5/5 Tribal fusion at its coolest and most elegant
  by Mala Bhargava (India)

Sharon Kihara has a presence all her own. She's deliciously cool, a pleasure to look at and seemingly effortlessly elegant. On her first instructional video, she takes you through a yoga warm up, short muscle isolation drills, and four stylish combinations that reverberate with shimmies.

The warm up
There are two parts to this. The first is a variant of the yoga sun salutation. It includes the triangle and warrior poses. The second part has you doing some "straddle squats". Next is a section that warms up and drills the glutes, muscles that belly dancers use to power their hip work, making movements sharper and more controlled. In this little drill, Sharon gets herself into a split position, tough to achieve for most people. She even does a ¾ shimmy in this position. To get the abs stronger, Sharon goes on to do some crunches and works the obliques. This drill ends with a yoga pose for the back relief to counter the pressure you may have felt during the crunches. Then there's a bit of an arms drill which takes you through shoulder diamonds, shimmies and snake arms. The chest drill followed by the torso drill has the usual stuff you'll find on belly dance videos, but more briefly. The torso drill demonstrates the sharpness of Sharon's undulations. There's an even tinier section quickly taking you through the vertical figure eights and small pelvic circle or "ami". If you haven't been doing any drills, this may be a nice beginning. If, like me, you have, it's more like a demo than a drill. A little more time is spent on hip ups and downs and shimmies. All of this is done to Indian-flavored music. Surprisingly, there are no safety tips and not many posture reminders. That tempts me to lop off a point, but considering it's not aimed at beginners, I'm inclined to let it go.

Combinations
American Tribal Style or ATS parentage shows in the four combinations Sharon takes up. It would have been nice if she'd have shown the combination first and then went on to explain it. For each combo, she tells you what has to be done, and then shows you the whole piece. There's no dance-along or practice built in. Again, I'm tempted to take a point off for that. Every other tribal instructional video I have (and that would be about 15 of my 87 video collection of belly dance videos) does take you through some practice. The combinations are full of rather nice shimmies, very graceful arm moves and style and attitude. Sharon is such a pleasure to watch that I don't think she deserves any points off. Especially when the video is entirely affordable. The combinations finally are danced at one go in a choreography to Bollywood's Chaiyya Chaiyya.

The entire instruction is in Sharon's voiceover. Chapters broken down and easy to get to. I'd recommend actually watching the "bonus feature" first. It's an interview (except there's no one interviewing her) of Sharon and she tells you a bit about the video.

I wouldn't recommend this video for an absolute beginner. And for others who've been dancing already, I'd say do explore the entire lot available now. Some do offer better warm ups, others definitely have stronger and longer drills, and some have more combinations. I do a lot of drills and yoga, and so this nowhere near makes me sweat. If you're like me though, you'll just be delighted to include it in your collection and will love working with a new set of combinations to add to your repertoire. If ten new tribal fusion instructional videos were to be released this month, I'm very afraid I'd buy the lot.

As I said, right at the beginning, no matter what else you get out of this video, you'll get the pleasure of watching this lovely dancer.





3/5 Showcases the dancer more than the instruction.
  by Bustani (ALPHARETTA, GA United States)
I am a fan of the Bellydance Superstars so I was looking forward to this Sharon Kihara video. Unfortunately, I don't recommend it for the following reasons:
1) Her outfit covers her legs so that you can't see what her legs are doing during the movements! Also she was facing a mirror but her image was so far away I couldn't see her reflection.
2) I do not feel she tried to connect with me as an learner. The voiceovers and the fact that she did not look into the camera contributed to this impression.
3) She is a beautiful woman but seemed overly concerned with her appearance. For example, she always moved her hair into position before moving into a new position. Sometimes her hair obscured what her abs were doing. Also after movements, she stopped to pose and smile at herself in the mirror. seemed to spend a lot of time smiling at herself in the mirror.
4) This is NOT for beginners to bellydance. Very few cautions were given during the yoga sequence. Very little repetition of the movements.
What I ENJOYED:
1) The set was visually appealing.
2) Sharon is a beautiful and graceful dancer. Cool tatoos.
3) Sharon has a very pleasant, well modulated voice.
4) Her interview at the end of the DVD was very personal and interesting.
If you are looking for how-to-do the tribal movements and practice drills I recommend Bellydance Yoga Conditioning with Ariellah. Also a good value is Bellydance Basics and Beyond with Jenna for learning general bellydance movements.

5/5 Great Tribal Fusion Workout and Choreography!
  by Violet (Seattle, WA)
Among Tribal Fusion DVD's, this one is a definite keeper! The DVD is well organized in a way that makes sense and keeps things flowing well. Plus, Sharon is gorgeous to watch! The music and set are nice as well.

The workout portion begins with a yoga warm up and then Sharon takes us through a series of isolation drills (glutes, abs, back, shoulders, etc.). I didn't time it, but I think the workout lasted about 45 minutes. I found it very helpful to use a yoga mat for about half of the workout.
I like this workout because it definitely works up a sweat and gets you breathing, but it's not so hard that it becomes frustrating. I'm not in great shape and I could do it, though it took some effort! These are the drills you want to do in order to build up the muscle memory that will enable you to perform the luscious tribal fusion bellydance moves that are so popular these days!
After the workout, Sharon teaches four dance combinations. Then the four combinations are put together into a really nice tribal fusion style dance.

Sharon teaches while standing next to a mirror, making it easy to see what her body is doing. Her outfit is not distracting. She demonstrates the moves while a voiceover (Sharon's voice) explains them. This DVD seems to have a lot of thought and planning behind it. It omits the negative elements (such as distracting costumes, bad sets or annoying music) that ruin the quality of some other dance and workout DVD's.
Finally, Sharon performs the same dance she teaches in the DVD, only she adds her own style and grace. It's a lovely performance.
There is a bonus interview with Sharon and some "credits" where she thanks the people who have inspired her and helped her along her dance journey.

I really like this DVD and it is now part of my weekly rotation. Good quality DVD, well worth the purchase. Highly recommended!

5/5 Excellent!
  by CherryJellyBean (San Diego)
This is the dvd I've been waiting for! She has it broken down into several warm ups, then different body parts broken down into sections. Then she goes over combos that create a killer choreography at the end.

Sharon is one of the best teachers! Great DVD and great price!

2/5 The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty
  by Natasya Katsikaris (Ojai, CA USA)
I was so disappointed after all the 4 & 5 star reviews! I hope serious dancers read this. I am writing from the perspective of a professional dance teacher ... your milage may vary.

The good?
Ms. Kihara is lovely, a competent teacher, and has superb style. The combinations she presents are varied and represent the best of modern tribal fusion. Her material is first-rate.

The bad?
As a learning tool, this video was a terrible disappointment. It was produced a bit like MTV. Sexy camera angles and quick cuts to new angles. Sadly ... this is exactly what I DON'T want if I am trying to learn a dance. Every time I got used to the camera angle they would switch to another angle. The moment I re-oriented my brain to "that" angle ... cut to a different angle.

A few minutes of this cut, cut, switch, switch and I couldn't even tell right from left anymore ... much less learn the combinations she was trying to teach.

The Pretty?
In this DVD you purchase Sharon's pretty, packaged, image ... but nothing of real value if you want to learn the actual dance combinations.

I feel sad about my $$ wasted on this. Sad about Ms. Kihara's talents wasted. The combinations are wonderful and i really wanted to learn them ... sadly this DVD is more for "fans" than dancers. This would have been a 5 star instructional video if they had shot from ONE camera angle and showed the dancer's full body. Alas.