Search - Evolution: Tribal Fusion Bellydance Performances on DVD

Good but not excellent

Zeina | United States | 04/21/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this DVD and had to have it right away. I was so excited by the idea of a tribal fusion DVD so I bought it right away and popped it in my DVD player as soon as I got it. I wasn't totally disappointed but I wasn't totally impressed either.

For starters, there are 2 different sword dances on the DVD which I found a bit repetitive since there are only 11 performances. There was a performance by Karis with a hoop...reminded me of Cirque du Soleil not bellydance and there was vey little bellydancing in that number. It was completely out of place on the DVD and I was left thinking WTF?

I found a few of the performances really good. Zoe Jakes (now on the BDSS tour), the always fabulous Urban Tribal, and Domba. The final track on the DVD is a fire performance with some bellydance. It's not a bad number but I'm not personally into fire. If you like that sort of thing then you'll probably like that performance. Devidasi was also good but more fusion than I was expecting. Not something I'll view many times but it was still good.

The rest of the performances I found to be OK but nothing special. Kami's performance looked to me like a lackluster copy of Rachel Brice. Also, while I am usually a huge fan of Ava Fleming, I wasn't too impressed with her sword dance.

Overall, I don't regret buying the DVD. There are a few I watch over and over so it was worth it for me. I wish they would have put some of the bigger stars of fusion dance of this DVD like Rachel Brice and Jill Parker's Ultra Gypsy troupe. I would say buy this DVD if you're looking for something to show you the broad range of styles tribal fusion is covering these days."

Variety... spice of life

Rosie | Kirksville USA | 08/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I teach Poi (fire spinning) as a performance art and I costume for a belly troupe. I really love this DVD because it runs the gammut from georgeous to tacky with plenty of mistakes and professionalism.

The opening menu is annoying long and cannot be fastforwarded.

Kami Liddle didn't impress me. She's good, fun to watch... but nothing to teach me. Solos are too easy to improvise for my puropses. I did like her head gear... it goes a long way is hiding the fact that modern belly dancers make their tops from decorated underwear.

Urban Tribal was very clean, very professional, very smooth. The timing was perfect. They use some Hula movements; it was delicious and mesmerizing. My class watches repeatedly on movie nights.

Zoe Jakes is isolation heavy and I don't consider that very Eqyptian... she does eyebrow isolations though, so I can forgive her for mis-titling the dance. She touches her hair and costume too much to be professional and it looks like she made her costume from a sportsbra. I use this number to stress the importance of a supple wrist... he left one is, her right isn't. :P I spot for details.

The opening angle on Ava Fleming's dance is pretty risque... artisticly is good camera work, but Ava's costume doesn't fit her propperly. Her dance skills are lovely particularly the ones she does when she isn't standing.

Domba I like because it solves many troupe related issues smoothly. Individuality with in a group, formations (standard and non), unity vs parts, transitions. They do a little bangara... but they don't quite get it in sync. Still, the mistakes are well covered. I like to show it to my troupe so they know what it looks like to an audiance when they make slight mistakes. This is a favorite.

Karis: I like him because he is an example of what not to do (touching your costumes, wearing flimsy pieces, neon underpants, legwarmers with no shoes). There was no bio info on him, though... I found that a little strange. Even though he's not doing bellydance... well only about 10 seconds of it... I'm thrilled that he is there, just because in all my DVDs of bellydance, the only males I have are drummers. I can see where he pulled bits of the aesthetic, but its not enough to call it belly.

Elizabeth Strong: good, not impressive... she does full splits which is annoying... I like to think that this dance is accessable to everyone. Also, you can see her bra is a bra through her beladi coat.

Devidasi has Kimono-ish things & Japanese demon makeup, Thai finger estensions, midriff Cheongsam and fans. They would have done better to pick one country or ethnicity to fuse with belly instead of the entire contenent. They are real people though... not size 2s. And their neck isolations are amazing. When one of the girls trips, it is a nice recovery, so I like the piece. I like to teach from it too... their make-up is too big for their stage, although it is well done, and the application of hair gel can do wonders for a professional image.

Meleah is another who fuses an entire contenent when she would do better to pick a single ethnicity. African dance styles are less prop & costume heavy than Aisan, but its still too broad to make a solid fusion piece... with a different cosutume, she could bill it as a hip-hop fusion much more successfully. You can tell what parts of the choreography she never thought of: like what to do with her hands when she moves her arms, and where to focus... still, she commits to every movement which goes a long way toward making a good impression.

Aubre ... I never caught her in a mistake, her techinques are excellent, she should be the perfect example of a stellar preformance... but she lacks stage pressance. Its intangible, but its missing. Its what keeps even the most perfect dancer from being a great dancer.

Urban Gypsy... not sure what to think of the digeridoo...
it's well played, but not well mic-ed. Fire fingers pretty standard for a belly/fire show, could use some more traveling steps. Fire eating... not impressed: like Karis, I can see the influence, but the actual dance is missing. Fire fans was a very good fusion; lots of traveling, lots of solid dance techinque (both belly and Tahitian). The Poi... georgeous, but missing the belly aspect and safety straps (?). I can forgive the lack of shimmies however, because I know just how hard that can be. The hoop... decent belly skill, but not enough fuel in the wicks. Over all, they should have timed the burns better so that one dancer didn't distract from the next.

The special features have a radically different volume than the dances... annoying.

Still my favorite DVD in the genera.
"

It grew on me. I love most of this stuff

A woman | 06/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
I found the solo by Aubre to be superb. It looks different to me, maybe because it's very dynamic. Perhaps her presence is somewhat inconsistent and may not connect with everyone, but I personally like it, especially when she playfully "stalks" her "snakes".

The duet by Urban Tribal is a true delight, despite the fact that the *urban* costumes and hairstyles could be more interesting.

Kami Liddle's number may not look original, but it's an excellent classic tribal performance (or should I call it "traditional tribal style"?..).

I largely liked the sword dance by Ava Fleming, but if I were her, I would slightly change some elements (in both dance and costume). I absolutely admired her undulations on the floor. Jaw-dropping.

In the other sword dance, by Elizabeth Strong, I would make still more changes, and especially in the floorwork, which includes some anti-mysterious angles. Plus, the dance progresses too slowly. While she moves very smoothly and softly, in this case it only makes it harder for me to stay awake.

Domba's troupe performance has interesting choreography (although at first I thought there was less bellydancing in this fusion than I would have liked). Some of the dancers are not always graceful enough, but whenever I perceive the troupe as a whole without zooming in on individual dancers, it seems pretty good.

It took me a while to begin to like the Egyptian fusion by Zoe Jakes. I tried to imagine that she came from ancient Egypt, but in the beginning I could only see a modern American girl. I guess it was mostly due to her facial expressions... and the back of her bra resembling sportswear. I would get too distracted by some moves that I didn't feel a lot of connection to at first, and could barely stand the annoying music. Eventually, however, I noticed that Zoe's moves are admirably fluid and thoughtfully chosen.

The other two fusions, by Meleah and by Devidasi, haven't grabbed me so far. They seem exhaustingly long, and don't convince me that bellydance can be seamlessly blended with either African or Asian dance, respectively.

Finally, there are a couple of numbers of the kind that I love to watch once, but don't need on DVD: the hoop dance by Karis (male) and the fire dance by Urban Gypsy. Strictly speaking, they are not about bellydance. Nevertheless, they are very impressive performances (though not flawless)."