonde over there” (me having coal black hair). Uff..

I wouldn’t really have recommended buying both East Coast and Darshan’s Tribal NYC at the same time, but well, such advice is for sensible people and none of us is very sensible where DVDs are concerned!

But now that you’ve bought them, I’d start with East Coast and move to Tribal NYC later. I don’t think you need to wait until you finish with Amira Mor’s 101 but can go stright into East Coast as well. East Coast has a wonderful warm up and workout. The workout is very balanced, covering a bit of everything from head to toe, without using the moves in a way that can give you muscle pulls or sprains. I’ve used this workout for a long, long time before graduating to the more challenging tribal workouts (like Ariellah’s and Asharah’s — Asharah’s is essentially Suhaila’s). I still use East Coast as a quick warm up (35 mins) when I don’t want to get into a strength and conditioning type workout which will last anything up to 2 1/2 hours. East Coast will develop your range of motion and rein movements in to be isolated. It’s the first steps in isolations. Darshan’s makes a good next step. In fact, I think that’s pretty much how I sequenced it. Or it sequenced itself.

Rachel Brice’s Arms video is not soemthing I’d recommend if you are only planning to buy a few videos at this point. It’s something of a disappointment. If you’re getting into tribal full fledged, it might be nice, else there’s so much else to explore that will give you more. I don’t think it’s the ONE video to counter the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. That goes for every single bellydance video around. They all counter the effects of sitting around all day — provided you put in a good chunk of dance time. In short, there’s nothing earthshaking about it.

One dvd I found missing was Rachel Brice s arms instruction. you mentioned in your very interesting amazon review you were writing it from a “previewer”‘s stance without having worked with it a lot. Would you like to share your experience with this dvd?
I am thinking about getting it because many reviewers stated the benefits for people with a sedentary day time occupation..