Belly Dance Resources to explore

I made this list for my Morgantown students, but the websites are great for belly dancers everywhere.

Belly Dance Resources to explore!

1.     *Narah’s website- www.TribalBellyDance.net – belly dance history, costuming info, DVD, music and practice recommendations, WV Belly Dancer directory, and a market place where you can purchase Narah’s DVD’s- 

      Okhtee, a joint performance project with her sister Jala. Beautiful studio setting; improvisational duets and solos and a zill choreography!; Fire of the Soul, a compilation of performances from Narah’s 2005 tour featuring many styles and props, bonus performances of her with her student troupe, The Tribe of Fire; Narah and Jala’s Tribal Fusion Belly Dance Technical Foundation Instructional DVD- great to practice with at home! Insures you don’t forget what you learned and helps build skills as you repeat. Get the same instruction at home to reinforce what you learned in class!

2.     *WVU Belly Dance club- Free and open to the community at large. Meet other belly dancers from Morgantown, discuss events, arrange carpools, show off/see costuming in person, watch video segments and more! Next meeting sometime this summer. Face Book group here  

3.     *Online WV and Morgantown Belly Dance communities -  www.wvbellydance.ning.com – meet other wv bellydancers, learn about statewide and regional events, help the community grow and learn with discussions and more!

4.     *Drum class at the Monongalia Arts Center, 107 High St., Morgantown. Classes are the 2nd Saturday of every month at the Monongahelia Arts Center at 107 High St. from 10:30am to noon. Cost $15 each for facility rental. Learn rhythms essential to understanding belly dance music to increase your dancing skills! Sometimes they bring in people to teach and sometimes they just meet and learn from each other. Asta is helping run this group and will be involved in the wvu belly dance club as well.

5.     *Suhaila Salimpour’s website - www.therealsuhaila.com  - articles, marketplace to purchase performance and instructional DVD’s, music and costuming; great vintage video footage of Jamila Salimpour, director of Bal Anat, the first Tribal Belly Dance troupe, under “the Salimpour legacy- Jamila”.

6.     *Shira’s website- www.Shira.net  - a plethera of information on belly dance! Everything from a teacher directory, costuming information, belly dance dvd and music reviews, song lyrics, history, articles, and much more.

7.     *Fat Chance Belly Dance’s website- www.fcbd.com  - troupe directed by Carolena Niriccio, creator of American Tribal Style and Improvisational Choreography! great marketplace where you can purchase Tribal DVD’s, music, books, costuming and more. I got a great deal of my library from Carolena. Please tell her Narah (though she will probably recognize Kimberly Arrington) sent you!

8.     *Other dancers of interest- Jill Parker/Ultra Gypsy/Fox Glove Sweethearts (highly responsible for starting Tribal Fusion movement)- http://www.myspace.com/foxglovesweethearts  ; Urban Tribal Dance Company (highly responsible for contributing to and developing the Tribal Fusion movement)- www.UrbanTribalDance.com  ; Morocco- many years of research, study and experience have made her one of the most respected belly dancers in the US. www.casbahdance.org ; Zafira (www.zafiradance.com ; Pittsburgh, PA) and Awalim (www.awalim.com ; Atlanta, GA) –friends of mine key in helping develop East Coast/World Tribal Style

9.     *New Beginner’s class starts June 2nd through WVU’s Community Arts Program. 5 weeks/$50; I highly recommend repeating the beginner’s class since you will pick up so much more than the first, second, etc. time around when you were too blown away by the newness of it to hear all I said, or feel all you will later. J