In reading Sureyya’s review, I’m thinking she’s not aware of the fact that several years ago Rachel Brice did some modeling for a photographer, and signed a model release authorizing that photographer to sell the photos he took of her to any idiot that wants to use them.  Her photos can be purchased through “stock photography” services, and the model release that she signed means this can be done without her knowledge or approval of how these photos might be used.  It’s obvious to me that the commercial publisher who released Sherry’s book as part of this kit simply purchased one of those photos from the stock photography service, and neither Rachel nor Sherry had anything to say about it.

I think it’s a shame that the publisher used Rachel’s photo for the cover instead of one of the photos of Nefertiti.  It deceives potential buyers by misrepresenting the 1970′s-era contents of the book, and it also detracts from Sherry’s original purpose in creating the book, that of honoring her mother.

I was dismayed to discover that this unscrupulous publisher has plagiarized me!  Compare the first paragraph of the “Summary” part of my 2003 review (at the above link) with the “Product Description” that appears on the page of Amazon.com that sells this book!

I made this book as a tribute to my mother who died in 1999.  She opened the first belly dance studio in Phoenix about 1974 and had it open until 1980.  I grew up learning to belly dance.  When she was sick and dying I found a stack of pictures which I knew were going to be used to write a small book.  So I took her pictures and made the book for her.  These pictures were take in the 1970′s.  The book is made with her picture (Nefertiti) not with Rachael Brice’s picture.  She also had the ALBUM, which I had digitally re-engineered to become a CD.  On the CD, it gives all the information about the musicians.  The songs on the ALBUM were all together in two routines with two small songs also.  So I broke the tracks to create individual tracks.  However there is NO information on what songs they are, or anything on the ALBUM, so I had no way of putting the information on the CD.  And yes, it was recorded in a very small studio here in Phoenix with 4 musicians.  Not a large production. 

A publisher (Mud Puddle) asked me to use the rights of the book and CD to make a kit.  The first run of the kit has some very good zills, however the last two runs, they put cheaper and cheaper zills in it.  It was a total surprise to me that they put Rachael Brice’s picture on it.  I had signed an agreement that they could change the cover and the layout, mine is a landscape 8 1/2 x 11 inch book with my mothers picture on it. But I never knew they were going to use somebody else picture. I only get $0.20 cents per sell of the kit.  But I could NEVER have afforded to make my own, plus it is very difficult to get books distributed to book stores.  I only sell mine at Amazon.com.  See link at the bottom of this.

Now, you must remember this book represents the way they taught in the 1970s.  We were all taught to do the turkish drop.  It was a normal part of the routine.  This is for nostalgia.  We used to dance 40 minutes at a time, not the 5 to 10 minutes like today.

Also the wording is from the 1970′s and that is the way it was taught.  These younger people who now have a standard language for shoulder shimmy’s (slow and fast) don’t get the idea that we didn’t.  We called it a bust shake. 

There was only these few pictures to work with, and this is strictly for fun.  I was never meant to be a total program to learn from. 

http://www.amazon.com/Nefertiti-Presents-Belly-Dancing-Basics/dp/1591961181/ref=cm_cr_dp_orig_subj

And get this, they even spelled my name wrong, Sherry Jeffries