::more than somewhat::

I wasn’t overly interested in Anasma’s Bellydance: Hip Hop, listed on the WDNY website for a while now. I haven’t been exploring any hip hop styles at all and find that there’s more than enough to be done in regular bellydance that I haven’t yet got to. But that was before I saw the preview:

How absolutely cool! What a cute style and what a lovely fusion of hip hop and bellydance! I love the way it looks. And I love the way Anasma looks. Including everything she wears. I’m looking forward to this DVD and hope it brings a good set of different isolation drills.

The trailer for Ranya Renee’s Modern Oriental is also up and of course, the whole bellydance world is eagerly waiting for that one.

Ballet for Belly Dancers

Tags: Dance Diary by Mala
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You know it’s like when some bozo tells you a long, long joke and after a bit you find you can’t focus? As he labors on towards the end and finally grinds to a half, someone nudges you with an elbow and hisses, ” It’s over! Laugh already! You’re so rude!”

That’s what Delhi 6 was like, roughly. I have to admit I couldn’t make it to the end. I tried bravely, several times, but couldn’t manage. Every now and then I would rap myself on the knuckles and tell myself, okay, that’s the story now.. But then I’d give it a few moments and we’d have veered into some by lane to be treated to another snippet of Delhi life. Except that it isn’t the Delhi I know at all.

The basic Delhi 6 idea isn’t a bad one. Painting a picture of the pin code 6 area of the older part of capital city? Great thought. But right from the start, the movie has no traction. There’s nothing but random quaint colorful stuff going on with nothing to glue it together. There’s nothing to make you care. There’s nothing to involve, engage, impassion.  Just when you think there’s something actually beginning to happen, we break for a song or a snippet of Ram Lila or something else unrelated.

Delhi 6 is a super-contrived mish-mash pish-posh of anticlimaxes strung together by a bunch of faces that begin to be remotely familiar.

Tags: Movies by Mala
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With her new video, Autumn Ward aimed to bring in the sophistication of the dance from the foundational level. Her objective has made this video different from most other basics videos, which focus on giving the beginner the full repertoire of moves.

The sophistication objective also means that this video is very “talky’. You don’t just start dancing from minute one. That’s both good and bad. Absolute beginners won’t have the patience because they don’t yet care deeply enough. On the other hand, if someone is serious enough about wanting to learn belly dancing in all its elegance, perhaps to get to performance level, then the instruction here will help build clean technique. That means detail detail detail. Even without doing a full-ish repertoire of moves, this video is long. If moves such as the one-hip circle, vertical eights, upper body moves and more had been included, this would have had to be a double disc set. Not a bad thought, in my opinion.

So really, the focus is on form here. Every aspect of form rather than every move known to bellykind.

And so we begin with a Foundation section, probably the most important on the video. Most instructional videos will take a moment to explain correct posture. Not so here. We go through complete head-to-toe guidance including the alignment of the hands and arms, feet and legs, the orientation of the whole body, balance and weight, overall stance and alignment and breath and flow.

`What Autumn does is to explain the rationale behind each concept, demonstrate how it works, how to do it, how not to do it and she also gives you a practical exercise to check or practice.  I have rather weak ankles and dreadful balance, and found her advice on how to ensure you place your feet properly and how to improve balance really useful.

My own way of working with this section would be a) bring it into the regular warm up I do and b) sometimes work through any one part of the section and immediately implement it in the dancing I choose to do after that. For instance, I worked with the feet placement aspect and then when I did a round of Bellydance Rhythms, I paid deliberate attention to the placement of the feet all through. This makes the moves come out more confidently, I must say.

The Foundation section is really like an enhanced lecture. Learners may find it tedious all at one go unless they’re dead serious. Breaking up working with it might make it easier. See, implement, come back and check.

The Arms segment is also foundational, which is perhaps why it follow next. It’s still within the explaining and demo’ing portion of this video. Here, Autumn goes through some basic arm positions, variations, and technique. She basic technique and broken line technique. Autumn actually uses her arms a lot and very prominently and this contributes a lot to the energetic and fully-present feel of her dancing, in my opinion. It’s my belief that following her tips here could make all the difference to how lifted and elegant you could look. The focus is more on energy and stength and how to use it rather than on giving lots of different arm paths and styles. So, for those looking for a mini encylopedia of arm and hand moves to pick from – this is not it. Rather, it’s information and demos on how to get the simplest positions look elegant and dancerly.

