Reen.Blom

It is actually so great that there are new DVDs coming out every year that there is quite a selection at an affordable price!

Where is my Christmas list???? LOL

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Michelle A

I'm also addicted to the DVD's
Here's what I have.

Amira's Bellydance 101, great 1st DVD, very basic
Jenna's Basics and Beyond, Heartbeat of BellyDance, these are my favorites of the collection, still use them almost every practice.
Neena & Veena's Discover BellyDance series. Ok, but slow and boring. I actually do them on fast forward
Ansuya's Magic of Bellydance (mostly choreo) it's OK
Ansuya's Hot Combos & All New Hot Combos, I like these.
Ansuya's Lavish Layers & Luscious Layers, they're ok, I was hoping for something more/different from her. I took a layering workshop from Aubre Hill and it was so awesome. Aubre should be coming out with an instructional DVD soon and I will buy it.
Jillina's level 1, ok for the choreo, I don't prefer her teaching style, I doubt that I'll pick up 2 or 3.
Neon's Instant Bellydancer 1&2, first impression was aweful, but I try them again every few months. It's too fast pace for a real beginner, but she does get you combining moves and travelling.
Aziza's Veil, haven't used much yet.
Ava Fleming's Dynamic Combos, I really like this one, lots of useful steps for travelling.
Rania's Bellydance fitness for weight loss series, Jane Fonda-ish aerobic routine with bellydance moves. IMO these will only reinforce bad habits. I only use her bonus workout material (probably should have tried to get my $ back)
Suhaila's Bellydance fitness fusion, these ones are great, maybe someday I'll be able to do a whole DVD in one session
Rachel Brice's Yoga, Isolations and drills. I skip the yoga but I love her drills. Another one that I practice with very often.

Rachel Brice's Arms & Posture: a lot of you are asking about this one.
1. Preparation (warmup, stretches)
2. Dance movement preparation (short workout, squats)
3. Shoulder sequence (shoulder workout)
4. Examples of arm placement in dance (breakdown of a few shoulder moves)
5. Practical applications (short choreo using moves above)
6. Ending stretches
7. Performance
Great DVD, if her style is what you're trying to achieve. Every move is definitely "Rachel". She does a wonderful job breaking it all down and showing how to put it together. Not too much yoga on here, which is good for me. Performance was disappointing though, as usual with her too many angle changes/single body part close-ups, etc. I do wish she would smile sometimes.

Reen.Blom

Thank you for Rachel's DVd review!

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fadua21

Let's see: I have S. Salimpour fitness series for BD,
Rania series,
Amira Amohr (spelling?),
Neon,
Dolphina,
Jenna Basics and Beyond,
Jenna Heartbeat of Bellydance,
Neena and Veena,
Jillina, the series,
Bellydance for wimps

My favorites: Suhaila Salimpour and Jenna
My least favorites, Dolphina and Rania
The rest of them...just... I don't know...

Aziyade

I broke the 300 mark a while back -- but I include some Flamenco and Persian dance and folkloric stuff too. Want the whole list? It's a monster.

Do you ever regret selling your videos? I sold some performance videos once because they were mostly American Cabaret style, and I wasn't into that at the time. Now I wish I had them back.

Oba Bear

Yes. I agree with you on the performance. BDSS need to learn to quit being so artsy with their camera cuts.

I agree with everything else you listed too. I just wish she add maybe one or two more combinations to work with too. But still it had an excellent breakdown of her serpentine style. I learned just by watching it myself.

Michelle A

I haven't sold any yet, I loaned out Amira's DVD because it was so basic but I already want it back for the performance.

Aziyade, you often mention Suhaila level 2, I was wondering if you have all of her DVD's, if you could list them and a quick review of what they offer? I'm thinking of getting some because I do like her teaching style on the fitness series, but haven't been able to find any real reviews of the material.

Thanks in advance

nefetari

i do not juse trainings videos...im more of a person how like to learn personally..

Aziyade

Ah, sorry about that. I tend to think she's universal and she's not

When I refer to Level 2 material, I'm not talking about any videos or dvds (YET!) What I mean is the stuff she teaches in her Level 2 workshops, and the things in the manual to help you pass the Level 2 test. Basically, a lot of Level 2 is rudimentary layering, and being able to do 2 things on your body at once.

The Fitness Fusion series is the closest you'll get to her "Level" or Certification material. Those dvds are sort of like level .5 LOL

Her older choreography videos are cute, but plain old Am Cab and were produced before she really formulated her method, but the 3rd one "Advanced" does a little of the layering.

And by layering, I'm talking about doing 2 things at once, but not necessarily layering a shimmy over everything. Like, in one of the old Black and White movies, Nabaweya Moustafa does a horizontal hip figure 8, and layers little tiny hip drops on top of it. It's such a cute move I HAD to steal it! LOL. I'm sure she wasn't the first either!

Does that help any? If not, I can be overly descriptive, as usual

Michelle A

That's exactly what I needed to know! I got a taste of layering moves from Aubre Hill's workshop (she still studies w/Suhaila) and I'm looking for more! She was talking about muscle sharing of the moves, etc. Another one we worked on was layering omi's and reverse undulations, very cool. Your review of Michelle Joyce's DVD on Bhuz sounds like it might be what I'm looking for, any others to suggest?

Thanks again