>This week we are going to focus on Belly Dance Village and Leyla Najma.  Leyla Najma has over 25 years of experience in Middle Eastern Dance and even got the chance to study in Egypt. She has traveled literally around the world with her dancing this has given  her a big advantage and edge as she has a wealth of knowledge under her belt and she shares her knowledge openly with other dancers.  Leyla has over 17 years of experience in teaching belly dance; nowadays it is hard to find a teacher with that much experience; she is a definite gem in the belly dance community.  If a dancer asks me who are some of the teachers I should work with Leyla Najma is at the top of my list!  I have been working with Leyla Najma since 2008 and she has given me so much invaluable information and has taught me so much in regards to the dance!  I truly believe that if I did not come across her website back then I would not be where I am today! Through Leyla’s curriculum, guidance and her love not only to the dance but her students she has helped me really grow as a dancer.  Leyla has given me advice, confidence and sometimes a swift kick in the butt when I needed it.  Everything a aspiring student needs in order to succeed in this dance.  Belly Dance Village was one of the very first to come out with online training and they are still going strong and there are a number of reasons why!

Belly Dance Village offers the best training, curriculum and support then any other online training has. They have been very successful and still continue to grow.  Belly Dance Village  is a husband and wife team which of course includes Leyla and the belly dance husband, Dan.  Leyla and Dan are both very passionate, dedicated and have  a wealth of knowledge that truly shows throughout the website.  When they say never get stuck; they truly mean it.  I have talked with Leyla countless of times over the phone on numerous issues that I was stuck on with her help I was able to always get the creative juices flowing again.  That is not all though; both Leyla and Dan have been there for me when a situation arises and I need their advice on dance or if my personal life comes crashing down they have been there for me too.  Belly Dance Village is a community just like you would get in a real live class, but it is online!  I have made several friendships just through being a member and I cannot say this with any other online training.  Belly Dance Village is very personal; wanting to hear and help  their students!

Leyla is such an inspiration to all of her students she has such passion and commitment and has dedicated herself 101%!  Dan is the tech guy and if you ever have an issue on the website he usually has it taken care of within minutes!  Dan is also who designed my website and I am constantly calling or emailing him with issues or problems I may have.  He is so on top of things it amazes me!

Belly Dance Village offers tons of videos from Beginner to Intermediate and advanced focusing on anywhere from soft movement to sharp, layering, transitions, speed, drilling, choreography, shimmies, traveling steps and so much more! She has tons of articles and also has interviews with other dancers! You get free music to download to use for practicing! Right now she is offering 10 days access to 35 videos for just $1.00!! After that is is just 17.00 a month!! That is truly the best bargain!! Leyla really makes everything easy to understand! Click on the link below and check her out! Leyla is a true gem in the belly dance community and I am so lucky to have her in my life and that I have been given the opportunity to be a member of belly dance village! I have learned so much from her and she amazes me each day!

Click on the link below and check it out better yet sign up today!

Online training is it for you?  We are in the 3rd part of this discussion and I hope by the time I am finished I have given you enough information so you can decide for yourself if online training is a good fit for you.  This week we will be talking about Datura Online.  Datura is the brain child of the one and only Rachel Brice.  The link to the website is here:  http://daturaonline.com/.  I am currently a member of her online training for at least a few months now.  Datura has not been up and running very long but they already have over 100 videos to choose from.  Datura features just a few of the best dancers some of which reside in Portland.  Datura offers a variety of styles from Cabaret, Egyptian, Tribal Fusion, ATS.  The website also offers things such as yoga, pilates and strength training!  It is literally a one stop for most of your needs.

Datura offers online classes with not only Rachel Brice, herself but other instructors as follows:

• Rachel Brice the owner of Datura is a Tribal Fusion Dancer and I have always been captivated by the way she moves!  I love her classes she focuses on strong hip work, yoga and all of the other elements that goes into tribal fusion.
• Sedona Soulfire is one of my favorites and she is an American Cabaret Dancer I love her simplicity, style and how she explains things.
• Amy Sigil is another teacher and she has her own style her focus is on Improvisational Tribal Style she is a her classes are very challenging and in her classes you will get an introduction and breakdown of her style that she has been very hard at creating.
• Zoe Jakes is a tribal fusion dancer and I have dabbled in a few of her classes; she focuses on strong technique and is a motivator.
• Collette Todorov is an ATS dancer American Tribal Style I have taken quite a few classes and she breaks everything down easily and tells you how to work as a group and what the standard signals are with ATS.  She gives you a good understanding of ATS style.
• Henna is one of the newest ones featured on Datura and she is an American Cabaret Dancer, but also teaches Egyptian.  I have taken a few of her videos and I have come away with something new each and every time.

