Middle Eastern Dance - What's New?

**This is the last chance to sign-up to be one of the beta testers for the new on-line course.**

Middle Eastern Dance University (MEDU, s division of Middle Eastern Dance.net) will be entering it's beta testing phase starting January 1, 2012.  Anyone interested in being a beta tester should contact me by December 31, 2011.  Requests made after 11:59pm on 12/31/11 will not be accepted.  This is an opportunity to take the class for free in exchange for testing it and reporting any bugs.  Just visit the Educational section of this site and click on the beta testers link to read more or contact me using the contact button to the left.

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There's a lot of new changes going on here at Middle Eastern Dance and it's not just the look and organization of the site.  New and improved content is being added in as the site is updated page by page.  The styles of dance section was one such addition but there's more!  Another really cool addition to the site will be on-line classes.  These classes will be like continuing education for bellydancers.  The first course being introduced will be History of Middle Eastern dance 101: Ancient Origins.  Before the course opens to the public it needs to run through a series of beta testing.  Beta Testers will get an opportunity to take the course for free in exchange for offering feedback and reporting issues with course managments software and materials.  If your interested you can apply through the educational section of this site or send me an e-mail if it's not working yet.  The beta testing will begin in January 2012 but I need to get testers lined up and added to the roster before we can begin.  I'm looking for a variety of people but this does require a commitment and requires actually taking the class and doing the work in it as well so only apply if you can commit to it and actually want to take an opportunity to learn.

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Well everyone, Phase II of the sites restructuring and updates are at about 30% meaning most of the movements pages are done.  The majority of the left over pages are the specialty pages on using props.  Some of those pages will not take much time to convert because they do not all have or require the video demonstrations meaning they can be quickly converted to the new look.  Most of the broken links should be fixed  in this section now but if your having trouble from a page in the old site style make sure you are using the side navigation buttons instead of text links.  I also wanted to make sure everyone knows that although the directories are still working they 1. are not currently linked to the main page and 2. No new submissions will be added until I start updating that section.  So if you've submitted a form to be entered in the directory or if you have requested changes please be aware that it will be a longer wait than listed to get those changes made.  The updating of the site is my first priority right now.  Also, if there is anything that the site does not have that you would really like to see on it now's the time to make such suggestions since I'm moving things around and adding in new things.  I'd love to hear from the sites users what they really want to see here.

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You may have noticed that the main page of Middle Eastern Dance.net has changed!  This is our new look and format that will be gradually applied in phases to the rest of the site.  Our new navigation menus are along the top of the page just under the banner.  I have officially finished re-organizing the structure of the Before you begin section and it's sub pages.  You'll notice a new set has been added to this section about styles of dance.  I do currently have two styles linked up and pretty much ready to go but the rest will get up there eventually (probably after I finish updating everything to the new structure and look).  All of the links should be correctly reconfigured in that section so if you had something bookmarked there you could now re-bookmark it under it's new url so that you can access it easily.  It won't be changing for a long time now.  Next up is the Movements section.  This is Phase II and I expect it to take a long time as it's got a lot of pages in that section.  Good news is that as each page is updated you may find new instructional videos and information so be sure to check back frequently!

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If you've been to Middle Eastern Dance.net before you probably are wondering "what the heck has happened here?" well... I decided it's time to restructure and update the look of the site.  With about 400 pages on this site you can imagine how difficult it can be to find and update things on a regular basis.  This is why the site needs a little more organization and restructuring.  I hope it will make it easier for me to update and improve the site.  In addition, since I'll be going through each page and editing and moving things I also concluded that this would be an optimal time to update the look of the site as well.  It's had the same look for over 10 years and while it got many compliments when it was new, let's face it modern sites are much more slick so I hope the new look will go over well.  You will probably notice that links are changing and not every page has yet been updated so please update your bookmarks frequently and check back to see what's new.

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