Search - Dance with Len Goodman on DVD

Disapointing for female brand new beginners

Lisa Holmes | Upland, CA USA | 06/16/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I, too, was inspired by Dancing With The Stars, and signed up at a well-known dance school franchise. After 2-3 weeks of attending private and group lessons, I got this DVD thinking it'd serve as a refresher so I could practice at home. To my surprise: no instructions for the ladies. Instead, when Len gives the instructions slowly, the lady moves out of the hold to stand BESIDE the man, and THEY BOTH DO THE MAN'S moves! The camera zooms in to show both of them doing the exact footwork side by side--helpful for men only, I'd say! I want to see that pair of pumps do the lady's role! When they finally do the entire movement in the hold (in position), it is too short of a time period for a new beginner to absorb what the lady is doing. I wish that they had eliminated Len's 4-lines of poetry that he does to (aptly)describe each dance, and use the time to teach the ladies' role.
Also, for Rhumba, the beginning basic move in my class has been the box-step, but this shows another (easy) move (that I learned later.)The Foxtrot shown in the DVD was SO different it really threw me, but later Len shows a variation called the Social Foxtrot, which is what I've learned.
Watching the DVD again, after a total of 4 weeks of studio training, I could make much more sense of what was being shown. But if you are a female just beginning ballroom dance, there have got to be better DVD's."

Elegant basic ballroom dance instruction

Penny | 06/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered this DVD for my parents' anniversary despite the previous review mainly because they love Dancing with the Stars and the finals were on their anniversary. As you can imagine, I was a bit apprehensive about it. I was pleasantly surprised!

First, the previous reviewer is correct. They do demonstrate the man's steps and then expect the ladies to do the "natural opposite." I found that to be quite easy if I learned the male version first, and then reversed it. If I tried to think "His left is my right," etc. as I was first learning it, it was hard. On the video the lady does the male version as they teach the steps, and then when they get into the holds and face each other, she does her version. (You can pretty much watch her feet the whole time.)

Next, the professional dancers do have exhibition dances to demonstrate what a Fox Trot, Quick Step, Waltz, etc. CAN look like. Do not expect to be able to follow them after five to ten minutes of instruction per dance! This is a demonstration of THE BASICS.

(For some reason I can't edit the number of stars.) I gave it five stars originally right after I had watched all of the instructions, but before I had clicked on the part of the DVD that said practice. I would take a couple of stars off for that. When I first clicked on that, I thought the DVD was stuck! The practice portion for each dance is just a still picture with music! Couldn't they have just filmed the dancers doing the basic steps to music for a few minutes of practice time? How hard would that be? This way you have to flip back to the instructions to remind yourself of the steps and then go back to the music section if you want to practice. (Personally, I think leaving the DVD on the instructions and popping in a CD of appropriate music would be easier than that for practice!)

I'm still glad that I got it because it helped clarify the differences between a lot of dances, but I'm not as impressed with it as I was originally."

Extremely Poor DVD

Hal M. Burns | North Carolina | 07/31/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"A complete and total waste of money. I bought this to learn from a master after seeing Len dance on DWTS. Though this covers several dances the instruction is virtually worthless: After showing only the mans steps (as I knew from previous reviews-no worries-I dance) there was no showing of the basic steps shown in rhythm, only set show routines by his dancers. Len-SHAME !!!"

A little different

Fred in NC | North Carolina, USA | 12/16/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Great entertainment from a special guy. The dances are not done in the standard American Ballroom style, but I got some ideas from them. Considering the low price I am glad I bought it. If you want to learn to dance from the beginning, get something else."