Datura online offers an unlimited subscription to watch all videos as much as you want for a monthly payment of 35.00 a month and can be cancelled at anytime if you choose to do so.  Datura also offers being able to rent videos on an individual basis for 1.99 which is how I started out before I realized I was spending more then the monthly fee so it was to my benefit to sign up for that.

Datura does not offer a free trial but on each video you do get to preview any where from a minute to 2 minutes.  There individual pricing is so low that just buying one or two would give you an idea if it would be a good fit for you without putting to much money up front.  With each video they tell you what music is being used and if you want to purchase the music you can also download it.

The website is very easy to get around and they have at least one/two new videos uploaded quite often and the library already has about 100 videos to choose from.

What I like about Datura online is that they offer different styles from different teachers so you get a really good perspective  of all styles, it is like having my own workshop right in my home.  This being said though, online teaching is a great tool to use, but cannot replace what you can get from a live teacher.  There is something to be said about going to a belly dance class with other students and having a teacher in front of you telling you what you are doing wrong and helping in correcting your technique or movement. This is one thing that online training cannot do for you so if you are a brand new student with not experience at all with belly dance then how do you know you are doing it right?  Well, you don’t know, you can only guess.   Online for me is just another tool for me, but does not replace learning from what I call live teachers.

I also wanted to tell you that none of these teachers have asked me to write about there online training.  As a teacher myself, I feel it is my job to let you know what is out there and try and give you as much information so you can get the best for your money.

This ends the third part of online training.  Next time I will focus on Belly Dance Village and Leyla Najma.  I have known Leyla for about 6 years now and she was one of the first to do online training.  That is all for now and stay tuned as we talk about Belly Dance Village and Leyla Najma!!

Online training is in demand more today then ever, but it makes me wonder in other dance forms is there such a high demand for online training?  Why is it with Belly Dance that the demand seems higher?  Is it the fact, that belly dance is not taken seriously? Self Esteem Issues? These are just a few things that come to mind and we will talk about these issues at a later date.

Last week was the first part of our online training and I went into depth with what Suhaila Salimpour offers.  This week the focus will be on Karen Barbee Adkisson.  Her online classes are called Belly Dance for Fun via:  http://www.karavansa.com/purchase-online-classes.  I was a member of her online classes and even though at the time there were not many videos I found value with each of them.  Karen is a fitness guru and she talks a lot about muscle and technique.  She has about 25 years experience in the field and therefore has a lot of knowledge under her belt.  Karen really knows her stuff!   She explains the movement and breaks it down very well.   Karen has a great sense of humor and there were times I found myself laughing with her.

Karen offers two different types of online subscription a basic and premier package.  The basic package cost 24.99 a month and is limited. You will get the core basic videos which focus on technique and movement, her most recent Khoreography classes.  The premier package is a cost of 44.99 which involves everything she has to offer this will get you to all technique and Khoreography videos, improvisation, Belly Dance talk and any other special videos.  This equals out to about 100 videos in the library.

Belly Dance for Fun offers a free 30 day trial for the basic package.  This is nice so you can see if you are going to like her classes before you decide to spend the money.  You can log in as many times as you want as to their is no limit and watch the videos as many times as you need to as well.

At this point and time I am not a member any longer but, I did find her classes of value and I always took something away from her classes.  Her classes are challenging which is one of the  many things that I liked about her classes.  I even was able to attend some of her live online classes and her Belly Dance talk live classes and I really felt I was there a part of class.  The classes where very informative and I always looked forward to being able to learn from Karen.

This concludes part 2 of the online training in the next few weeks we will talk about Rachel Brice’s Datura Online classes and last but not least, Leyla Najma “Belly Dance Village.”  I know some of you have heard me talk about Leyla and she will be the last piece of the puzzle on my online training.

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!!  Please feel free to share!

When I first started Belly Dancing the standard was to go to a class on a weekly basis and then work at home trying to remember what you learned.  The other options where to buy a DVD and hope that what you purchased was of value and worth the price in the end most just ended up sitting on a shelf creating dust.  Technology, Internet, IPhones and such has made an impact on where and how we can learn to dance, but we still must take caution because there is instruction out there that you have to be careful with and are not the best.  Some leave you with false hope and promises such as “Become a professional Belly Dancer in less then 6 weeks” or all you have is a video with no coaching or support.

I have used online training for the past 6 years in conjunction with taking workshops to advance my training and career.  Since I started the online training has skyrocketed! So what is out there?  Here is my list and pros and cons of each I hope this list helps you in making the right decision on online and remember the best way to learn is going to an actually class, but online will help further your dance, use it as another outlet.

