go to therealsuhaila.com and sign up for classes...also u can do a general search about belly dancing classes for begginers

I've been bellydancing for four years now, and I can recommend some good videos, but one of the most crucial things for me in learning this dance was being able to feel my teacher's belly! She would let us in order to show us where the movement orginated from. When you start bellydancing, you'll discover muscles you didn't know you had! One of the big mistakes beginners make is trying to do moves with their skeleton that should be done with their muscles, and you need a teacher to help you find the difference. This is a dance about muscle isolation. You learn to isolate certain muscles and then you learn to layer movements on top of each other, and that's the challenge of the dance.

You absolutely can lose weight bellydancing! It's a serious workout. If you want to get a few videos just so you can start to see what it's about, I recommend Rachel Brice or Sera Solstice's videos (the latter is called East Coast Tribal.) Suhaila has videos too. All three of these will be totally overwhelming at first but stick with it! Your body really can learn to do these things!!

If you would like to see some excellent contemporary tribal fusion bellydance, go to youtube and search for Unmata, Barbary Coast All-Stars, Sera Solstice, and most of all, of course, Suhaila. :)

I have been belly dancing for six years now, and I have just used a lot of instructional videos to dance from. I used to attend teacher's classes such as catharae, aziza saiid, and fahtiem, and they have taught me very well. Sometimes I would look at dancers on the internet and try to immitate their moves, and use them in my performances, along with the skills that I was learning from my teachers. Do research on different dancers. Try to find certain teachers within your area that know what they are doing so you would not be wasting your time. Sometimes the classes are expensive, but if you do not want to spend money, try to find a lot of instructional videos.

Oh, you will definitely loose weight!! This dance is a great workout for the whole body actually. I am satisfied with my results and I know that you guys would to. Good luck to you and your friend on learning a wonderful and exciting dance!!!

RECOMMENDATIONS: The Belly Dance Superstars (Rachel Brice, Dondi, Ansuya), Aziza Saiid, Fahtiem, Catharae, Delilah (visionarydance.com)