Are there any voice instructional DVDs?

Any recommendations for instructional belly dancing DVDs?

• I'm looking for DVDs on instructional bellydance but would like any suggestions before plunking money down on a video a beginner has no luck keeping up with. Any recommendations? Thanks!

• Answer:

  For quality instruction do not buy any of the cheap stuff you can get from retail stores such as target, wal-mart, borders, barnes & noble, etc... The price is nice but you get what you pay for. If your an absolute beginner you need something that teaches you proper positioning and body alignment. Veena and Neena's video's are not designed to teach you bellydance they are more of a workout video which was designed for dancers who want a daily workout to follow. They do offer some instruction in how to do the moves only so that anyone can follow along. However the quality of the instruction on the video's is not god for an absolute beginner (their teaching quality is different in person, I'm not saying their bad teachers just that th videos are not going to fully meet your needs). I would recommend the Pricision Motion Workout by Suzanna Del Vecchio which I believe she re-released into a DVD format a few years ago. This video spends a lot of time breaking down the movements and focusing on positioning, body alignment, and more but also has a sort of follow along exercise potrion as well. It is more expensive than the Veena and Neena DVDs but is so much better for begginer instruction. A live teacher is much better of course and if you can find one I would recommend that over any DVD. The Jillina DVDs will be far to difficult for you at this point even the biginner or level 1 DVD. The Rania and Suhaila Salimpour DVDs are also designed as a workout not to teach bellydance and the teaching quality they do have is not very good and not representative of what those instructors offer in real life they are much better in person. However the DVDs they released (all of these were produced by the same company by the way) offer sub-standard instruction and focus on exersize. These two series also are fusion DVDs meaning your not learning bellydance but a bellydance mixed with something else (which in my opinion does not always seem to work well together in their vieos) Check out some of my previous posts for a list of resources for bellydancers to use as it will come in handy for you. Also, check out my site: http://www.middleeasterndance.net for teacher listings, movement descriptions, zill info, video reviews, and much more. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me.