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Learning to Belly Dance from Videos

© Shira

I receive frequent e-mails with questions like these:

"I'm a teenager and I don't have any money. I can't afford classes. Can I learn to belly dance from the web?"

"I'd love to learn to belly dance, but I can't find a teacher in my community. Can I learn from video, books, or the web?"

Let me say up front that I think it would be very, very difficult to learn belly dancing from video or web unless you have prior experience with another dance form. I believe you need a teacher who can look at what you are doing and correct your mistakes. How else will you know whether you are doing the move correctly?

But I also know that sometimes it's just not possible to find a local teacher:

• Many of the belly dancing classes taught through local community programs require that the students be age 16 or older due to requirements in their liability insurance, so younger teens may have trouble finding a class for their age group.
• Some rural communities don't have any belly dancing teachers at all.

If either of the above reasons applies to you, and if you haven't already done so, read my article How to Find a Belly Dancing Class in Your Community for ideas on how to find a teacher. If that doesn't help, or if you simply refuse to consider going to a class, whatever your reasons, read on!

I'll tell you what I can about learning from video, web sites, and books. But I still urge you to try finding a local teacher, because with a teacher you'll learn to dance a lot faster and have someone to help you correct your mistakes.

This article is Part 1 of two parts. Here in Part 1, my focus is on how to use videos to study belly dance. In Part 2 I talk about web sites and books that may help.

If you absolutely can not find a local teacher, the second-best way to learn belly dancing is through studying with video. When you use a video, you can see how the move looks on someone else, and try copying it in a mirror to see if you can make it look the same way.

This article is meant for people who don't have a teacher and need to start with learning the basics. If you do have a teacher and you're looking for videos to help give structure to your home practice, you may find that the ones I suggest are too basic for your needs.