The Art of Belly Dancing Kit (DVD, CD, Book, Belly Jewel, Finger Cymbals)

Missing the key items listed as part of the package: missing CD, missing the finger cymbals, not "like new." Blatant false advertising.

DVD is organized well for studying Ms. Nericcio's "organic" style of teaching. Students should expect to replay sections often, sometimes just observing the subtlety of the movement before practicing.

When I dropped into the Fat Chance Belly Dance studio the other day to purchase the tribal basics vol. one DVD I ran into Carolena (the author, and founder of FCBD) who recommended something else for a beginning student and I'm really glad she did. "The Art of Belly Dancing Kit" is a great resource as it is a combo of instruction from the tribal basics, zilling and advanced technique (I believe) DVD's by Fat Chance at a fraction of the cost! My favorite part of the kit is wonderful music CD to practice with which included sections of fast, slow and varying tempo music. (about 13-15 tracks if memory serves). It's raw drum and instrumental music- the real deal. The CD alone is worth 15 bucks in my opinion, and seems to be a lot of the music we have used in class at FCBD. The DVD quality is ok as it is taken from instructional DVD's recorded previously but the lessons are good and cover a lot. The Book is well written and inspirational. The glossy color photos are helpful to break down the steps and the descriptions (full of helpful visualizations) are concise. The spiral binding is nice so it lays flat to practice with. Don't let the cheesy zils (use them as decoration on a costume and buy some real ones) and belly jewels peeking out from the cover fool you. The cd, dvd and book and AMAZING and a great review/introduction into Fat Chance ATS at a small price. I agree 4.5 stars if it would let me!

This is a very neat little kit: glossy, colorful book with detailed text that lays flat (spiral bound, like a notebook); instructional DVD; CD; stick-on jewel; and cymbals. I never tried the cymbals because I have my own and I couldn't care less about a stick-on jewel, but the CD!! The music is absolutely fantastic. It's organic, earthy, real and so powerful. The book is clear and the DVD is fine. My only complaint with it is that it seems overly long. I guess if you were to look at it as a class, where you learn something new and linear over time, it wouldn't be so bad. Frankly, it's hard to make a good belly dance instruction DVD, and this one definitely tries. It ends with a performance by FatChanceBellyDance which is very interesting (although I thought that it, too, was a bit long). This comes in a complete package which you could keep or give as a gift. It's really not expensive, and really worth the money. (I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could, but the menu won't let me).