Review: Instant Belly Dancer: A Crash Course in Bellydance, Vol.1 - Curves

[shanmonster]

Neon recently sent me a wack of dance DVDs, and the first one I watched was Instant Belly Dancer: A Crash Course in Bellydance, Vol.1 - Curves. I have to admit, I was a bit put off by the title. Instant bellydancer? Ha! I get prospective students who expect to be professional dancers by the end of a six-week course, and that's just not going to happen. I mean, would you expect to be a professional athlete after nine hours of training? I hope not!

In any case, the DVD will not be churning out thousands of professional dancers, but it will be giving plenty of people a much better understanding of core movements than will many other videos. The best thing about the instruction in this particular video is its use of simple computer graphics demarcating circular movements.

I've often used similar shapes to explain movements in my own classes, but with gestures drawn by my hand rather than with overlaid images. This video makes me wish I could have similar special effects for my classes! The graphics make it obvious where the pelvis/head/ribcage ought to be at any given time.

Another good thing about the video is the way Neon explains posture and movement. In many tapes, certain safety elements are glossed over (e.g. the importance of not hyperextending your joints), but Neon makes note of these points which are particularly crucial to novices.

Although I disagree with Neon on certain nuances within the dance, I chalk that up to a difference of style. She is a kooky woman, but in a very charismatic sort of way. I found myself laughing at her earnest facial expressions and turns of phrase, but not in a negative way. She looks like a really fun chick. Heh...

I'd like to stress that this video is not aimed at students wishing to learn classical Middle Eastern dance. Instead, it is geared more toward club dancers. Some of the movements (like the bouncing hip circle with hip thrusts) look rather raunchy, and I can't imagine doing them on stage in bedlah. Similarly, I wouldn't teach them in my classes. However, I'm sure these movements are well-suited to the local nightclub/discotheque where a bit of raunch is all the style.

Although this doesn't look like a huge-budget feature, it does have excellent production values. The sound is good. It's easy to see what Neon is doing at any given time due to the high contrast between her and the black background. Although she has a strong Russian accent, she is easy to understand, and her phrasing is articulate and concise.

As far as I can tell, this is the strongest of Neon's videos. If you're planning on getting any (and this is an excellent bargain), this is a good place to start.

Comments

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

The first time I saw belly dancing, it was at a middle eastern restaurant.
They had a buffet, and at one point during the night, 2 dancers hit the floor and dragged up the odd diner into the fray.
I was a bit taken aback at the moves, never having seen any belly dancing before, and one dancer was blonde, which kind of distracted me a bit from the whole middle eastern theme of the restaurant.
However, the some of the diners who got pulled up to dance with the dancers, and who hit the floor themselves when it became a regular dance floor open to all, were for-real middle easterners. This one guy who got pulled up to dance with the belly dancers didn't look the part, he looked kind of awkward at first glance, but had all the same moves. A mother & her daughter had the hip moves when they were dancing together. It's one thing to see a dancer in a costume putting on a show, and another to see ordinary folks using the same moves just dancing for fun. It was a neat night.