Zaïda: Belly Dancing for Older Women

Cover

Title Zaïda: Belly Dancing for Older Women

Author Phoebe Kathrine Carter

ISBN 0-595-20948-3

Publisher iUniverse.com, Inc.

Category Non-Fiction: General Belly Dancing

Shira's Rating (on a scale of 0 to 5)

<== Buy from Amazon.com in the U.S. (Prices quoted in U.S. dollars, shipped from U.S. warehouse.)

<==Buy from Amazon.co.uk in the U.K. (Prices quoted in British pounds, shipped from U.K. warehouse.)

What It's About

This book, which is a print version of Zaïda's web site titled Belly Dancing for Older Women, offers encouragement to older women who are interested in learning how to belly dance. It talks about the benefits that older women can receive from belly dancing, in both body and spirit. It offers advice aimed at the specific concerns of older women such as what kind of costuming to wear, where to perform, and how to overcome the "be ladylike" indoctrination that many women grew up with.

In addition, there are sections that could be useful to dancers of any age group, including health and posture advice, tips on teaching older students, and suggestions on performing for older audiences. There's a section with advice for men of any age who are interested in belly dancing, including costume suggestions and tips on how to make belly dance moves look more masculine.

The book ends with three chapters showing e-mail correspondence that occurred between Zaïda and people who had visited her web site.

Its Good Points

This book is easy to read, using simple language like that we use in ordinary conversation. It's the kind of book I could relax with at the end of a busy day without thinking too hard.

Zaïda's love for belly dancing comes through. It's always fun to talk with enthusiastic people, and her writing style bubbles over with enthusiasm for belly dancing.

Zaïda's advice on health, posture, performing for older audiences, and teaching is solid.

The chapter on male dancers provided intelligent advice for male belly dancers. Every teacher who has a male student should read it.

On The Negative Side....

The book's style was a bit disjointed. I felt like I was reading notes that the writer had jotted down, rather than a finished product. It's interesting - when I read the articles on the web site they didn't come across that way. I guess I expect books to be a little more formal and structured than web sites.

The book is quite redundant. Many things are repeated multiple times. For example, the same instructions on how to do "Zaïda's Shimmy" appeared in two completely separate chapters. I grew very weary of her frequent comment that belly dancing gives you a "party piece" you can perform for your friends. Although it's true, it's not an important enough concept to be repeated as many times as the book repeats it.

Although the chapter on male dancers was well written with good information, I couldn't quite figure out how it applied to belly dancing for older women. I can't quite imagine suggesting to a male student that he purchase a book titled Belly Dancing for Older Women in order to obtain advice on how to be a credible male belly dancer.

In Conclusion

If you have access to the Internet, you can read the contents of this book on Zaïda's web site at http://welcome.to/Zaïda . She created the book for people who aren't likely to be surfing the Internet, which is probably a valid assumption for many older women. Even though it's all online, you might enjoy having the information bound neatly into a book for archival purposes, since web sites come and go.

If you're an older woman who would like to learn how to belly dance, you may find the encouragement and practical advice you need to get started in this book. Take a look at the web site first, and if you like it, you'll enjoy the book.