I normally don’t buy dance or exercise videos, because exercise (and dance) for me is a communal activity.  I have several yoga videos just gathering dust (but that’s another blog).  However, I recently got a great deal on Belly Dance videos from a woman who posted them on Craigslist.  For only $5 each, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.  Plus, since I’ll only be teaching one class a week during the Winter, I figured I needed something to fall back on to keep my waist from expanding. 

I took this video with me to visit a friend in an assisted living center who likes to dance with me, and we both had a lot of fun.  We didn’t have time to watch the whole costume workshop, but it has a wealth of information about Turkish Costuming.  Sarah also sprinkles nuggets of information about Turkish culture throughout the video, which I liked.  My friend and I chose the option of having instruction followed by putting it to music, and slowly adding the pieces together.  It was very well done and easy to follow.  Sarah teaches the step combination three times, then has you do it with music twice, then starts the music at the beginning, so you can add the new piece in.  The choreography was so fun!  You can also select an instruction-only option (no putting it to music or building the choreography).

I’ve only bought one other video before this, one by Neena and Veena, and was so disappointed with it (more aerobics than Belly Dance) that I just gave it away.  However, my experience with this video has made me more open to trying other videos during the lean times of less teaching and no Treasure Valley Workshops with visiting instructors.