Product Description

East Coast Tribal bellydance blends sensual, fluid movement with sharp percussive accents evoking the flair of urban modernity. It resonates with exotic echoes of the world's ancient dances and bears a touch of the dark cyber-age mystique.

The "East Coast Tribal Bellydance" instructional and muscle-conditioning program is designed by Sera, an acclaimed performer of Tribal fusion bellydance, and sought-after instructor with a superb systematic teaching method. Sera's primary form of creative expression is through Tribal styles of belly dance. Her movements are rooted in Tribal Fusion Bellydance, drawing from ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop, and American Tribal Style.

Warmup and Drills programs (Sera & Solstice Dance Ensemble) combine fluid movements and percussive hipwork of bellydance in a way that promotes muscle strength, tone and elongation - the basis for a beautiful body line and effortless grace, both in dance and in everyday life. A series of upper and lower body isolations will help you ingrain in your muscle memory the precision of bellydance technique, and develop muscle control that will convert into a mesmerizing fluid dance as you are learning the East Coast Tribal combinations.

The step-by-step instructional section breaks down essential bellydance movements and assembles them into 6 combinations. The combinations can be practiced and performed individually or as a whole. They come together into a seamless choreographed sequence with a wonderful flow of energy and an amazing expressivity.

DVD bonus section: performance by Sera!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18469 in DVD
• Brand: STRATOSTREAM
• Released on: 2006-10-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .15 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Features

• East Coast Tribal bellydance blends sensual, fluid movement with sharp percussive accents evoking the flair of urban modernity. It resonates with exotic echoes of the world's ancient dances and bears a touch of the dark cyber-age mystique. The "East Coast Tribal Bellydance" instructional and muscle-conditioning program is designed by Sera, an acclaimed performer of Tribal fusion bellydance,

Customer Reviews

Good workout for isolations, hip work....
Coming from a Gypsy Caravan background with ATS mixed in, the dancing in this DVD is different than what I am used to. The basic moves are the same, however, and Sera does a brilliant job at warming up the body and forcing the hips and the thighs to work - frankly, the 30-minute warm up is enough to do me in - ha! Asthetically, it would have been nice for the other three girls to smile as much as Sera did - but then again, I can't say I'm much of a smiler when I am working out as hard as I was. ;-)

It's a good workout DVD for those who don't want to run the same belly dance DVDs over and over again. I would recommend it

finally an instructional videos for fusion genres!
This instructional dvd is for tribal FUSION bellydance which incorporates influences from other genres of dance, such as hip hop and modern dance. Although it shares many features with American Tribal Style (ATS) bellydance, do not expect to find it here. What you will find are really unique and skillful movements along with a killer strength training workout.
Tribal Fusion involves a lot of technique and skill and is very muscle-oriented. Sera effectively teaches new and interesting combinations that you can use along with your own bellydance style. The instruction is clear, the moves are awesome, and the work-out is great.
This is the future of bellydance.

Excellent teaching, and a versatile video.
I finally worked through this video after owning it for a while, and I was stunned at how excellent it is. There are a few flaws (which I'll get to later), but those aside, it's a superb video.

First things first. This is not a beginner's DVD. Sera neither gives the kind of explanations of basic movements a beginner would want, nor does she present all the basics of bellydance. No way. It is, however, a great DVD for intermediate dancers. Sera goes over some basic movements (especially in the warmup), but in such a way as to help you increase your flexibility and power.

The 20-minute warmup and the 10-minute drill section get you doing some basic stretches, focusing on your isolations, and quite importantly, working on powering moves from particular muscles. The dancers mirror your movements (so when she calls "left," they actually move to their right) which I prefer. Sera is extremely thorough about calling out which muscle to use for a move, and always managed to remind me as soon as I forgot. I *was* worried about the neck stretch, since she moves the head all the way back, and some moves also seemed quite hard on the knees, so I modified them. In the choreography Sera is careful to point out which sections are knee-unfriendly, and sometimes offers a modification, but this is not the case in the workout. She does, however, tell you when certain moves are difficult for beginners, so you don't get discouraged.

I would say that, considering how cheap the DVD is, the warmup is worth the price alone. I know I'm going to use this (with some extra stretching) as an introduction to other bellydance videos.

Next comes a demonstration of the combinations to be learned, and then very detailed instructions for each of six movement combinations. I had watched the video before, but only by doing it could I see what a brilliant teacher Sera is. She has that uncanny ability to know *just* when you're relaxing a certain muscle, or doing a movement lazily, or forgetting about your posture, and to give a perfectly-timed reminder.

On the other hand, the combos themselves are challenging and, to my eye, beautiful. It's not hard to get the basics of each, but to do them right, with the correct arm movements, good timing, and perfect form, is hard. This is a major strength of the DVD: you can grow into it a little. Both the warmup and the dance instruction are basically doable for an advanced beginner/intermediate, but they have enough layering and little details that you have a reason to go back and do the video again.

As you can probably tell by the length of this review, I am impressed! I do want to say though that it's not the right DVD for you if you just want to pop something in the player and shake your hips around. Some of the muscular movements can be quite strenuous. You need to pay attention to the instructions, you need to listen to your body to avoid injury, and you may even need to pause it and practice a movement slowly and carefully on your own. And you need to stretch thoroughly at the end. But this is what makes it so good.