We get to another big section now: Building Blocks. This section opens up with a big menu of its own. The description of what is taken up is different from what you’ll typically see. There’s “Full Shift Side” which we also know as a large vertical slide. There’s side to side tilts, lengthen forward and back (forward and back slide), isolated shift side, and released shift back. Yes, you’ll find these on most other basics videos but Autumn takes these up in greater detail, changing weight and urging you to pay attention to certain aspects of form. So again, it’s for those who want a lot of finesse but perhaps not for those who would rather just get on with it without so much depth.

The building blocks are now taken to the next level. Tilts, shimmies and drops, 8s and circles, forward hips, undulations and twist-and-shift are all taight in detail, with each of these having its own menu of further broken down secitons. Many of the movements are advanced. The weighted drop, for example, is something you won’t often see on an absolute basics video. Also double drops, off-center circle, forward hips, and many variaitons on undulations. The basic undulation is taught with great care in what is the longest explanation I’ve ever seen before. I’m definitely going to correct and align my basic unduation with this section. But no reverse undulation has been taken up. I really would have liked that.

The Twist-and-Shift section is also, I believe, a fairly advanced move and difficult for a beginner to do cleanly. The basic twist-and-shift is taken up in three variations.

It’s here that we actually get into the do-along phase. Autumn explains her approach, and then gets into a medium-length warm up. It’s more of a warm up than a conditioning program like Asharah’s. There are many moves I’ve worked on with Sera’s East Coast Tribal, though it’s a shorter warm up on this video.

There’s an Arms flow and warm up now. You need to know what’s in the previous arms technique section to work along with this one. This isn’t a reetitive drill but a flow, so you need to be familiar with the seauence to keep pace. I’m not very good with flows that involve quick-changing instructions so I would need to watch many times before I can do exactly what she’s doing at the same time. The section will help improve transitions but you have to be nice and alert to catch the nuancing.Don’t forget to also follow the gaze.

Practice time! The practice flow section has seven little flows of about five minutes each. These are not dance-ready combinations though they do involve coordinating witht he msuic. These do increase in difficulty level as they go up to the more complex moves. While the first flow-bit is easy enough for me, the rest need to be carefully done if this beautiful form is to be maintained. When I tried it, I too wore a bra and hip scarf, as Autumn’s suggested, and this definitely helped me see if the move and stance was turning out neatly or not.  Each of these flow-bits is to a different piece of music. You can choose to do the entire set of seven with music and no voice cues.

The choreography is meant to see the movements taught in context; technique transforms into dance with the music of Solace – Azure from Iman. I must admit though that I’m not very fond of this piece of music. It’s too peaceful for me. This is a full-fledged choreography and it isn’t broken down a lot. You will get voice cues for moes that have the moves. You dance to both melody and rhythm. There are patterns in the choreography. The focus is on what Autumn refers to as stylistic integrity. This will be difficult for an absolute beginner to follow because choreography learning skills will not have developed. But otherwise, it’s not overdanced or brimming over with gimmicks – it’s clean and simple – which means it must be done with perfect technique to be worth looking at.

Again, you can choose a music-only option.

Autumn performs the choreography in costume and also another Autumn-style passionate performance on this video.

Autumn has an entire guide to this video. Links to excerpts:

http://autumnward.com/blog/?p=26
http://autumnward.com/blog/?p=41
http://autumnward.com/blog/?p=53

Tags: Belly dance videos by Mala
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Whether you follow her style or not, you can’t help but be amazed at the skill her dancing involves. Her sharp control, speed, and the seemingly impossible coordination with Kaya, are unique in the world of belly dancing. Sadie is a very very busy person. She travels a great deal, has packed classes and workshops – and yet, she’s managed to publish five instrucitonal videos in the past few months, each of them with enough content to last a dancer a lifetime! And that’s what I had a brief chat with her about…

You’ve been most prolific with bringing out DVDs this whole year!  How on earth did you manage that, with all your classes and traveling?
It may seem that way but actually many of the DVDs have been shot over the past three years. It just so happened that they were all released last year. Beyond that, I have no say in the editing process, so I am at the mercy of the producer’s timelines.

