VIDEO
My video choices can (almost) all be found on Amazon, where you can buy them at a cheaper price (usually) then belly dance-specific vendors online and often in person. For movies I would recommend checking out your local Media Play, it might be on sale. You never know. Comparison shop and save, you can spend your money on glittery baubles for your costume instead. The Fat Chance Belly Dance videos can be bought at FCBD website or your local belly dance vendor. EVERYONE should have FCBD vids.
Just found this out on the web - Dance of the Goddess, on DVD or tape. Looks fairly interesting, I watched her preview and it may be very worthwhile to buy this one. I may have to scrounge up thirty bucks for this vid.
I recently bought Dolphina's Warrior Goddess video. Strictly speaking not a belly dance, more a workout video. Apart from her fixation on New Agey speech, she's an excellent dancer and fun to follow along. Not a bad vid overall. Especially if you go in for New Agey stuff.
Chelydra's website. She has an amazing variety of videos for sale, for $25 each and most are over two hours. One drum solo video is over 5 hours long! They look pretty interesting, and just based on the LENGTH of these videos I'd say they're worth money. I've seen Chelydra dance live, and I am more convinced than ever that her videos would be great. She's a very nice person too.
Fat Chance: I own the Advanced Workshop and the Choreography videos and can STRONGLY recommend them. Excellent techniques, excellent videography (you can always see the move, from two angles by the way Carolena Nericchio, FCBD director, stands in front of the mirror. Very nice to watch), great music, performance segments, and fabulous advice. Go buy all you can afford! Jason of Kismet Dance in Sugarhouse, Salt Lake City Utah, recommended them to me, so thanks! He also recommended the other FCBD videos, although he did say the all-performance video was somewhat disappointing. I haven't seen it so I can't say.
Magical Motion, by Atea. I'm partial to Atea. She makes good videos. You can always hear her, the music is well-chosen, the camera doesn't focus on the dancers' faces and ignore the move they're demonstrating, and the performances are inspiring. I first saw this video five years ago, and promptly went out and bought two of her others (I couldn't find this one), which are:
Fast Moves and Slow Moves by Atea. Very good videos. I own both and enjoy watching them, particularly Atea's sword performance in Slow Moves. Very nice.
Alexandra King, Ancient Art of Oriental Belly Dancing volumes 1 and 2. I wouldn't recommend them for an absolute beginner, but they're entertaining for a professional, and useful for anyone wanting to learn classic American 7-part cabaret. Worth ten bucks I suppose.
The Goddess Workout with Dolphina. I haven't seen this one myself, but it has gotten very good reviews. Dolphina is sort of the belly dance instructor to the stars (because she's pretty or because she's good? You be the judge). This biases me against her. But I withhold judgment until I actually get a hold of her video and review it myself. Who knows, maybe she's as good as she looks.
A Night at the Casablanca. This is on my wish list. It's a performance video which I'm told I must see. Evidently it is very well done. I love watching other dancers (particularly if they're any good) so I will have to come up with the money for this. Or beg my betrothed to buy it for me :P
Egyptian Dancing with Hilary Thacker. Once again, I hear good things about Hilary Thacker's dancing and the production quality of her videos. This is top on my wish list over at Amazon. I desire this video greatly. I would be very grateful to anyone who bought me this video (hint hint!).
No Guts (And Proud of It). I haven't seen this one either, but it's supposed to be very good. Pink Gypsy's got a sale on this video, and the Seven Veils performance video by the same girls (Rooshana and friends). Go to my links page to get there. No Guts is, I hear, very funny and well-produced. I would like to see this one.
Cheri Berens' videos. I'd like to see all four of these, and when her advanced video comes out maybe I'll splurge... They're long! $44 for 120 minutes in the case of the beginner video, the rest are the same price for 80 minutes.
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. This movie I can recommend you HIGHLY! It is extremely good, lavish and beautiful sets and costumes. Despite the title, it isn't a sex movie. It's about sex and politics, but it's not... well you know. Set in 16th century India, and cast by some beautiful people (rent it and drool over the sculptor), it's worth seeing for the costumes alone. The scenery where this is filmed is FANTASTIC! I truly love this movie. It also has an incredibly fantastic soundtrack which is perfect for... (you guessed it) BELLY DANCING!
I have the soundtrack and let me tell you it is fabulous. Definitely buy the soundtrack, and at least RENT the movie (it's usually filed under drama). On the soundtrack, my personal favorites are "Maya's Theme", "Jewel of the Gutter", and "Examining".
This seems like a good segue into.........
MUSIC!
One of George Abdo's CDs, always a good choice. Looks like Maria Callas on the cover!
