A t i s h e h. Dance. Fitness. Joy.
dance and fitness views and reviews
You get a zills DVD. Or you go to class. And suddenly you are learning ten different rhythms, trying to layer them onto movements, and feeling that it’s all impossible. At least, if you’re me. I’ve done a bit of both, and most of the time, I can’t figure out how I’m going to get … Continue reading Review of Aslahan’s Taming Your Zills
Belly Dance Drum Solos: Concepts for Dancers and Drummers is an intermediate/advanced level instructional DVD put out by dhavir productions. It also happens to be very, very good. It is rich in material, innovative in its pedagogy, and will give the intermediate or advanced student tons to work with. But let’s get one little thing out of the … Continue reading Review of Belly Dance Drum Solos with Mariyah and Faisal Zedan
Dear readers, this is my very first CD review, so I decided to make it easy on myself. Masters of Bellydance Music is a ridiculously good, one-great-song-after-another, endlessly listenable album. See? That was easy. Okay, I guess you probably want to hear a little more. Masters of Bellydance Music is a compilation of fourteen tracks … Continue reading Review of Masters of Bellydance Music
My dear readers, I’ve been a busy dancer. I had an incredibly intense week about a month ago — lots of work, lots of kid, lots of dancing in the evenings, either in class or with a video or doing improv, and then on top of that, a super Saturday of workshops with Cihangir Gümüstürkmen. … Continue reading Veil and Drum Solo Workshops with Aisa Lafour, and other dance notes
There’s a bit of a story to this review. A long time ago, in a bookstore far, far away, I found a DVD in the discount section called Belly Dance – Total Workout For Body Shaping (don’t buy from this link, but do read the comments!) It was three bucks, it didn’t look too promising, … Continue reading Review of Samra’s Shimmyrobics
I recently started working with Carmine Guida’s Baby Beginner Doumbek Workshop, a super basic and gentle introduction to the doumbek. As I wrote in the earlier post, I don’t think it makes sense to try and learn all these rhythms in a day: for beginners as rhythmically-challenged as myself, that’s a hopeless proposition! Cross training … Continue reading Doumbek follies continue: it’s time to take off the wedding ring
Take enough bellydance classes, listen to enough Middle Eastern music, and eventually you have to come to terms with a simple fact: you’re going to have to learn to recognize and dance to the rhythms. DOUM! Now, I’m guessing that for most people this is not a hardship. Then again, most people can clap in … Continue reading Working with Carmine Guida’s Baby Beginner Doumbek Workshop
