[Varuza]

I have read Shira's amazing and long instructional DVD list, as well as many of the threads here, but I'm still feeling undecided.

I have been very happy with the *content* on Belly Dance for Core Fitness from WorldDance New York, but have had a lot of problems with the format. While I like my current teacher, I do have some frustrations, since I started the class late (didn't know it even existed until my mom pointed out an ad in the newspaper). We did do some instructional learning (as opposed to repetitions of the choreography) this past visit, but normally, all we do is a warm-up and then choreography. What I really liked about the DVD I had was the in depth explanations of the muscles, and how and why they move, as well as how to avoid injury. I have not had much of that in class.

Unfortunately, I've had nothing but problems with the technical side of this DVD. The first version did not work at all. I got a replacement, and everything was going along fine for the first part of the tutorial... then it got all buggy and acted as though it were heavily scratched. I looked, but didn't see any scratches, and I tried cleaning it... but no luck. It still doesn't work. When I wrote to Amazon, they said it was a widespread problem and that they could not replace it a second time (but they will refund me the full purchase price). I've thought about contacting WorldDance New York itself to see if I could find a workable disk, but I'm not really sure I'd have better luck that way or not.

I'm looking for something to supplement my current practice, but I'd like something with instruction, as I haven't had much of that from my teacher and don't want to jump into doing things in a way that might injure myself.

I do have Sensual Belly Dance by Blanca and have ordered Drills! Drills! Drills! based on reviews here and at Amazon, but as I said, I really liked the in depth anatomical discussion of Belly Dance for Core Fitness, and I'm definitely not quite ready for Sensual Belly Dance (but I know I will definitely find it useful when I am). The reviews on Amazon seem to suggest that Drills! is best used in conjunction with more detailed instruction for complete beginners, but if others have a different opinion, feel free to let me know. Obviously, that would be my preferred option if her instructions are detailed enough. I wouldn't be so worried if we had more of this in the class, but since we don't, I want to be careful. Perhaps my experience with other dance forms would alleviate that somewhat? If not, any recommendations for a complimentary DVD would be useful.

Style-wise: Vaguely interested in all styles of belly dance, although I have a slight distaste of dancing to modern American music.