Mimi FontanaTribal Revival - American Tribal Style Belly Dance Variations with Mimi Fontana: ATS bellydance instruction, tribal belly dance how-to, a full ATS bellydance class

I love this DVD, but it is not for absolute beginners, as another reviewer has noted. It *is* a great review of American Tribal Style bellydance moves and techniques. I would recommend watching the Fat Chance Belly Dance "Tribal Basics" video first - it's much more accessible to beginners, and will give you a pretty solid grounding in not just the steps and movements, but also the muscles you must engage to execute the movement correctly.This DVD begins with only a very quick review of basic ATS moves, so if you used to take Tribal Style bellydance lessons long ago, but have been away from it for a while (as I have), then this is an excellent reintroduction. You'll soon find your muscle memory kicking in as the old familiar movements come back to you.Bellydance is a very low-impact, full-range-of-motion workout. I started taking bellydance lessons in my early 30s after an ACL injury and several (expensive!) physical therapy sessions my insurance didn't cover completely. I found a cheap class (at the time, probably $8 per hour!) in a local new age wellness center. It was bellydance or nothing - I didn't have a "partner" for other styles of dance, so I had to choose something I could learn to do without a partner. Bellydance was the most obvious choice at the time. I ended up taking bellydance lessons for about 7 or 8 years, and making new friends along the way. I found one road trip buddy who would drive up to Ohio with me to attend seminars and workshops. I got to meet some really well-known dancers, including Mahmoud Reda - which was such an honor and privilege. It enhanced my life in so many ways. I highly encourage anyone even slightly interested in belly dance to start with an easy basics video, such as Fat Chance Belly Dance Tribal Basics. Or, if you want something more authentic to the Middle East, try any of the Veena and Neena Bellytwins dvds - they actually trained in Egypt and danced with the Reda Troupe, so their style is very simple, but very Mahmoud Reda at the same time.This DVD will get you back up to speed if, like me, you stepped away from dance classes for a few years (in mycase, to save money for graduate school!).Enjoy!

I live in an area where there are very few bellydance studios and definitely NOT any ATS ones, (only the cheezy "sexy bellydancing" type!).There used to be one almost an hour away from me, (so I did have an introduction to ATS prior.) That being said, I really think this DVD can help you make more sense of the relationship between movements and string them together into flowing combos whether you are dancing solo or in a group. It's well-shot and produced, and the dancers are beautiful with a wide variety of body types - I truly believe ATS looks great on every woman :)This DVD really is a FULL ATS class - lots of material and ideas for beginner and intermediate. I would recommend this for someone who at least has had Level 1 ATS training OR has learned all the vocabulary from the ATS Tribal Basics FCBD DVD. I will be going back to this one again and again!

I am an intermediate Ats dancer and a soloist and find this dvd to be a good resource for you in-between class home practice. Mimi is very clear with her instructions and her variations add a spice to your dance. Where I found this DVD to be the most useful is with her suggestions on how to use the ats styling for solo work. This DVD saved my bottom when I was asked to come up with a solo. For that, this is gold.Highly recommended and as others have said, you need to be at least an intermediate dancer because her review portion is way to brief for a beginner.

If you are an ATS dancer, this DVD is a must own! Mimi has put together some really nice combo's using FCBD moves as well as adding her own twist to some. This is geared towards an intermediate dancer with basic FCBD vocabulary. Mimi breaks down each move facing forward, with another dancer facing away, so you can follow along with no trouble. Each combo is demonstrated for a solo, duet and trio, with a short song drill afterwards. Some of the music is alittle repetitious, but her clear, easy to follow instruction and wonderful technique make it totally worthwhile. This DVD is lots of fun and I felt like I got quite alot out of it. I would love to see her come out with another volume!

but not as useful for practicing as I had hoped. It's fun to watch - especially if you're just learning like I am but I really would like to practice between classes and this, in my opinion, is not the DVD for that.

This DVD is frustrating because when Mimi does the combinations to music she is facing the audience, which is really difficult to follow. When she breaks the combinations down there is someone with her back to the audience so I could follow this portion fairly easily, but the majority of it is with Mimi facing the audience and it's nice to watch but for me it was not easy to follow.

not really for absolute beginners, but if you have some ATS/ ITS training its a fun practice dvd. and the costumes are gorgeous. breakdowns of combinations are brief and in the jargon, dont expect explicit step by step direction. but its paced well and the music is good. did i mention the costumes? :-)

For a beginner in ATS style of tribal, this is a GREAT breakdown of the basics!! And for someone who has been doing Tribal for a while, its a great practice companion! It slows things down and makes amazing muscle memory!! Its a wonderful resource for anyone who is curious about ATS!

This dvd is excellent I am so pleased with it .. The instruction is clear and Mimi repeats the moves enough times for you to be clear on what you are doing, also there is another dancer with her so she is doing the moves with her back to you so you can shadow her and not have the difficulty of trying to follow from front veiw..It makes it so much more easier to follow,.. This is an intermediate level so you must have quite a good grasp of ATS already ,,but this is all the really good moves to learn to make a fantstic routine they are tricky to learn but practice makes perfect and I have only had the dvd a week and already getting there with quite a few of the combos and my god they are good they look amazing ,,so I will plod away untill I have learnt the whole lot with this dvd I want to do all of them because they are all so good...A deffinate good buy and I will be purchasing any more that Mimi brings out in the future...Happy dancing to all you dance sisters out there and have fun...

I have been looking for something to help me between classes... this is one for my collection.Great for Soloists, Duos and Trios...Hope there are more of these in the Future.

Nice product good service. No complaints