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sajia_kabir Jamila Salimpour and her daughter Suhaila are legendary in American bellydance as performers and teachers. They've both been the subject of a lot of controversy, but no one denies their accomplishments and innovations. I've been wanting to take Suhaila's online classes ever since they came out almost two years ago, especially for the body conditioning and the finger cymbal classes. Last Monday night I finally got the classes, and I started working with them on Wednesday.
I began with a Level One class for Singles (Up), taught by one of Suhaila's assistants. The workout was not so much strenuous as tedious, because I had done a lot of the exercises before on Suhaila's Fitness Fusion series, and earlier on Asharah's Modern Tribal Bellydance. I did get a good burn on my abs and had to rest the next day. The drills were tricky and I stopped at the 60 minute point.
Friday I tried the March '09 no. 1 class in the Jamila format. I valiantly played my zils in quarter time for the first half hour but gave up, realizing that I needed to learn the steps in the Jamila archive series, which fortunately I already possessed and had partially worked with. I would recommend students to start with this particular class once they've worked with the Jamila archive, as it starts with the basics of longa and doubles and uses moves from the Basic Steps volume.
Saturday I focused on the second and third sections of the Basic Steps dvd. A lot clicked in place that I hadn't realized before, about what the moves were supposed to be doing. In the Jamila class I tried she talks about basing your dance on reliable standbys, and there's plenty of variety in the four volumes to keep you fresh.
Tuesday I worked with a Level one class of Singles (down) and did up to 42 minutes. I think I'll follow Aziyade's advice on Bhuz to do the drills first and do the workout later.
Thursday I tried a Dance Movement (plies) class but gave up after 15 minutes. I later did sections 2, 3 and part of section 4 of the Basic Steps dvd.
So in nine days I practiced five times. I think I can do this, if I persist and keep at it. I am worried that next week is PMS week and then on May 2 my monthly subscription ends, and I'd like to have had more time to work with the classes so that I could prove to myself that it wouldn't be a waste to plunk down money for a year long subscription.
I began with a Level One class for Singles (Up), taught by one of Suhaila's assistants. The workout was not so much strenuous as tedious, because I had done a lot of the exercises before on Suhaila's Fitness Fusion series, and earlier on Asharah's Modern Tribal Bellydance. I did get a good burn on my abs and had to rest the next day. The drills were tricky and I stopped at the 60 minute point.
Friday I tried the March '09 no. 1 class in the Jamila format. I valiantly played my zils in quarter time for the first half hour but gave up, realizing that I needed to learn the steps in the Jamila archive series, which fortunately I already possessed and had partially worked with. I would recommend students to start with this particular class once they've worked with the Jamila archive, as it starts with the basics of longa and doubles and uses moves from the Basic Steps volume.
Saturday I focused on the second and third sections of the Basic Steps dvd. A lot clicked in place that I hadn't realized before, about what the moves were supposed to be doing. In the Jamila class I tried she talks about basing your dance on reliable standbys, and there's plenty of variety in the four volumes to keep you fresh.
Tuesday I worked with a Level one class of Singles (down) and did up to 42 minutes. I think I'll follow Aziyade's advice on Bhuz to do the drills first and do the workout later.
Thursday I tried a Dance Movement (plies) class but gave up after 15 minutes. I later did sections 2, 3 and part of section 4 of the Basic Steps dvd.
So in nine days I practiced five times. I think I can do this, if I persist and keep at it. I am worried that next week is PMS week and then on May 2 my monthly subscription ends, and I'd like to have had more time to work with the classes so that I could prove to myself that it wouldn't be a waste to plunk down money for a year long subscription.
