Here’s a list of videos that have chiftitelli choreographies or moves. I’m also including ones that don’t necessarily take up chiftitelli but are helping me dance better to the rhythm and improvise to it. These are just videos in my own collection and there probably one or two out in the wild that I haven’t bought. Yet. This little list also doesn’t include any Greek and Turkish instruction that may be out there. Tsiftetelli or Çiftetelli, since it’s a Greek-Turkish rhythm and dance.
Neon’s Dance Today Bellydance has a chiftitelli choreography. Although she makes it sound easy, it isn’t. Rather than being slow and extremely sensual, it’s actually a little angelic. All the same, every move in that choreography will be useful if you’re trying to build up a mental bank of chifti moves and combinations to draw upon. And while they’re very Neon-styled or Neonized, you can tweak them easily. In any case, only Neon looks like Neon.
Hadia’s Volume 2 video has a chiftitelli instruction. She goes straight into teaching you a collection of moves, most of which focus on accenting the 5-6-7 of the rhythm. Again, good stuff to draw upon and make your own.
Blanca’s Sensual Bellydance isn’t specifically a chiftitelli instructional, but it has a wealth of moves, poses and stylization that would fit chiftitelli wonderfully, if you were just to work on accenting the rhythm.
Suzana del Vechio’s Dynamic Combinations DVD has a standing taqsim sequence and some chiftitelli moves. Suzanna is clinically precise and moves fast with her instruction with moves that are not particularly easy though they are very nice.
Alexandra King has a DVD (Volume 2) that has some moves meant for chiftitelli. But the video is a poor quality one overall and I’m never very sure what to say about it.
Amira Mor is not one of my favorite video instructors. She dances well but I don’t find the teaching on her many videos well-thought-through. Her Dance Your Way to Your Soul has slow sensual moves that are very nice
In Shamira’s Sensuous Workout 2, one of the three dance sessions is to the chiftitelli rhythm which then gives way to the saiidi. But this is a beginner video and the chiftitelli is incidental to the bigger purpose learning the basics. All the same, it’s rather nice that you are introduced to four rhythms early on.
Suhaila Salimpour, the absolute queen of belly dancing, has a DVD on taqsim moves in her Jamila archive series. This is an old video and nowhere near the quality of today’s slick DVDs in production. But in it, Suhaila, then only 16 I’m told, teaches the basic slow moves in wonderful detail. Each weight change and undulation is explained. By now many others will have taken this instruction into their own videos, but this one is still wonderful to eatch and learn from. It’s a short DVD compared with todays and there are no real combinations etc. Just the basics — the eights, big hip circle, some undulations etc.
Thanks for putting this list together, Mala. You always break the content of dvds down so well! All the work you put into your reviews is definitely appreciated by those of us looking for an opinion we can trust.
You know, I’m never sure what to think of Alexandra King’s videos either, at least after the first viewing. I think it’s because she doesn’t break things down in enough detail to be truly suitable for beginners, but the material isn’t difficult enough for more advanced dancers. That said, whenever I go back and watch them, I end up adopting a LOT of her material into my core repertoire because it’s so classic (her veil wrap in vol 1 is my standard).
I think that’s probably right: it’ll take getting a little more familiar with the material in Alexandra’s videos to figure out what the take away is and this may differ a lot depending on your level. I just wish I could do the backbend she teaches. I was wondering how one prepares for that.