Your Online Belly Dancing Classes

This video is just a selection of moves from a new video from Leyla Jouvana, showing how to create Belly Dance Layers, but I think it give a good taster of what you can achieve.

You can purchase the full video on Amazon of Layers with Leyla

Amira Nagi is a dancer with Samadhi Tribal Fusion Belly Dance. Here she shows you how to perform a Circle Step Turn:

It’s a fairly basic move but the turning can really throw beginners.

I was listening to a Bond Cd the other day and thought that Senorita would be great to dance to…then I found this video. Someone beat me to it!

I have added this to the Intermediate category because, although it has been created for a beginner class, it does require a certain amount of knowledge of belly dance moves, plus you will need to break the moves down for yourself from the video.

Just love this music! And HUGE props to Ebony from Australia who is the choreographer of this piece. See more at the Ebony and Ivory channel on Youtube

Here’s another great belly dance warm-up video as well as another video from Everybody Bellydance:

This is a nice and gentle way to warm-up your muscles before dancing.

Don’t forget to check out Everybody Bellydance’s blog: http://www.everybodybellydance.com/

I’ve just found some great videos from Everybody Bellydance. They are recorded in Spanish but with English subtitles. This video shows some basic upper body isolations - the side-to-side torso movement:

Be sure to check out their website for more videos: http://www.everybodybellydance.com/

If you love Tribal Bellydance and are looking for a good instructional video, this one from East Coast Tribal is a popular choice. Featuring Sera and Soltice Dance Ensemble, it offers instruction and choreography for a range of experience levels:

The dvd is also good for muscle conditioning and combines elements of Ballet, Modern, American Tribal, jazz and hiphop.

Click here to view the Tribal Bellydance DVD details on Amazon

In this video Rania demonstrates some advanced choreography for the drum solo.

This video is supplied by beYOU.tv and all seven parts (over 30mins of video) can be viewed at http://www.beYOU.tv/videos/Rania-Advanced-Choreography-Drum-Solo

Zills or Sagat are finger cymbals that many belly dancers use while they are dancing.

Many people think of zills as props but they are actually musical instruments. A good quality zill will make a lot of difference to the sound quality and the contribution you make to the music.

This first video from Inanna Brint Ali introduces you to the Zills and tells you more about what to look for when buying:

Part 2 has not been posted yet to Revver but I will bring it to you as soon as it is.

Cassiopeia has many instructional videos on YouTube for all abilities. This is one of her beginners’ videos aimed at showing some basic moves - in this case hip lifts while pointing your foot in front of you and while moving, plus some arm movement.

You can learn more about Cassiopeia at her website http://bellyrolls.com/index.html and I hope to bring you more of her videos soon.

I personally believe that an important part of learning to Belly Dance is to watch other dancers at every opportunity. Some instructors don’t like this as they worry their students will feel they don’t match up and will never be good enough to perform. Please remember that every dancer was a beginner once, and the beauty of Belly Dance is that whatever your ability you have a contribution. The traditions of Belly Dance stem back to whole families and communities dancing together in celebration - whatever their age or ability - and that should be the same today.

With that in mind, I have added a category called Inspiration to the blog, which will include videos of dancers around the world performing. Feel free to suggest your own favorites, or videos of your own dance troupe.

The first video comes from one of my Belly Dancing newsletter subscribers, Kiki. She wrote:

I now am part of Shimmer Middle Eastern Dance Studio, and here in South Africa we have an Association which runs exams linked to the Dance Teachers Union - so am currently training for my grade 5 of 7, and simultaneously rehearsing furiously for a lovely dance festival weekend in June (Tamalyn Dallal is here that weekend).

We at Shimmer and our professional dance company “In Harem’s Way” have several clips on youTube and also on Facebook. If you would like to check us out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shimmer-Dance-Studio-In-Harems-Way-Dance-Company/14698751519 Feel free to become a fan :)- We need all of those we can get. Just click the link in the top sidebar of the page. Our studio website is www.freewebs.com/inharemsway and we have a very comprehensive gallery - I’d appreciate your comments!

So, go and check out their website and become a fan on Facebook, if you are a member.

The videos for In Harem’s Way cannot be embedded on the blog so you will need to visit YouTube to watch them. This is the video that Kiki likes the best out of their selection on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2kUdtSYeEc

Enjoy and be inspired!

Please add your comments and your own video links in the comments section below