::more than somewhat::

I got Fantasy Bellydance in the mail today and have just begun watching it. I thought though I’d post bits as I go along…

Autumn Ward
Autumn probably has the best “dance face” I’ve seen yet. She’s infectiously animated and joyous. And it’s amazing how much vitality and energy this brings to her performance. Raqs Europa is a charming and lively piece, maybe similar in tone to her Rose of Damascus. Autumn is dressed in a silky brown costume that would suit her and her alone. She has her hair done in two exceedingly cute braids and overall looks like a bit of chocolate come to life. In this performance, she’s to be watched for the absolute perfect neatness of her moves. Beautiful Technique learners will now spot many many moves she’s taught and perhaps be inspired to get them as right as Autumn does.

She makes the whole performance look no effort at all. In fact, far from showing any sign effort, she looks like she’s having no end of fun prancing and gliding through life. The performance isn’t filled with a huge number of different moves, but it’s perfect and sprinkled here and there with several gymnastic surprises, including a bit of a summersalt! She also did a lovely neat 360 degree backbend that I’d die for. Though I’d probably just die, period.

But wait, the real fantasy performance here is The Rise and Fall of Atlantis, and it’s actually placed before Raqs Europa, but I watched Europa first because it’s more my kind of thing. This performance has several others with Autumn. What do I say… there’s a lot going on. It’s a full-fledged story. It’s very amusing. I’m a little surprised no one actually fell over the costumes.

I’m unable to separate the dancing from the story and find it difficult to describe in the usual terms. I suppose that’s how it will be with theatrical dancing. I wonder how they did that with the huge bubble ball…

Tanna Valentine
Okay! I like it! And I think I’d have liked more of it. Tanna’s Fantasy Geisha is very interesting and very watchable. She’s dressed in the perfect cross between belly dance skirt and kimono and the result is very cute indeed. She starts out with an umbrella but soon has two fan-veils which she swishes about with deadly determination and elegance. It’s set to Solace’s “Haiku” from the album Balance and the music and dance fit each other perfectly. Again, I’m clueless about what style the dance is in, perhaps because I’ve never cared overly. It’s in that category that’s cluse to American Cabaret, I guess, but don’t quote me on that. All I know is that it’s fun to watch.

Neon
…is very Neon-like as a Swan Maiden. Very ethereal and angel-like, Neon does one performance on this DVD. She dances, with wings and a tray of candles, to a piece of music I’m rather fond of: “Strange Flesh” from Solace’s Nagara. I wonder what it would be like to see this performance in person. It must be spectacular.

Sira
Someone has upset this nice mermaid real bad. And if I get hold of whoever the shark is, I’ll kill him good. Sira, in Mermaid’s Tears, is a mermaid with a big green tail and the most graceful snake arms you ever saw. She’s sinuous and regal and dances simply and beautifully in this lovely performance. It’s all quite watery and wavy. I wondered and wondered whether the mermaid was going to be able to stand up at all, given her slippery tail.

Fayzah Claudia
Fayzah, whom I’m not familiar with but who has a DVD coming with WDNY soon if I’m not mistaken,  has two performances on this DVD. The first Eleutheria, Rules of the Deep Seas has her as a scaly many-tentacled sea creature with a nasty expression.

She does a tribal-fusion fantasy dance to a remix of Solace’s “Darban Jooth Na Boley” which is a song I detest. The hindi words in this song mean “the mirror doesn’t like”  and the correct spelling of the English version of the worlds should be “Darpan Jhoot Na Boley”. Either way, I’ve never been awfully fond of it. I’m also not too fond of the dance done to it on this DVD. It’s just sort of unremarkable. There’s a lot of hand waves, snake arms, other arms, and undulations.. but nothing that makes me re-watch.

The second performance, Android Dreams, is more interesting. For one it has a whole lot of interesting special effects on screen. Sleepy Fayzah-Android wakes up and goes on the rampage with some kind of gun.

The dance movements are the staccato kind – locking and ticking and strobing etc. Overall though, it’s sort of… not my kind of thing!

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