Bellydance: Beautiful Technique from Step One

Beautiful Technique from Step One is a unique in-depth instructional program for beginners designed to give you a master-level understanding of the basics. The program teaches bellydance technique and vocabulary with an emphasis on creating a polished, finished look for each individual step from the very start.

Autumn Ward, a star bellydance performer and instructor based in New York City, applies a systematic step-by-step method of building bellydance moves from the primary components, such as body angles, tilts and shifts, weight transfers, and muscular contractions and releases, that underlie the fundamental vocabulary of every style of belly dance.

Awareness of the key technical components of every move enables you to perfect your form and execution of dance steps, so that you can perform each step with ease, grace, and a clean and elegant body line, even if you are a new beginner. For each move, Autumn analyzes and demonstrates alignment, engagement, and flow, addressing both anatomy and sensation, guiding you to absorb the fundamentals and to discover where technique grows into expressivity.

Autumn teaches each group of dance steps three different ways: Technique, Practice Flows, and Choreography. She offers both theory of dance movement and beautifully-designed practice drills to make each step sink deep into your muscle memory.

The Technique section guides you through basic terminology and concepts, arm positions and paths, and foundation building blocks, the primary components of bellydance vocabulary. Then Autumn shows you how to progressively build five different groups of isolations, and offers a broad selection of movements and movement breakdowns.

To practice, polish, and enjoy your new skills, dance along with Autumn’s Practice Flows, nine dance practice segments set to beautiful, haunting melodies. Follow detailed voice cues or enjoy the music-only version of the Flows.

As you build comfort with the dance vocabulary, try the movements in context, in the Practice Choreography. Continuing in the same follow-along format as the Flows, the Choreography puts a special emphasis on musicality and expression, putting together all steps taught in the program into sequences of combinations.

Autumn Ward’s Beautiful Technique from Step One will teach and encourage you to dance with the radiant feeling of an open, lifted heart. You will build clean isolations polished with sophisticated technique, and learn the skills that will allow you to give a finished look to any style of bellydance - cabaret, tribal, ethnic, or fusion styles - or just to enjoy the feeling of creating beauty.