Customer Reviews

Bellydance: A Guide to Middle Eastern Dance, Its Music, Its Culture and Costume

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a belly dance teacher in metro Atlanta, and I really enjoyed this beautiful Australian book. The photos are absolutely lovely, and there are lots of them. There's good background info on the history of belly dance, plus basic info about warm-ups and descriptions of basic movements, but what I liked best was the cultural info about how belly dance varies from country to country. There is a good discussion of the many different styles of belly dance, which is info that I've not seen in other books.

I'm a begining bellydancer & wanted something to give me some basic info in the history & culture of bellydance. This book does that.There is a lot of info in the book. My complaint: Some pages are very difficult to read due to the fact that the words are printed with a variety of colors onto background photos. I had read that comment in another review before I bought my copy, but didn't realize how much of the book was printed that way (more than half) & how difficult it would be to read (very difficult), make sure you have good lighting. Also the font size used is a little on the small side. Might have been easier to read with a larger font. Should be able to find same info in an easier to read format.

Keti Sharif has put together a very informative and delightfully presented instructional book. The photography is excellent and the instructions are very clear and make sense.

Keti Sharif is australia born and lives on the Red Sea in Egypt. She performs and teaches bellydance and hosts cultural tours of Egypt. Well done Keti. I teach bellydance and will be only too pleased to promote this book at my classes. My students will most likely buy a copy of this book.

Anyone interested in Bellydance and Egyptian Culture or Middle Eastern Culture would be very pleased with the contents of this book, women love to express themselves and this type of dance does so refreshingly and culturally diverse techniques are explained.

To celebrate our bodies is our divine right and we can enhance our health by bellydance. I invite women to take up this ancient art of expression, celebration, and good workout with pleasant music and rythms.

This book is not just a bellydance for fitness book - anyone knows you cannot learn to dance from a book. It discusses benefits of the dance and will enhance your learning experience. It's also a handy reference for teachers and students alike with its information about the rhythms, instrumentation and cultural context of various forms of Middle Eastern Dance.

The book is pretty concise - a quick, "down and dirty" explanation of bellydance. It's great for someone wanting a quick history. I would have preferred more information.

First of all, this book is quite attractive in its design and artistic pictures. There are various information on the bellydance in this book which is very nice, especially the information on musical instruments and the types of different bellydance. However, I don't think this one book can cover everything about the bellydance. If you want a small, cute, simple, convenient guide book that you can carry everywhere and use as a bellydance dictionary, then this would do you a good job. If you want a serious encyclopedia of bellydance, then try other books.
*Overall, I like this book. This book won't disappoint you, but there's no guarantee that you will be satisfied..

The pictures in the book are beautiful,however the text is a little difficult to read because of the background on the pages. Great information

I purchased this book before begining bellydancing and I found that the information it had covered a broad range of subjects- from culture to costume to music to a small intro to some of the moves. Although it is small, and the text a bit hard hard to read at times, it is a good place to start if you want to learn about bellydancing.

This was a beautiful-looking book, though smaller in size than I had anticipated (not coffee-table sized but a smallish square paperback). It's pretty cursory in its review of culture and costume. Lots of details on things like instruments and drum patterns (in fact, a bit too much detail). I was expecting more clear delineations between the different styles of dress per culture, so I was a bit disappointed in that area. And I have to echo what another reviewer said, that the print is a little hard to read because of the choices in font and background colors in places.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. It provided far more information than I had imagined for a book of its price. I do agree that some of the text is hard to read against some dark backgrounds. Very pleased with my purchase.