Bella Donna Bellydance DVD Review

Finally reviewing this DVD online. This was produced from the BellaDonna Dance Troupe based out of Houston, Texas. It is a choreography instruction DVD.

First of all my overall opinion of this DVD is it is great. The choreography is cute, I taught it to my student bellydance troupe Raq Garden. The breakdown of the DVD is each of the 4 dancers teaches a section of the choreography. The best were Tamara and Sahira. Zylona's section in my opinion was the worst. This section is where you "feel" the choreography but doesn't count it out nor does she do the same thing twice. Her performance of this section was poor in my opinion and not helpful if you are trying to learn a choreography, especially if you are not an experienced dancer or a dancer who relies on counting.

They perform each section in the end with each dancer doing their section in costume. In the bonus material they do a group choreo to the same dance with minor changes. The group choreo is great and this is what I taught my students, modified just slightly. Also this choreo features the options with zils. It is just a triplet or a basic beledi. Very easy to do.

There are some portions of the performance I feel are not very professional and at times feel like they just threw it together. There are parts where the dancers obviously don't know their part when they do it as a group and clearly look around at other dancers for guidance. In my opinion I think this is slightly tacky. These girls are billed as a professional troupe and perform many nights a week. I expected a cleaner performance from them on this DVD (I mean you couldn't do it a second time while filming so it looks great?) I mean come on ladies I know you are better than that!!

Overall I do love this DVD, the choreography was a great choreo for my advanced students. We are now performing it on a regular basis. I am very proud of my students! :)

Cheers,
Lauren

Zucchini Noodles

As many of you know I am gluten free. All of my stomach issues were tied to wheat and oats. I have been feeling great and now I am learning how to cook all over again. I love pasta but need to stay away from it. A friend of mine recommended I make zucchini noodles. They are fabulous! Here is the recipe! And I am not that big of a fan of zucchini so I am surprised I like them.

First remove the outer skin of you zucchini. For 2 people I use about 3 zucchini and I usually have something else with it. Next with your vegetable peeler, create your ribbons all the way down one side of the zucchini until you reach the seed core. Turn to next side and repeat. (sorry no pictures!)

Next in a large pan, add a dash of olive oil and a tiny bit of butter, dash of salt and pepper (to liking). Heat pan to medium or medium high heat (we have an old stove so we have to use medium high, so it depends on your stove). Add your noodles.

Sautee your noodles for about 10 minutes. You don't want them soggy but you don't want them to be crisp either. If you go too far they will turn out like this (I got distracted while cooking)

Yup they shrunk but now you know what not to do!

Next, add your sauce. I opted for alfredo sauce. Mix while in the pan and serve!

OMG they are delish! My boyfriend loves them. I mean loves them! You are fuller longer after eating these noodles rather than being hungry an hour later like with regular pasta. We love them so much we are now trying to cook them once a week for dinner. Hope to try new combos with seasoning and sauces. Mom would be proud I'm eating more vegetables.

Here's to more posts soon and healthy eating! :)

Cheers,

Lauren