Suhaila Salimpour Online Classes:  http://www.suhailaonlineclasses.com/

Suhaila was one of the first Belly Dancers I saw when I just started taking lessons.  Her skills, movement and style intrigued me I was blown away by her dancing and I actually had the chance to do a weekend workshop with her years ago before she had an online class.  Her workshop was brutal, I had never sweated so much in my entire life, but I was happy and on cloud nine the whole weekend!  Every part of my body ached at the end of the weekend!  I was elated though and you would have thought I had earned a gold medal!  In my mind; I did!!

Suhaila offers a 3 day trial for her online classes so you can try it out first.  This is good because it will give you for a feel of her curriculum and to see if you like it enough to move forward with a subscription.  She offers 100+ online classes and each one is filmed live out of her studio and is recorded.  She has three different levels; 1, 2 & 3 and also offers Folkloric Fusion, Dance Movement and Jamila Format Classes. Suhaila’s format is one of a kind and is her own that she has developed over the years.

Level 1:

She teaches you the basics, her terminology and the movement is broken down and very clear she leads you through a warm-up, technique section, drills and then usually ends with a combination.

Level 2:

Once you learn the basics this level is more advance adding footwork, advance movement and so forth.  You must have a good understanding and able to do level 1 before moving to this level.

Level 3

This level is for those who have been certified in level 1 to have access.  It is more advanced and complicated using zills, footwork, muscle contractions and more.

Folkloric Fusion class you will do zill work with movement

Dance Movement is a mixture of ballet, jazz and modern dance and will just add to your belly dancing

Jamila Format Classes

“Jamila Salimpour, the American matriarch of belly dance, was the first belly dance teacher to create a specific format of movements with individual names for each step. The steps she created are now the majority of belly dance movements taught today. Her format was the inspiration and foundation of what later became known as American Tribal Style. Jamila is also the master of finger cymbals. The class begins with playing cymbal patterns and then moves on to practicing moves in a circle around the room. Be prepared to use cymbals the entire class. Each class is different and invaluable as far as developing both dance and finger cymbal skills, as well as learning the history of belly dance movements in America.” taken from Suhaila online.

Subscriptions

She also offers a 3 day free trial so you can check out her videos and classes.  There are also choreographies that you can learn that cost extra on top of the membership fee.

I was a member of Suhaila online for a little over 2 years just recently I cancelled due to lack of money.  It is one of the more expensive online trainings but definitely one to think about.  Instruction is top notch and there are new and updated videos that are added all the time!  This is the first part of my online training blog  as to their are others out there.  My focus is to educate you on the best ones and then for you to make your decision on what fits best for you.

For those of you in my classes I do use some of her technique specifically the glute squeezes and a few of her other strength training exercises we have done in warm ups and drills so you will be familiar with her structure and technique to a point.

I would love to hear your comments or questions!!!

Be on the look out for Part 2!!

Photo above:  Courtesy of NightWing Photography

Over the last few months I knew that I had wanted to make some changes to my curriculum, but I did not know what direction I wanted to take or what changes.  After many weeks of thinking and brain storming it hit me as I was preparing to introduce a Belly Dance Class at our local YMCA.  I needed something that would catch people’s attention and at the same time described what my classes would be about.  As it began to piece together I sat at my kitchen table and realized that most of what we do is hip work; layered on by other movement such as traveling, accents and so forth.  So I thought to myself ok Hips, but Hips what??  I continued to brain storm and asked myself what do I want my students to achieve out of my curriculum and I came up with being able to effortlessly move from one movement to the next the hips being the core and icing the cake with other movements.  That is when I came up with Luscious Hips and started to develop the curriculum.  I ended up with 8 weeks of solid curriculum, tested it out myself and then took it to my students and tried it out.

The goal is still to drill a movement, but also learn to travel with that movement and to put movements together much quicker but drilling so it becomes natural in the body.  For instance,  the first week we started out with the Egyptian drilled it then added hips up in place first drilling then putting it together by moving with it and going from basic Egyptian to Egyptian with hips up.  Each week we add movement and always review the weeks before.  What happens is that it becomes progressive so if a student misses a class they may miss out.  This curriculum also helps with transitioning and putting moves together which seems to be very common in most students.  There will be at least 3 different levels or more and once a student is finished then they will be tested on their knowledge before they can move to the next level.  This is not a learn belly dance quick approach I wanted to make that clear.

My current students seem to enjoy the new curriculum and the class is going over very well at the YMCA, we are getting geared up for week 3 and they are all doing well and learning!

The Picture above was taken by NightWing Photo!  We had about 500 shots in 3 hours it was a wonderful, but exhausting!