What has been most difficult about making this huge bunch of DVDs?
It really is a bit difficult to teach to a camera.  Without the live energy of a class  I have to be sure to anticipate the thought process of the student and that I cover most of the important questions that may arise while a dancer is using the DVD.

Well, you’ve done that very nicely. What’s your personal favorite?
Truthfully, I like them all for different reasons but I am most proud of “Pops, Locks & Shimmies” as it is the accumulation of Kaya and my dance technique and philosophies. As teachers, our goal has been to take the movements that are unique to us, as well as many other intricate belly dance movements and break them down in the most direct, no-nonsense way possible. The concepts and techniques are presented in a way that even an absolute beginner could understand and learn with practice. After 7 years teaching by myself and 5 with Kaya,”Pops, Locks & Shimmies” is our signature and our contribution to the belly dance world.

And which ones do you think are your audiences’ favorites?
The feedback for all of them is great.  I receive many wonderful comments about all my DVDs. The most common being that people are impressed with how much material I put on them and that they continue to challenge for years to come.  I think people most enjoy my drum solo technique and choreographies so naturally, those are my best selling DVDs.

I was most impressed by your teaching format with Kaya on Pops Locks. Is that the way you teach in your workshops regularly? Or was it particularly for the video?
Filming the two of us was more of a challenge than filming alone but for the most part, this is very similar to how our workshops are designed and how we teach together. The only difference being that one of us will be interacting with the students and answering questions.

How did you and Kaya get so precision-coordinated?
We have very similar styles and approach technique in the same way. We really vibe off each other, and of course we practice.

Just how do you do it. How do you layer so much stuff on your dance moves and at such high speed?
It’s a combination of how I hear the music, how my body displays movements and practice.

Although people are totally in awe of your dancing, many people feel you “overdance” and put too much stuff into it. What would you say about that?
I’d say that’s a valid critic, nonetheless, it’s still how I feel and interpret the music at this stage of my life. As a dancer and woman, I am always learning, growing and enriched by the experience of life. I can only imagine that all these things will continue to influence my dancing over the years.  Besides, I know it’s inevitable that as soon as I slow down someone will say I am better when I dance the other way. It’s all subjective.

How many hours a day did you (and Kaya) drill movements while you were learning?
If you mean as a student, I didn’t exactly keep track. Many people ask me this hoping to get an answer on how much and how long they should practice.  The truth is everyone is different and brings a unique set of strengths and weaknesses to the table that will make the learning process equally unique. I can say it’s wise to dedicate a few hours a week if the goal is to learn at a steady pace.

How does giving out so much content on your videos impact your classes and workshops?
At this point it’s been complimentary but I still keep things new and fresh in classes and workshops.

Will you be bringing out more DVDs?
Yes, I will be filming a few more solo DVDs this year, one being an ab/core DVD for tummy rolls, flutters and abdominal movements as well as more levels to the Pops, Locks & Shimmies series with Kaya.

People have particularly wondered about an “Ultimate Guide” mentioned on the cover of Complete Guide.
It’s similar to Thrillin Drillin, but all new combos and moves.  Intermediate

level.

Tags: Belly dancer interviews by Mala
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If I’d known this movie had about nine songs (I saw a list somewhere… too late!) I may not have bothered watching it. Not that they’re bad songs exactly, but nine? Do we have to force-punctuate every event with a song? The first half-hour, I decided, is best spent in the loo.

Anyway, sandwiched between those songs is a nice story. Puro, (Urmila Matondkar) daughter of a wealthy hindu in Amritsar. She and her sisters are happy, frolicking without a care in the world. But disaster is waiting around the corner when Puro is abducted by a horseman and spirited away to God knows where. Her family is frantic but they can’t find her. Her father doesn’t look awfully hard though. If she’s gone, she’s probably better off dead.

Puro has been plucked out of her happy life by a Muslim family to settle an old family fued. Something about 500 ruppees, land etc. Apparently Puro’s family had done much the same to a woman from the abductor, Rashid’s family.

Rashid, apart from this one act is basically a good guy and also happens to be in love with Puro. She, of course, is completely devastated. Thereafter, she begins crying and continues mostly crying through every scene. When, this must have been exhausting for Urmilla! She did a great job of acting, though.

Puro escapes, one night, and makes her way back home. Despite her mother’s welcoming arms and tears, there’s no place for Puro with her family anymore. “We gave you life; now do us a favor and go”, her mother told her. Her father, who needn’t damn well have been that harsh, commanded her to get the hell out.Puro’s ex-family has to get busy with the delicate job of getting the other children married, so the sooner she’s out of the way, the better.

