Sun Salutation

Tribal Fusion – Yoga Isolations & Drills: A Practice Companion with Rachel Brice

I've had this disc for a while and thought I should come back to it and do a review. It's been ages since I've done any bellydance stuff, and I am really a complete novice.

The disc has 15, 30, and 45-minute sessions. This morning I did the 45 minute set.

Letting an Amazon reviewer do some of the grunt-work for me, here's an index:

The 15 minute practice includes:
- Half Sun Salutes
- Locust Pose
- Hip Locks on the Up
- Hipwork on the down
- Chest Lifts
- Undulations up to down (Body Roll)
- Cat and Cow poses

The 30 minute practice does a full sun salute with lunges and adds to the 15 minutes practice the following moves:
- Chest drops
- Undulations down to up (Reverse Body Roll)
- Pelvic locks front
- Interior hip circles
- Spread leg forward fold

The 45 minute practice includes everything above, except the hipwork on the down (I'm not sure, but this may be an error on the DVD, because the practice really clocks in at about 40 minutes). Added for this practice is:
- Double Chest locks
- Rib Cage Figure Eight
- 5 minutes of Corpse pose (with floaty clouds on the screen, and a doumbek drumming at about heart-beat speed)

The yoga on this disc is basic, but it is interesting to see what Ms. Brice chose as good yoga preparation for the belly dance drills.

As the disc name states, the meat of this disc is drills. Ms. Brice instructs some basic moves and drills you through them, first slowly and carefully, then double time, then at full speed, smoothing out the individual movements to make the full-body and hip/waist undulations of belly dancing.

The instruction is very good. When I went upstairs and checked myself out in the full-length mirror I was managing passable versions of everything taught on the disc. However, Ms. Brice is not a chatty teacher. She tells you how to do it one way, and she illustrates it beautifully with her own movements, but if her one explanation isn't enough for you, then that's the only chance you get, making this video more for the advanced beginner or intermediate student than the true beginner.

My other observation is that Ms. Brice, not chatty, is also not smile-y or bouncy. Her face is supremely calm, even serious. In some ways, this suits the idea that you should be calm, with a relaxed face and a focused mind during yoga. But you also get the impression that this is Serious Business. For some people that is probably a huge positive. For others, it might be off-putting.

This is not a great yoga video, but it is a way to have some yoga with your dancing. I think this is probably a very good video for someone getting started with dancing or wanting some guidance to make their dancing more precise.

As an aside, this video has a Gothic performance piece that is just *amazing.* Probably no one older than 14 really has the knees for it, but hey! I can dream!

Namaste.

Well, here we are, on DreamWidth, a welcoming home for fanfic writers.

I know there are a number of us here.

And you know you've done it. Imagined your favorite character, practicing yoga.

I know there are probably also members of this community who would probably prefer to pretend fanfic does not exist, and certainly do not want it as a part of their favorite yoga community!

So, without further ado, ( I go behind a cut. Please do not click unless you are ready for fanfic in all it's gen, het, slash, femmeslash, and nsfw varieties! )