TCBD

Overall I liked this book. Although it did not seem to me as though it had everything you need to be a "compleat belly dancer." It starts of with a brief history of the dance to it's revival in the US. I felt they could have elaborated a little more on this subject and other possible origins and descendants. The book then describes the basic stance used in bllydance followed by a warm up. I thought they gave a very good warm up althogh it's shorter than my usual warm up it was still enough to get my muscles ready to dance. The warm up did contain some upper body and head movements but everything else was put into the following chapters. Although I was somewhat unnfamiliar with some of their terminology it did not take me long to figure out what they were talking about. There were pictures demonstrting many of the movements but not all of them. After they explained the basic moves they provide you with some combinations to put them together. The next part is about finger cymbal (zills) which isn't very indepth but does tell you about a few patterns and gives some tips on playing them. They follow with a chapter on veils which shows you 1 way to wrap your veil around yourself and then how to take it off. Then It shows you some ideas abut how to pose with or drape the veil but, says very little about how to use it in any other way. The book then tells you aout posing your arms gracefully and introduces you to some basic turns. Itthen goes into a good section on backbends and floorwork. Its then followed by a very weak introduction to the basic drum rhythms and expressing yourself while you dance. The next part off the book had decent instructions and illustrations on how to construct a coin bra and belt, a panel skirt, a circle skirt, harem pants, an aba and a rectangular veil; although it mentions a beledi dress and what it is it doesn't give instructions on how to make one. Then it's wrapped up by a section on performing for friends, family and clubs. The last part of the book has a glossary of words found in the book which you may or may not be familiar with. Overall Ifelt that the book was a good buy and could be very usefull to a beginer.