Search - Belly Dance Stylistics on DVD

Don't waste your money!

CherryJellyBean | San Diego | 01/21/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"What a waste of $25! At only 45 min's, the dvd starts by showing a ton of pic's of Hannah in all sorts of poses. And then drags slowly through beginner moves and that's about it! Then, they go over a following-the-bouncing-ball tray choreo without even going over balancing trays. The title is somewhat misleading, as if I knew it was just another beginner dvd, and a bad one at that, I wouldn't have wasted my time and money."

Poor production & camerawork, very little instruction

Lena, LMT | Nassau, NY | 07/08/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"First 5 min is all pictures & about Hannah, the longest intro I'd ever seen.
Suddenly it goes into hand undulations, wrist circles, snake arms, head slides, vertical & horizontal figure 8, rib shifts to the side & then front & back to rib circles, hip circles & then straight to undulations up & then down, omnis (small hip circles), large hip circles & then putting a rib circle, roll down, hip circle, then roll up into one movement in 20 min.
Now, this is Hannah going slowly obviously one time, then the video is replayed over & over & again even in slow motion. A woman's voice over gives barely a sentence on how to do it, mostly saying "like shown here." What is said is helpful, but there is nowhere near enough. You only see Hannah's neck to top of the thighs except for even more close ups for head & arm movements, which doesn't help the beginner, because it's important to see what the knees & feet are doing. This makes it hard to practice & follow-along. The time spent on each movement is not long enough before moving on to the next one.
The last 20 min is taking the moves & putting them into a short choreography routine w/Hannah & two backup women on a stage. It is done by obviously again, the women did the routine once in front of a mirror, looking serious/dour & concentrating while watching their form. It plays bit of the routine a couple of times & in slow motion like the previous section, then plays the next bit. It's great they teach you a routine, but again, if they had a mirror, they should have shown it with them facing the mirror with the camera behind when introducing the routine so you can follow more easily like a real dance class.
As the other reviewer said, they have trays & they only mention to use a head scarf, nothing more.
They show Hannah & the two women dancing the routine again, this time smiling more & not staring at the mirror which they should have only used for the instructing of the routine.
They also show a cool walking sideways move so your body doesn't go up/down if you went sideways w/both heels up/both heels down. They do left one heel up/toes down, right heel down/toes up, right one heel up/toes down, left heel down/toes up, so you're pigeon toed, then toes facing out/heels touching, etc. They only show that w/a close up of her going one direction, then the other only, nothing more. This is not enough instruction sicne there was no verbal help and the feet were only shown from part of the recorded routine. It would have helped if she was facing away from the camera & because of this, I had trouble following.

Pros:
Hannah is a wonderful dancer, has great body awareness, anatomy, etc.
You learn a routine
Many basic bellydance moves are "taught" or shown

Cons:
Almost non-existent verbal instruction
Poor editing & use of replay video repeatedly instead of real time instruction which feels cold/boring.
Even with the replays, there isn't enough time to practice before the next move is introduced, one should not have to keep REWing
Too close-up camera angle so you cannot see rest of the body, so many will be lost. It should be used only for dance performance, not for instruction.
Use of slow-motion does not replace longer recorded instruction, having the instructor go slower as they instruct is the proper way.

7/17/09 - I had added a clip to this review to show the great walking sideways w/o bringing both heels up, but I was emailed about copyright infringement though the clip was less 90 seconds. It showed good content I thought would help those on the fence about purchasing this product in a good way. I never claim that my opinion is same for everyone. Maybe the producer/director responsible for this program will show a trailer that customers can see to make their own choice. I wish they all did so which is slowly catching on. Trailers are not only for mainstream movies."