Search - The Heartbeat of Bellydance: Rhythms & Belly Dance Combinations for Drum Solos on DVD

Wonderful DVD

Eden Russell | Provincetown, MA United States | 07/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a beginner and I've never received face-to-face instruction even though I attend bellydancing-style workouts for beginners. This is why I was taken a little aback when I first watched the DVD, especially Jenna's performances.

If you've never ever bellydanced before, you'll need another set of instructions to start with first. I saw that Jenna is making a new DVD (basics and beyond) and I suppose that she will give more detailed explanation in it. I'd say this very DVD is at intermidiate level even though beginners will find it useful just like advanced dancers.

I've read the reviews for almost all DVDs available on amazon and I noticed that usually beginners give high ratings and more advanced dancers are very critical. It seems to me that everyone agrees it's a wonderful DVD and I find very indicative of its quality.

I have to point that in order to learn the moves well, it's necessary to use a mirror especially if you're not experienced/well familiar with these moves. It's easy enough to follow Jenna along but when I cast a glance at the mirror, more often than not I realize they look very little like Jenna's. This is especially true about the hip accents.

PROS of this DVD:
1. It's long and inclusive. It has a warmup, drills to improve technique/ train muscles, a section divided into three groups - at beginning, intermidiate and advanced level. The rhythm workshop is great for learning drum solo rhythms and their interpretations. There are several seperate performances. It's 85 mins. It's great value for your money.
2. JENNA is an example of what a dancer should look like. Her dancing is very refined, she movements - very delicate. She's an example of what it is like to blend mastery with grace. Most of the dancers I'm watched tend to do exaggerated and jerky movements which is very much unlike her and yet her dancing looks just as good, if not better.
3. What I love about it is that it suggests three full choreographies and I got the sense of completion with that.
4. I'm very happy with the shimmy drills. They are a wonderful workout and they also gave me the chance to watch Jenna shimmy for a long time. It made me think "oh maybe I'll be able to do it like that some day".
5. Jenna is dancing in front of a mirror. Even though I have a few remarks about that, it's a fairly good idea.
6. Jenna has a good attitude as an instruction. I dislike the fake smiles that so many professional dancers have like *plastered* on their faces (like Neena and Veena). Her dancing is inspiring in the way that it makes you feeling bellydancing is fun and enjoyable.
7. The DVD is organized in nice short segments that you can watch and rewind as many times as you want to fit your needs. You can do it again and again and again. Probably at least 6 months worth of practice is packed up in this DVD.
8. Her performances in the seperate section are quite inspiring. I'm sure advanced, maybe even professional dancers would find them interesting and useful.
9. What I love about this DVD is the traditional dancing. I also got Neon's Crash Course DVD and I was disappointed to hear music you could listen to in nightclubs. There are ONLY typical mid-easterns rhythms included, no fusion.


CONS of the DVD:
1. As a beginner, I was taken aback the first time I saw this DVD. It's very hard at first and Jenna does not give very detailed instructions (what a person who's never bellydanced before would need). However, I think more advanced dancers would enjoy this approach and find too much explanation boring.
2. I saw that someone else complained about not being able to see her feet (if she's on tiptoe or not). I had the same problem. My bigger problem was that Jenna is facing the mirror, not the camera and it's much harder for me to learn watching the back. If I need to watch what she does with her belly I have to stop dancing and stare (I have a small screen). I'm happy that when she performs it's the other way round, so I can get a better idea of how she does things.

To sum everything up, I would recommend this DVD to everybody. It's a great value for many many hours of excercise, combinations, choreography, everything. I have to warn beginners (especially those who've never bellydanced before) that they're likely to find this DVD uphill at first, so I would recommend to them to get another something else as well (Neena and Veena or Neon, etc). I'm sure that if you wait until September for Jenna's other DVD, it would make an awesome first step to mastering the wonderful choreography in this DVD."

One of the best out there!

Nicole | New York, NY | 08/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jenna is a great teacher and this DVD is so helpful. The warmup is very thorough and provides great preparation for the rest of the DVD, or whatever parts you pick to work with. The choreographies are broken down in a couple of different ways. You can either run through the whole thing, or you can learn a section then put it together with the music before going onto the next section. Parts that may be confusing, such as a turn going into the next step, are shown in slow motion up close so you can see what your foot placement should be.

The dances are fun to learn and are taught wonderfully. Jenna explains everything very well. You can watch her dance to the routines in full costume in the performance section of the DVD, with some variations. She even does an improvisation piece with Raquy and another drummer, Carmine.

The section with Raquy is very informative and fun. She familiarizes the viewer with different rhythms while Jenna dances along.

I think the best part of this DVD is the drill section. You can work on shimmy layering and the 3/4 shimmy. I have yet to complete each part successfully, but I'm having fun in the meantime! It's a good way to get used to these difficult moves.

Hopefully Jenna puts out more instructional Dvds in the future. This one is a lot of fun and highly recommended!"