Yes so say this title 5 times fast, I dare you....
When I first turned on the DVD and saw the dancer, I thought this lady must be from New Jersey. I don't know why I just felt it.
Turned out after some looking up, yup she is based in New Jersey. Just call it jersey girl intuition. ha!!
The curtains, the statues (which in different scenes change!), being filmed at a house. Were amusing. However, the sound was not that good. She was miked so that helped. And yes you could see her dance.
At the end, she does 3 dances to different music rhythms. The costumes were a bit crazy. She does try to tell you what she is doing so you can TRY to follow along. This costume just, er, blew me away. LOL
She does 22 sections of moves. It is all hips really. There is no chest or arms really. Actually she has a LOT of upper body movement in her teaching. So there is some lack of isolation. Her dance vocabulary is different than mine. Each section she does go over a basic move and sometimes offers variants to it. She does offer good explanation of the moves but her technique is not clean. She does show video from the back so as we say in the bellydance teaching world, "follow that butt".
Verdict: Toss, I found myself bored with the tempo. I did get some different ideas for moves which was a plus. It is not bad. I just didn't care for her dancing with the choreography. It was to basic even tempo music. Nothing I could really garner or take from. I like a little spice and drama to my music and choreography. Although, the drum solo was not bad. There was also no warm up or cool down. This is definitely geared towards the beginner dancer looking to expand their move repertoire.
Curious, I looked her up as her DVD (which had chapter divisions for each move- thank you btw!!) had her website. She has actually danced for Christina Aguilara for the 2000 Music Awards. I watched some video on youtube also. I had mixed feelings about the youtube. Some are lackluster even though she is a good dancer. Then I saw her perform at a birthday party and realized something. She was so good at the birthday party, I mean entertaining and engaging. She was a good dancer. So I think what we have in this case is a dancer who is a phenomenal improv and audience-engaging dancer but ok at teaching and doing formal choreography. Her arena is the live arena.
Not all bellydancers are good improv dancers. Not all bellydancers are good at choreography. Some are better as solo dancers while others are better at group dancers. Some are good teachers, some are bad. Where do I fall in this category? I'll tell you- I am a formal choreography dancer. I hate solos, I like groups. Not always the best at improving or live small group performances, I can't always get audiences to participate with me. My strengths are also staging for groups. I also think I am a decent teacher, tho I like teaching those who have already learned and are looking to clean up technique. So I am a better intermediate/advance teacher then beginner. My background in anatomy has thoroughly helped breaking down moves in order to clean it up. I also have the "eye". LOL so there you go! :)
Cheers,
Lauren
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