![Modern Tribal Belly Dance, with Asharah: Beginner tribal fusion bellydance how-to, Belly dancing instruction (All Regions) (NTSC) [DVD] [2008]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EpXAQlwzL.jpg)
Product Description Created by Asharah, a star of tribal fusion belly dance, this program is a guide to developing skills for performing tribal fusion as well as a technique practice companion for all styles of belly dance. Modern Tribal Belly Dance opens with a warm-up and conditioning section (45 min.) that combines belly dance technique drills with a total body muscle conditioning workout. Strengthening exercises alternate with belly dance movement and yoga-based stretches. This great daily routine improves muscle tone and strength, prepares the body for dance, and promotes a stronger carriage for everyday life. The technique and isolations section (55 min.) flows through intermediate technique drills with a detailed breakdown of each movement. The drill sequences take each movement to the next level step-by-step through accelerating tempo changes. In the hipwork section, Asharah adds weight transfers, traveling steps, and level changes. One of the signature features of Asharah's dynamic and futuristic dance style is strobing, ticking, and robotic accents and freezes creating an impression of non-human, mechanical precision. In the Modern Tribal Movement section (30 min.) Asharah teaches this powerful and unique style of accent execution by breaking upper and lower body belly dance movements first into three and then into four segments, drilling each at accelerating speeds. Regular work using the conditioning exercises and drills from the previous sections of the program will make your body move with Asharah's clockwork precision! In the choreography section Asharah first demonstrates the six combinations that together make a dance, then breaks down each combination step-by-step. The choreography integrates belly dance technique and modern tribal movement taught earlier in the program. A calming cooldown (8 min.) concludes Asharah's instructional program to help recenter and relax the body. The DVD also contains two performances by Asharah, displaying her dramatic and futuristic dance style, that takes tribal fusion belly dance into a new realm. The instructional program is set to world electronic music by Maduro, and also features songs by breakcore and experimental artists Venetian Snares, Hecate, and Cdatakill. Review ANNE-MARIE SANCHEZ , French Bellydancer on Mar 17, 2008 This is an excellent DVD and I strongly recommend it; it achieves perfectly its goal which is to provide a technique practice companion and a guide to developing skills. Asharah did a great job with this very complete program , explaining very clearly the technique with all the information needed on what muscle to use, body alignment, where to place weight, do's & don't... The technique and isolation section is easy to understand but it's a working hard program. I especially liked the way of every move is worked with changes on weight and level. I also really liked the modern tribal technique section where I could finally find the secrets of how to do some robotic moves. I enjoyed a lot the choreography and the performance at the end of the DVD. Asharah is an awesome dancer, elegant, precise, gracefull with energy and power. I hope that there will be another DVD from her in the near future. --.com (US)
E**N
Solid exercise
I'll start by saying that Ashara seriously scares me. Some of the things she does with her hips are, honest to God, scary. Dropping-your-jaw-to-the-floor-in-admiration scary.This DVD is long. Three-freaking-hours long. There is:- "a vigourous warm-up" (45 minutes long),- a technique section (an hour) in which she revises a series of upper body and lower body isolations (including omis, vertical 8s and ¾ shimmies... in other words not for beginners),- a modern tribal section (30 minutes) in which she teaches how to break down those same movements into mechanical strobing and ticking,- a choreography (20 minutes),- a yoga-based cool-down (about 8 minutes).Now. I am not an athlete by any means but I'm not THAT out of shape, and I couldn't go past the warm-up. After finishing that wicked thing I usually bee-line for the cool-down (which itself contains some VERY difficult stretches).I give up: this programme is too hard for me.Now, after having clarified that, I'll say something objective.Good parts:1. It's long. And it's cheap. Bang for bucks: check.2. She is a very good instructor and the whole thing is follow-along, with a lot (and I mean a LOT) of repetitions per movement. I may one day use one of her technique sections, especially for the Suhaila-based ¾ shimmy.3. If you are into hard physical exercise, that's for you. It's definitely hard.4. If you are not into tribal, note that actually most of the material in the DVD can be used in any style. Only the last 50 minutes are more specifically tribal.6. Even in those sections, you can find interesting things. Ticking and mechanical movements require a lot of control and make for a really hard exercise and a tough drill. To make a long story short: you may never use them in you choreos, but by doing them you will be sharpening your technique in the `classic' movements.Some bad parts:1. Ashara doesn't really provide suggestions on how to modify the more difficult stretches. Something like "Only go as far as you can go in this straddle stretch". It's common sense and one can definitely think about by oneself, but it would be nice to have it reinforced by the teacher.2. Honestly, even if you ARE into hard exercise (which I'm not as a rule, but sometimes I just want to destroy myself), how can you possibly do 45 minutes of warm-up and conditioning AND a technique section? Barring the idea of doing the whole DVD at once, how are you supposed to use it? I'm not talking only of whether or not you have the stamina to go through two or three hours of INTENSE exercise, but what about the time? I personally don't have that much time. That's another reason why I never really went past the warm-up. 45 minutes warm-up + 8 minutes cool-down is already almost an hour. I can't dedicate much more to my workouts. It would have been better if Ashara had:- Divided the warm-up into two sections, a smaller one for warming-up and a longer one for conditioning (Ariellah does something like this). This way you would have had more 1-hour options. You could have done the whole warm-up and conditioning and finished with the cool-down. Or you could have done the short warm-up and one of the other three sections plus the cool-down. Only if you felt up to the challenge and had the time to spare you could have done a longer (and tougher) workout.- Included suggestions and instructions on how to use the video more effectively. Maybe it's not like that for most people, I don't know, but if I go to an instructor it's because I assume they know more than me, and I want to be thoroughly guided. I don't like the idea of just messing up with the movements and ending up doing things wrong. However this, to be fair, is a problem you have in a lot of bellydance videos. A lot of material but not a clear explanation on how to use it to make up your daily workouts.
