I apologize for the long silence. Taking care of babies is tough business. Tougher than dance!
In Hawaii, there's a small community of bellydancers. There's not the weekly event or workshop by master teachers and dancers like on the mainland or Japan. So, I've finally turned to online lessons from teachers I admire to keep up with my studies.
I recently subscribe to Datura Online. I have a dancer friend, Henna of Portland, who is a teacher on the website. This was my first time trying online instruction. I've done private one-on-one lessons with other teachers but nothing like this. I'll go through several points that I found especially helpful for this review.
1. The price is pretty amazing. You do get one free video with signing up. If you like the video, you can choose to pay per video you rent, pay $25 a month for unlimited access to instructional videos or pay for a whole year for $260. Right now, I'm trying the one month. I've competed my first month and I'm making numerous playlists of what I would like to learn or practice.
2. You can learn anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. Be it a computer, iPad, or even an iPhone! I definitely used a few videos while I recently traveled.
3. The variety! There's Egyptian, ATS, yoga, pilates, American Cabaret, and more. You can dabble in ATS if you're strictly an Egyptian-style dancer or American Cabaret if you are tribal. They also have guest teachers like Tamalyn Dallal, Sadie, and more. It's definitely a cheaper alternative to trying that style you're just not sure about.
I've already extended my membership because I haven't tried all the videos I was interested in. I'm definitely learning a lot more than I expected to. So, definitely check it out if you can!
Happy Dancing!
