The Secret Language of Belly Dancing

Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing Come, sit next to me, says Grandmother. Take this chalk in your hand. Now draw a dot and concentrate all your energy into this one dot. It is the beginning and the end, the navel of the world. So Fawzia Al-Rawi describes her grandmother's first lesson about the ancient craft of O...	Bellydance: A Guide to Middle Eastern Dance, Its Music, Its Culture and Costume For those wanting to shake and shimmy their way to a firmer body, this comprehensive guide to belly dancing offers instructions on how to make the most of the hot belly-dancing-as-fitness trend. In addition to guiding the dancer to a trimmer waist, this how-to book helps put wome...	Pop, Lock & Shimmy: Drum Solo Technique & Choreography (Intermediate / Advanced Belly Dance) **Trailer available on YouTube**ABOUT THE DVDPop, Lock and Shimmy is a complete guide to crisp isolations and layered shimmies. It is designed for intermediate and advanced belly dancers and emphasizes drum solo technique.Practice is the key to sharp and intricate hip movements....	Sensual Bellydance Sensual dance... you know it the moment you see it. It radiates from deep inside; the dancer s whole body flows like silk, her movements are beautifully interwoven, breathing with meaningful, effortless grace. The ability to move fluidly in this organic, connected way begins with...	Rachel Brice: Bellydance Arms and Posture Welcome to Belly Dance Arms & Posture, a practice for carriage, coiling and serpentine stylization. This practice was designed to be used in conjunction with your regular dance practice to increase strength, flexibility and the illusion of bonelessness in the upper body. The p...
Bellydance Basics and Beyond: Technique for a Solid Foundation Bellydance Basics & Beyond is a 2 hr. 20 min. program designed to teach the fundamental movements of bellydance and encourage their practice in a wide range of dance combinations.Jenna's methodical presentation of bellydance basics begins with POSTURE the foundation on which danc...	Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance: Awakening Spirituality Through Movement and Ritual Shows how dance, the highest expression of spirituality in cultures and traditions all over the world, is being integrated into the lives of women today. * The first book to explore women's spiritual expression--women's * ways--through a study of dance * Investigates how d...	Secrets of the Stage - A Performance Course for Belly Dancers by Michelle Joyce (Vol 1) ***TRAILER AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE*** ABOUT THE SERIES"...information that every performer and instructor should have."What makes a captivating dancer? A captivating dancer knows how to draw in the audience and takes them on an emotional journey with every movement and expression. ...	Snake Hips: Belly Dancing and How I Found True Love This hilariously uplifting memoir follows an Arab American woman's merry life as she shimmies her way from getting dumped by her tattoo-artist boyfriend to coming to grips with being single, ample, and 30. Feeling lost and heartbroken, Anne Thomas Soffee moves back home to Richmo...	Bellydance - The Next Level: Transitions, Turns & Layers BELLYDANCE - THE NEXT LEVEL (DVD MOVIE)

Bellydance as spiritual practice
Well researched and compiled,this book shines light on the true spiritual aspect of bellydance and the role it has played in women' lives for millennia. Recommended for any woman on a spiritual quest whether or not she is a dancer [ASIN:8875076162 The Secret Language of Belly Dancing]] The Language of the Goddess Moon Rites: Ritual, Myth And Magic For The Modern Moon Goddess

Loved her approach
I liked the style of this book. And you can relate to what she has gone thru as a dancer.

A bit of a struggle
I really struggled with this book. It is not well written, with fairly average (OK, bad) grammar, a few instances of incorrect word usage and lots of typos. With the amount of editorial influence in this book, with multiple extracted quotations in the margins of each page, I would have thought they would bother to proofread and copy-edit the material of the book, as well. It is clear that the author is very passionate about bellydance, which I salute despite disagreeing with many of her viewpoints on various matters. I felt that in a number of instances, she tried using words outside her regular vocab to portray her feelings, or other aspects of bellydance, which gave the prose somewhat of a overbearing, superior tone. I would have liked to see her describe these things in her own words rather than pulling the thesaurus out at every turn.

Full of passion for the dance
Maria strives to uplift bellydance into an art form with deep roots in history that should be respected, and I think she achieves that. This book is all about the feminine experience and how bellydance can allow you to explore your body's potential and your soul's desire. At times Maria is very wordy and a tiny bit repetitive, but her message is so earnest that I didn't mind too much. I would have liked to see more concrete examples during the discussion of the symbols (more references to specific moves and what they mean, along with the symbolism). Overall the book is uplifting and inspires you to dance passionately.

COUREGEOUS
My favorite part of this wonderful book was the autobiographical section called 'My Secret Dance'. There, Maria tells her own story. We get a glimpse into the life of a very interesting and courageous woman, and a taste of the kind of dedication it takes to follow one's art.