Frequently Asked Questions

You get 24/7 access to over 600 videos with a regular subscription.  Some videos are not available with a regular month-to-month subscription, and those are available in our a la carte (Pay Per View) section.  Videos outlined in green are included with a regular month-to-month subscriptions.  Videos outlined in purple are available by individual (a la carte or Pay Per View) subscription, and are available for one month unless otherwise noted.

Enjoy being a member of the Salimpour School Online anytime you like, anywhere you like, as often as you like.

PPV subscriptions are active for one month only unless otherwise noted.

The Salimpour School produces a variety of music for performance, practice and teaching.  Link. 

Hollywood Music Center.  The leading producer and distributor of Middle Eastern music and video releases.  Their music catalog is used extensively with permission in the Salimpour Studio classes and online classes.  Link.

Copeland International Arts.  Miles Copeland’s entertainment company specializing in the performing arts market worldwide with particular emphasis on dance and world music.  The Bellydance Superstar and world music catalog is used extensively with permission in the Salimpour Studio classes and online classes.  Link.

Yes, absolutely!  All personal and credit card information is encrypted during transmission using secure socket layer (SSL) technology. Your credit card information is only used to complete the requested transaction and is not stored on our servers (which are 100% PCI compliant).  We adhere to all industry standards to protect your personal information, both during transmission and once we receive it.

If you have lost or forgotten your password, just click the Forgot your password? link in the sign-up box on the top right hand corner of all pages. We will send a link to the email address that you provided, with instructions to reset your password. You can also email support@SalimpourSchoolOnline.com if you need help.

We do not offer refunds on membership subscriptions. You can cancel at any time: your membership will stay active through your account's expiration date, at which time it will not be renewed. Full details can be found in our Terms of Use.

Yes; you can cancel at any time using the My Account tab on your member profile page. 

Email support@SalimpourSchoolOnline at any time for any questions or concerns you have.  We are here to help!  

For members with current certification in either of the Salimpour programs (Suhaila or Jamila), a certification account gives you access to your certificaton records:  testing dates, CEC submission form, and more.

It happens to many of us.  You enter your payment information and typed something incorrectly.  You type in the information and submit again, not knowing if you've created one or two payments.  Our system is designed so that when you enter the data and hit send, the system waits two minutes before allowing a second payment to go through.  If you think you made a mistake but aren't sure, wait five minutes.  If the payment went through, you'll receive confirmation by email.  If not, you can try again.  If you continue to have difficulty or end up making two payments, just email us at suhailainternational@gmail.com.  Someone is in the office from 9am-noon PST on weekdays, and we can help you fix the problem.

This site is optimized to work over basic DSL connection (high speed internet, with or without wi-fi access) with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox Browsers, and will also work with your phone or tablet.

If you have a slower internet connection, you may still be able to navigate the site without any problems.

We recommend Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer. Whichever browser you choose, be sure to use the most recent version available.

We can suggest a few things to help.

• Close any other open browser windows or tabs.
• Close any other applications that utilize a lot of CPU or internet bandwidth.
• Allow the video to buffer before you watch.
• Install the latest version of Flash on your computer or use a browser with native HTML5 support.
• Trying using a different browser. 

Buffering allows you to preload some of your video so that fluctuations in your internet connection won’t affect the video playback.  When you play a video, a light grey bar will advance in front of the playhead, showing you much of the video has been buffered.  As long as you’re viewing before or within the light grey buffer region, your video should play smoothly.  To buffer, play the video for a few seconds and then pause it for a while so that the video can build up a sufficient buffer.

Some ala carte (Pay Per View) offerings include supporting materials available as PDFs.  If you have trouble downloading the PDFs, updating to most recent version of Adobe Reader <http://get.adobe.com/reader/> is the best solution.  You can download Adobe Reader free HERE. 

These are multi-week programs (training plans) designed to help you progress through your training with recommended weekly assignments.  Many students will benefit from repeating the programs, substituting classes for variety.  The training plans are a bonus for dancers who subscribe to the regular class catalog.

Most training plans are built around learning choreography.  Our goal was to distribute the full class catalog across all the plans.  If you were to use all the training plans, you eventually would end up taking every class.   Most classes are used in more than one plan, but be sure to mark your favorite classes so you can find them later!

Note that some of the choreographies are free to regular subscribers, but others are available separately in the PPV section.  

From the training plan main page, click on "view details" to view a specific plan.  You can then click to  "+ add this program" to your account.  When you go back to your account, you'll see the training plan in your profile menu.

Most, but not all, of our training plans are built around learning a choreography.  Of course, you can use the training plan without learning the choreography.  You can also use a training plan as a template and substitute your own selection of classes. 

Higher level students can increase timing or add layering to Level 100 and 200 classes.  Some students take an eight week plan and condense it over 4 weeks and others expand it over 16 weeks.  

