Ariellah in her Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning DVD uses drilling exercises to practice tribal fusion belly dance movements and techniques. She also incorporates yoga as she says yoga and belly dance go hand in hand. The majority of this DVD is spent on isolation drills and six short combinations that total about a two minute choreography. Ariellah has a powerful, flowing, precise, and cutting edge dance style. She has over a decade of classical ballet training, so dance technique is flawless. You can see the Rachel Brice and ATS influences in her style. Ariellah’s style is more dark fusion belly dance, but the movements she teaches in this video are applicable to tribal fusion too.
- Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning DVD Instructional Focus Time Breakdown
- Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning DVD Outline
- Music Used in the Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning DVD
- Dancer Skill Level for Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning
- Review Rating for Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning
Uses drilling exercises to practice tribal fusion belly dance movements and techniques. She also incorporates yoga. The majority of this DVD is spent on isolation drills and six short combinations that total about a two minute choreography.
Top Skill Taught
The top skill taught by Ariellah on this belly dance DVD is the triangle shoulder movement. We haven’t seen this move on many instructional videos.
DVD Skill Focus
The following is an outline of the dance skills taught in the Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning DVD.
- Welcome
- Yoga Warm Up
- Technique Drills
- Combinations Step-by-Step and Practices
- Yoga Cool Down
- Live Solo Performance
Skill Focus Time Breakdown Infographic
Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning is almost three hours long. The following infographic is an approximate breakdown of how many minutes are included in the DVD for various belly dance skills.
Welcome
In this chapter as Ariellah explains how she thinks about yoga can improve your belly dance technique. The strengthening and stretching benefits of yoga support and enhance belly dance practice and technique. For example, hip flexibility improve shimmies and leg strength enables strong level changes and floor work. Yoga calms and centers, which can help your stage presence. She asks that you bring a heightened awareness and mindfulness to your practice. For example, when using your arms, keep them strong, keep the energy flowing all the way out to your fingertips; don’t wilt. She encourages not to push yourself, but to let practice and repetition allow your body to open up to the yoga and belly dance movements
Yoga Warm Up
Ariellah leads a gentle warm up. You will need a yoga block and blanket. The yoga consists of mostly beginning yoga poses, so don’t be intimidated if you are new to yoga. You can choose between two different yoga warm ups; one is about 15 minutes and the other about 20 minutes.
Technique Drills
The two drill sections are the meat and potatoes of the belly dance instruction on this DVD. The first drills section is a beginner level while the second drills section is an advanced beginner level. She doesn’t drill that many movements, but you get a lot of repetitions in.
Drills 1
Ariellah covers the following in the first drill section:
- Basic belly dance posture
- Shoulders and arms: After some basic shoulder isolations, she progress to arm undulations at two speeds and then alternating arm undulations. She finally drills shoulder triangles.
- Chest isolations: Ariellah drills chest slides, half circles, and lifts.
- Hip isolations: She does hip slides, circles, tucks, drops and lifts. She drills the hip drop with level change. And finally she speeds up the hip drops into a shimmy.
Drills 2
Ariellah covers the following in the second drill section:
- Hips and arms: She starts these drills with simple. vertical hip figure 8s. She makes this simple move progressively more complicated by adding in arm undulations and waking steps.
- Chest and pelvis: She begins with horizontal chest figure 8s. She then does a couple of different staggered hip lifts/drops drills at various speeds. She finishes this part with body undulations both from top-to-down and down-to- up.
- Hip isolations: She starts the hip isolations with a horizontal figure 8. Next, she drills horizontal hip circles. She finishes with drilling a 3/4 shimmy both in place and walking.
Combinations
Ariellah teaches six combinations that use some of the movements from the drills section as well as other movements. The combinations include level changes, steps, arm undulations, pops, locks, and poses. These combinations together make about a 2-minute long choreography to a slow song. She teaches the combinations with no music. Instead she says the counts, which is very helpful when working on a choreography.
Yoga Cool Down
Ariellah ends with a gentle yoga cool down. This practice is for a beginner yogi and is about 25 minutes long.
Live Solo Performances
Ariellah dances to three different songs. She has a different costume on in each performance. You can see many of the combinations and drills taught in this DVD in her performances.
Music Used
The following is the music used in the Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning with Ariellah DVD. Yoga:
- Saaba from Gathering Season by Solace
- Szerelem from The Seven Valleys by Stellamara
Drills
- Stiga from remix of Stiga, Hadra by Lumin
- O’Magnum Mysterium from Purity by Soil and Eclipse
- Rain of Blood 120 from Best of XXX – Relics by Die Form
- Tarak from Dark Light by Knossos
Choreography
Performances
- Outside from Eevil Young Flesh by Wumpscut
- Slow Descent from Dark Light by Knossos
- Thorns from Bunkertor 7 by Wumpscut
Drills: Tarak from Dark Light by Knossos
Performance: Slow Descent from Dark Light by Knossos
Dancer Skill Level – Beginner
We rate this DVD as suitable for an Beginner+ dancer. As there aren’t many movement taught, a beginner dancer won’t be overwhelmed by too many new movements. Each movement is drilled slowly, which is what will help a beginner improve their belly dance. Beginners may find some of the movements, such as level changes, too difficult.
DVD Review Rating – 5 Stars
We give Ariellah’s Contemporary Belly Dance and Yoga Conditioning DVD a 5-star rating because of its focus on slow drills. This is what will give you the powerful, flowing, and precise movements you admire in professional belly dancers. If you like Rachel Brice’s tribal fusion style, you will probably like this DVD. Ariellah’s beautifully costumed performances are an extra treat.
Uses drilling exercises to practice tribal fusion belly dance movements and techniques. She also incorporates yoga. The majority of this DVD is spent on isolation drills and six short combinations that total about a two minute choreography.
DVD Preview on YouTube
The following is a short preview uploaded to YouTube by the publisher, World Dance New York.