A few years back I traveled to Michigan to have a rare occassion in being part of a 2 day workshop with Suhaila Salimpour.  The workshop was amazing and there were many things that I came away with after the two days were over.  Suhaila is very well known for her technique and glute squeezes.  Suhaila is where I learned that in order to have better control over the movements and for them to be sharper it must be down with muscle.  We spent at least the first hour warming up followed by strengthening our arms legs, quads, glutes and stomachs.  Then moving on to glute squeezes standing followed by a series of different rhythms and foot patterns with ups or downs and so on.  We also spent several hours each day on zills.  The workshop was very fast paced and it was necessary to keep up.  I must say it was really hard but I was able to keep up with the class as we were all covered in sweat and sheer exhaustion!  At the end of the workshop which would have been Sunday evening, I was so sore I could hardly move!  It was amazing though and it is one of those workshop moments that I will never forget.  It was very exhilarating and even though I was tired I had a surge of energy going though me.  Suhaila is a 2nd generation belly dancer, her mom who is Jamila Salimpour and was the first her was the orginator of tribal belly dance in america. (http://suhailainternational.com/Jamila.php)

Click on the link below to watch a performance of Suhaila:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nIKBQ5ozZU

Photo by WG Images