We recommend starting with these plans to learn the fundamental material for  the Salimpour 100 Level.  These training plans include specific classes that are free to regular subscribers as well as links to supplemental learning resources, some of which are free and others of which are available to purchase separately.  

• Suhaila Level 100 The Beginning
• Suhaila Level 100 Owning It
• Jamila Vocabulary Level 100
• Banat Iskandaria 
• Isolations Drum Solo. (For this plan, the choreography instruction is available separately in the PPV section.) 

Training Plans are rated by level according to the mix of classes selected for that training plan.  Plans are rated as below  If a plan includes a significant focus on Jamila vocabulary, that is noted in the rating with a J (example:  J1).

• 1:  100 Level, Fundamentals 1 and 2
• 2:  200 Level, Foundations 1 and 2
• 3:  300 Level, Intermediate 1 and 2
• 4:  400 Level, Performance 1 and 2

If a choreography is included as part of the plan, it may or may not be the exact level of the plan. In some cases, a training plan might include a choreography that is lower or higher in level than the chosen classes

Use the same training plans as mentioned above in “Where do I begin?”.  

Did you know that you can test for the 100 Level online?  Learn more about Fundamentals 1 and 2 on our main website (CLICK HERE).

Once you have a good working knowledge of 100 Level material, you have a large selection of Training Plans.  Although most include a choreography, you certainly don’t have to learn the choreography.  Even if a Training Plan is set for 6 or 8 weeks, you can take more or less time to complete the material.  Some plans contain readings and additional training tools required by Certification Program members, but you can divide up the material based on works best for you!

Here are the training plans designed to develop from the 100 Level to the 200 Level.  The choreography (if any) for these plans is included as part of a regular class subscription.

• Princess of Cairo 
• Tabla Solo 
• Bridging the Gap 

For these training plans, the choreography instruction is available separately in the PPV section.

• Shams 
• Syncopations 
• En Rah 
• Elf Leyla 
• Ana Fi Intazarak 
• Ismaouni 
• Unforeseen
• Chic Chac Choc 

These training plans are excellent for Foundations 1 and 2 training.

• Suhaila S2 Solid Ground
• Jamila L2 
• Into the Night
• Nar El Ghera 
• S2 Challenge
• Ciftitelli Choreography

For the following Foundations 1 and 2 training plans, the choreography instruction portion of the plan is available separately in the PPV section.

• El Samer 
• Raks El Zagat 
• 1 thru 8 
• Cymbal Dance
• L2FCDS.  Fundamentals 1 (S1) certification required to access.
• Unforeseen
• Saidi Tahtib
• Pot Dance
• Sabriye Miye Miye
• Here With Me
• Rakkes Suhaila Drum Solo
• Leyla Khaleegi
• Iraqi Pop
• Funky Gawazi
• Listen
• Standing Sword
• Lebanese Cane
• Cane Dance
• Renaissance Faire Sword
• Zay El Hawa

For the 200 Level, these training plans include specific content that is included as part of the testing.

For Foundations 1 (S2) testing, use these training plans:

• Princess of Cairo
• Syncopations
• Chic Chac Choc 
• L2FCDS
• SL2 Solid Ground,
• SL2 Challenge

For Foundations 2 (J2) testing, use these training plans:

• Shams El Shamouseh
• El Samer
• Ismaouni
• 1 thru 8
• JL2 Rotation

We developed several training plans around higher level choreographies.  You can see the list in the Training Plan section.  Adjust the training plan to the time frame that works for you.  

Note that some choreographies are available only to students with Salimpour certification.  

Not really a question, but we hear you!  Lots of students want to binge on choreography learning.  Go for it.  Do what works best for you.

But then you can still follow the training plan and use the assigned choreography segments as a chance to review and refine.  Or not!  It's all up to you.

Remember that learning choreography takes time.  We often say we "learn" a choreography once we've taken a class and can remember the moves and sequencing.  But that's just the first (and easiest) step to learning a choreography.  It takes time and practice for the movements to become your own.  And then in our dance form, we have a cultural component to respect, and that takes significant time and study, as well.

The training plans were designed as a means to keep students training every week with a variety of classes.  Most were coordinated with a choreography, but you can do the training plan without learning the choreography, or you can learn the choreography without the full training plan.  You can adapt the training plans as needed.  Be creative.  Some approaches might be:

• Purchase the choreography PPV for a second month so that you have the video available throughout the full training plan.
• Purchase the choreography PPV for only one month, but double up the choreography assignments so they can be covered in one month.  
• Learn the choreography all at once and then use the sections assigned per week as a guide for review.

Of course, the video has a lot of value.  Written choreography notes only tell a certain percentage of the story.  After you learn the sequencing, moves, and steps in a choregraphy, we recommend going back and relearning from the video again.  The second time, you notice even more!

Wonderful!  If you have a successful plan you'd like to share, complete with selected classes from our catalog, we'd love to feature it as one of our programs.  (Please provide catalog numbers for the chosen classes.(