C**E
Good, but not without flaws
I ordered this DVD based on the many 5 star reviews on Amazon.com, and probably had very raised hopes. Not that I thought it would magically make me dance as well as the pros overnight, but perhaps my expectations were somewhat unrealistic!The one thing the DVD does deliver on is the sheer quantity of material contained on one disc. Asharah's warm up is gruelling, and while it is very good with muscle conditioning (she does a LOT of squats. Oh god my thighs...) I was worried about the lack of time taken over stretching, especially since tribal style is heavily yoga influenced. Consequently I took a few pauses, not only to ease the burning in my muscles after a squillion push ups, but to stretch out to avoid hurting myself. She does explain the basic belly dance posture to protect he lower back but does not seem to offer much in the way of alternatives if you're not so stretchy or experienced. So, warm up gets 7/10 from me.On to isolations - I found this part helpful from a very beginner perspective if you're looking for basic tribal fusion technique. She covers most of the basic isolations you'll need in fairly good detail. Two problems:-When she repeats isolations it takes a while for her to find the beat; you may have to follow the music yourself and close your eyes.- She goes from medium, managable speed to double speed very quickly. I found that I'd only just got the hang of the isolations before being asked to do them double or quadruple speed, which was very difficult, and I am not an inexperienced dancer.She covers each isolation pretty rapidly, so I'd take what you learn and then do more extended drills in your own practise to really get familiar with the moves. Isolations/drills gets 8/10 - good explanations, but too fast too soon.The most helpful part for me (and the most interesting) was the modern technique that demonstrated ticking and strobing. Her explanations were clear and imaginative and well-paced too. I enjoyed trying something different and could see ways to work the techniques into other moves than solely the ones demonstrated (arm waves, chest isolations and hip figure 8s). This section gets a 10/10 for being easily the most fun and understandable.I wasn't amazingly impressed with her choreographies or performances because I am not a fan of the music choices she made. However I do appreciate that Asharah is a good dancer with impeccable technique, though the DVD performances felt a bit stiff to me. Again, that could be to do with my lack of connection to the music. Physically, Asharah is INSANELY fit but doesn't look like a terrifying bodybuilder which is nice to see.The reason the DVD gets only 3 stars is that for some reason I have a bad emotional reaction to it. This probably sounds ridiculous, but hear me out, please. Asharah is clear in her directions, but I found her voice grating and nervous, which set me on edge right from the start. I found the green and red backdrops harsh and the choice of practise music for all sections uncomfortable and slightly irritating. Coupling these factors with the speed Asharah changes gears (too fast for even intermediates) and the actual difficulty of the warm-up left me feeling frustrated and highly annoyed. I don't know about you, but when I dance I work best when I feel relaxed and at least halfway capable of doing what is being asked of me!Overall I would definitely buy this DVD if you are looking for a good intro into tribal fusion and some intense drilling and conditioning for intermediate dancers. I don't practise with it often, but use a lot of her techniques and drills in my own personal practise to music I enjoy dancing to. It's a great resource and has an incredible value for money... you just might want to mute it.
M**T
Easy to comprehend with good explained walk-troughs
i'm on belly dance class for 1 year and am a beginner with tribal belly dance.Ashara explains in a very comprehensible way the movements step-by-step. - the combinations are nice to look upon, but not to hard to learn with a little bit of practice.the basics are easy to understand.There are enough lessons to be occupied with this DVD for quite some time.It's pretty easy to understand even for Non-native-speakers - she speaks without any slang in a calm and easy to understand way.
H**A
Five Stars
Love it
L**M
Modern Tribal Bellydance
I am not a big expert of the modern tribal bellydance, but from what I saw in this video, it certainly suits my taste and I will gladly learn what it has to offer, because there is some interesting material.
A**R
Good workout BAD music
This DVD provides a good conditioning workout, quite challenging.Unfortunate choice of harsh background colours and rather extreme muisic choices made it a totall turn off for me.There's plenty of other DVDs that provide similar material without such gloomy setting.....
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