A disbelieving Puro now makes her way to the village well with a view to chucking herself headlong into it. But Rashid is waiting for her and takes her back to her new home. She doesn’t like that too much, but has to lump it. She continues to live with Rashid and agrees to accept his favor of being his wife. Puro becomes Hamida. Meanwhile, the one person who’s unable to forget her is her brother. Nor can he accept standing helplessly around doing nothing about it. He looks and looks.

Strife hits the village – and all other villages as India is torn into two bleeding halves during the Partition. Stuff happens. Why should I tell?

Anyone who’s compelled by stories of the Partition era will enjoy watching this movie. Melodrama bursts out of almost every scene, everything is overstated, overcooked, over the top. But Indian audiences are quite at home with that. The scenes and settings are beautiful and look realistic. I hear there are a couple of small historical inaccuracies, but that didn’t get in the way of the story which can railroad its way through anything at that heightened intensity.

Here are some of the actors: Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai, Sanjay Suri, Sandali Sinha, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Ishaa Koppikar, Lilette Dubey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Farida Jalal, Alok Nath, Seema Biswas, Sudha Shivpuri.

Oh, and pinjar means skeleton, and they don’t let you forget that in this movie.

Tags: Movies by Mala
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This is one difficult-to-watch movie! And I can say that for almost every moment of it. Yet, what a nice story!

Spoiler alert!

Tim Thomas was sailing along in his cr with his beautiful wife next to him. But, while his attention was on his cellphone, he crashed into a car, skidded across lanes, and ended up killing seven people – including his wife.

Tim was beyond devastated. He spent the rest of his life selecting seven people to whom he believed he owed seven pounds of flesh. He picked deserving people, using his brother’s credentials as an IRS officer, and he changed their lives. And then.. okay, I won’t tell.

The film is painful watching because you don’t know what’s motivating his extreme discomfort throughout the story. Will Smith really looks uncomfortable in his skin, and that conveys itself to you, the viewer. But just how long do you tolerate this discomfort without knowing the reason for it? What is the mystery all about? What’s his problem? Specially when he falls in love with the attractive Emily, who has a deadly heart condition. And she adores him right back.

By the time it’s all clear to you, it’s time for the movie to end and you almost feel a sense of relief that it’s over. When it is, you don’t miss anyone. You just feel a bit gloomy. I think I need camolille tea!

Parting comment: I’m never getting into a bathtub again.

Tags: Movies by Mala
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This film works with a situation rather than a full-fledged story. And the situation seems to be the perfect excuse for a lot of wham bam action.

Stupid cute kid wants to go to Paris with her friend. She’s 17. Divorced mom says go, divorced dad says no. Finally she goes. Barely does she set foot in Paris than she and her friend are taken. At the airport, a young man asks if he can share their cab with them and they say sure he can. Noting their address, the fact that they’re on their own and reasonably pretty – he sumons the rest of his gang of drug and women traffickers to reel them in.

But daddy had thoughtfully given his daughter a cellphone. He gets to Pris on the double – and the action begins. And eventually and thankfully it ends!

That’s the long and short of Luc Benson thriller, Taken. The daddy is Liam Neesan. I watched it with half an eye and wished I hadn’t.

Tags: Movies by Mala
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Little boys shouldn’t be playing with Nazis. Not by a long shot. But young baby-faced Todd didn’t happen to see the signpost that warned him off. Cleverer than the FBI, Israeli espionage and the cops put together, he discovered that his neighbor was a Nazi in hiding. And he devised a good plot to blackmail him.

Mr Denker was a Nazi all right. Keeping himself to himself, he lived a quiet life watching television and drinking too much. He didn’t need trouble and didn’t go looking for it. But trouble found him, in the form of Todd, who came barging into his house one night with no excuse at all. He confronted Mr D straight out and told him he had everything he needed on him including fingerprints. In short, he had him where he wanted him. Now, was Mr D going to cooperate or what?

