Discover Bellydance: Basic Dance Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The twins are fine dancers, but the "teaching" style in this DVD is basically the old "I dance; you follow." The twins do the movements and a voice over tells you what they are doing, but doesn't really tell you *how*. There was no break down worth speaking of.
To make things worse, often voice-over "instructions" are out of sync with the movements on the screen. For example, in the hip circle segment, which instruction consists of "front, side, back, side", when she says "Front", she's moving to the side, when she says "side" she's already moving to the back. How is the poor beginner to know what to do? This segment especially bothered me because it didn't address a big safety issue. On the forward portion of a hip circle, it is necessary to clench the buttocks muscles to protect the lower back. Nothing was said about this.
Another example of how this DVD could seriously confuse a beginner: during the Hip Drop segment, one twin was doing a hip lift. A perceptive student closely analyzing the movements would be perplexed: is the focus on the down or on the up? They don't really say.
There were also things that were just wrong: like they started the movements slowly of course, then increased the speed. The narration said, "Now let's try that at double time" and then increased speed from half time to full time.
I confess, I didn't watch the entire DVD. I was too annoyed at how [hard] the instruction was to be able to pay attention to it all the way through. I also got bored. Issues that if they were discussed at all, were hidden in the 2nd half of the program: safe movement, weight changes, connecting the dance to the music, and posture.
Production matters I didn't like were the inappropriate close-ups (like a close up on a face while demonstrating the hip circle), annoying artistic camera angles, and the alienating voice over. I like a teacher to talk to me, even if it's on a video.

If all an "instructional" video is going to do is show you what to do, without telling you how -- that is, leaving you to teach yourself -- you might as well buy a performance video of your favorite dancer and teach yourself how to dance like her.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Discover Bellydance: Basic Dance

Product Description:

The Discover Bellydance series teaches you authentic Egyptian Bellydance moves and fully choreographed dance routines. This program introduces the fundamental movements of Bellydancing. You will learn the basic dance moves that will enable you to perform a fully choreographed dance routine.After a satisfying warm-up, you will receive step-by-step instructions from identical twins Veena & Neena, on how to execute the upper and lower body movements associated with Bellydance. The elements are isolated and taught slowly, so you can learn each movement's subtleties. As you become more comfortable with the moves, you can develop speed and expression. Veena & Neena will teach you hip drops and shimmies, undulations, half-turns and wrist circles combined with graceful arm and shoulder moves. Now you are ready to integrate these movements into a fun and exciting choreographed dance routine!