Search - Bellydance W/ Jillina: Drum Solo Choreography Vol 3 on DVD

Energetic and Fun!

Alechka16 | Ottawa, ON, Canada | 08/22/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am a beginner who has only ever used belly dance DVDs and the drum solo is my favourite part of belly dance so of course I had to have this DVD. This DVD is about 1 hour and 46 minutes and as the title says, it is more a choreography than an instruction of drum solos. I found this to be a wonderful DVD but unlike Jenna's Heartbeat of Belly Dance and Neon's Belly Dance Rhythms Workout, there is no explanation of the rhythms. She does show you fun combinations for the rhythms and it's easy to figure it out on your own but I just like knowing the background on new rhythms.
There aren't many rhythms covered and the combinations are not spread out equally among them either. She gives three combinations for the ayub, two for the hasha and one each for the malfouf and masmoudi. There is an option for instruction and practice for each combination.
There is also a technique section that covers the egyptian shimmy, hip accents (hip drops and such), omi with a twist, hagala, african shimmy, vertical figure eight, and stomach flutter. This section also provides an instruction and practice section for each technique. I love Jillina's instruction and she has wonderful clean and precise movements so along with the music it's actually fun to drill these more basic movements along with her.
I haven't had too much experience with the choreography section yet, as I'm still working on the combinations but it at least looks good. She does break down the steps before going into it.
Another thing I really enjoy bout this DVD is how professional and beautiful everything looks. The background is Middle Eastern inspired and Jillina does all the section barefoot on a rug in front of a mirror. Just the set up is inspiring in itself. There's also a few bonuses such as behind the scenes and two performances.
Overall I would recommend this DVD to anyone who loves drum solos and choreography type of DVDs. I'm not sure if I would recommend this for a complete beginner but I think it is accessible enough that with enough practice great progress can be made. There are certain moves that Jillina expects you to already know that aren't covered in the technique section but they aren't terribly difficult to do by watching her in the instruction segment (such as the hip circle). Still, it may be better to make sure you have a stronger foundation and can execute all the moves properly first. As for more advanced dancers, since I'm quite far from that it's hard for me to say but this DVD could be useful for drilling some rhythm combinations. All in all, I found it to be great fun and definitely not easy for a beginner such as myself."