All Todd wanted was to hear Mr Denker’s stories. What did he do, what did it feel like? Specially what did it feel like. Mr Denker had little choice. Soon the two began a series of evening meetings where Mr Denker, warming up to the subject, told the young lad story after horrific story and answered question after gruesome question. Did anyone ever survive the gas chambers? Well… yes. Once there was this leak in the pipes and oxygen mixed in with the monoxide. It was over an hour before they found out what was wrong…

Todd ignored friends, school work and even the girls as his head flooded with horribly live scenes of torture, experimentation and murder in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. He couldn’t focus on anything normal in the day and had nightmares when he tried sleeping. His grades slipped. He killed a bird…

What young Todd also manages to do is to reawaken the Nazi in General Dussander, Mr Denker. Soon it isn’t clear who’s manipulating whom and who’s in control. Unsavory things happen. Mr Denker tries to fry a cat. Todd gets into trouble with the school counselor. Someone gets murdered. And so on. And then Mr Denker has a heart attack and has to go to hospital. He’s also discovered – with many implications for Todd, who failed to report what he knew.

I don’t know. The theme and the idea are disturbing. The acting from Brad Renfro and Ian McKellan is great. But something makes you feel detached. You don’t get emotionally drawn in and don’t find yourself rooting for anyone or anything. It doesn’t engage, even if it creeps you out a little. Overall not a film I’d look back on and think anything in particular of.

Tags: Movies by Mala
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Welcome to Sajjanpur is a film about…
Uh oh. What IS it about?
Oh yes, it’s about a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Specially that. But it’s a Shyam Benegal film.

In a quaint little village in India lives an educated young man nmed Mahadev. With no job in hand, what he does for a living is to is write out letters for everyone else in the village. Them being clueless and illiterate. Of course Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) is sometimes mischiveoius nd puts what he wants to in those letters. But he’s basically a good guy.

Life begins peacefully enough. Until Mahadev meets his childhood crush, Kamla (Amrita Rao0. Pretty, innocent, appealing – and married. kamla is waiting forever for news from her husband who is far away in Bombay, apparently trying to make money. She gets the ever-willing Mahadev to write to him. And Mahadev, wanting her all to himself, severely edits each letter to  ensure that the two get adequately upset with one another.

Meanwhile the film ambles on to other stories. A eunach is fighting elections. A compounder is trying to marry the widowed duaghter of an ex millitaryman. and a mother is convinced she must marry her daughter off.  It ambles and ambles, clip-clopping through one or the other story, reluctant to settle on any one, being funny and grim in turns. It’s full of little sermons and lessons and clear-cut messages. Each of the little stories has its own shocking chapter. In the end… well, in the end everything just sorts itself out, as it must, leaving Mahadev a lot less mischevious than be began with.

Someone wake me up already.

Tags: Movies by Mala
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A powerful head-filling film that made my mouth go dry as I watched, hardly breathing. I read somewhere that the movie lacks urgency and panic (not a criticism, but a reference to the stoic nature of the main character), but to me each moment was packed with intensity. And that isn’t surprising, considering Szpilman Vladyslaw, the author of the book it is based on and Roman Polanski the director of the film, were both Holocaust survivors.

The Pianist begins with what happens to be one of my favorite Chopin nocturnes: Nocturne in C-sharp Minor.  A tender, romantic beautiful piece. But bombs suddenly fall, piercing through the tranquility of the music and breaking the spell. The pianist plays on. Windows shatter, glass flies everywhere, something hits him on the head, drawing blood, smoke fills the room… and the pianist plays on.

This opening scene describes the character of Szpilman. Gentle, stoic, reassuring, peaceful, a young man whose heart, mind and soul are given over to music. But peace cannot last long as the Nazi noose tighten more and more paintfully around the Jewish people in Poland. First they’re not allowed in parks, then they’re not allowed on street benches, then they have to wear prominent armbands, they can’t keep more than a tiny amount of money and then they’re herded into a ghetto and walled in. Each day becomes a battle for survival as cruelty upon unbelievable cruelty is heaped on Poland’s Jews.

Szpilman and his entire family are stuffed into a train bound for one of the death camps. But someone pulls him out and saves him. Someone else said it would have been better if he hadn’t got off that train. For now begins a long, sick, tired, hungry fight for survival in a war-torn hate-ravaged city where any Jew spotted on the streets will be shot on sight.

Yes, it’s a story we’ve heard in so many movies and books. But when the story comes from those who’ve been to hell and back, you can’t but listen, watch and feel.

And what of the pianist? He plays on…

Tags: Movies by Mala
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