Suzy Evans talks about what’s coming up in 2009
Suzy Evans, head of IAMED or the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance, needs no introduction to belly dancers. Her production company has brought out many performance and instructional videos and held a number of exciting dance events and awards. Here’s a brief hint at what IAMED will be doing as 2009 unfolds.
So how has 2008 been for IAMED/
It’s been a good year. I see a lot of splintering happening in the last couple of years. I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing. We may think it’s a big belly dance world, but its not big at all.
Do you see a new direction for IAMED (and I mean videos here0 in 2009? Are you planning on a change of focus at all, or will you be getting into new areas? Changing the profile in any way?
We will continue to produce high quality DVDs filled with excellent content. We will be branching out a bit, but I cannot reveal details of that as yet.
Are we going to see many videos in 2009?
Layers with Leyla
Ultimate Combinations Vol. 3 and 4 – Various instructors
Pops, Locks and Shimmies with Sadie and Kaya – Vol. 2
Arabic Rhythms with Tamra-henna Vol. 2
Fabulous Frills – Various Instructors
We will be holding an instructional shoot in late April.
Pops, Locks and Layers with Sadie and Kaya
A solo instructional with Sadie
A solo instructional with Kaya
And 2 volumes of instructional DVDs with various instructors; the details of which I can not reveal at this time.
Do you plan to work with new dancers not covered before by IAMED?
Yes, the 2 volumes of various instructors will be new to IAMED.
Are you planning to expand your target audience?
Our concentration will be on belly dancers, however we do have the “Art of Belly Dance” beginner line of DVDs.
Whom do you see as competition over 2009?
I don’t see anyone else as competition.
Any chances of a drop in prices for IAMED videos? Now that there are more choices in the market?
No. We still set the standard in belly dance videos. Our production costs have not gone down. It costs many thousands of dollars and a tremendous amount of work to shoot our videos. I would have to sacrifice quality. Lowering prices would affect my resellers in a negative way. We are also experiencing a heavily inflated US dollar and a down economy so we are already making less money. This is a very small, small niche market. If I was selling hundreds of thousands of them I could afford to sell them for $10. But no one sells that many. You can’t judge these DVDs by mass market standards.
When are you coming out with your own video? I’ve heard about how well you dance .
Well, I used to dance well, but I’m rather rusty on my technique these days. 
We may be holding a 7th Awards show later this year, depending on interest and the economy.
Wow great interview Mala!!!
I wish Suzy Evans would have given us some more detail, but that s not her business style I guess
She tells it s out once it s out and that s it. I kind of like this dry mentality, I think of it as pretty British (who says Americans can’t be a bit British 
)
Hmmm 2 things sticking in my head business-wise:
“I don’t see anyone else as competition.”
Bold statement. Has proven dangerous for MANY pole position players who had to revise that statement despite undisputed star positions on a market for years.
But for now it seems to work very well.
The statements on the production costs and harsh circumstances which would not allow a lower price without sacrifice in quality:
I can think of quite a few (mostly WDNY) videos which can absolutely keep up in quality, visuals and content-wise, with IAMED videos, with stunning running times of 2 to 5 hours per dvd or 2dvd set. And the single dvds of 2 hours come close to the 10$ mark Suzy Evans mentioned, the 5-hour 2-dvd set is at half the price of IAMEDs. Yet they share the market (niche) and global economy constraints.
This makes me even more proud of Neon and WDNY
We love them 
)
Have I mentioned free shipping worldwide by World Dance New York?
(btw NO, I m not paid by them if you get that impression LOL I ve actually purchased almost every bellydance dvd they ve made
p.s. yes, I d also be so curious to see Ms Evans dance!! Hopefully she ll step into the spotlight on a performance dvd as a surprise guest!
Suzy is very no-nonsense about loving IAMED and talking it up! They do produce the best videos, imo, and she’s not backing down, not on price, not on lack of competition, not on anything! Go, Suzy!
I’m not so impressed. If the “splintering” she’s referring to is the emergence of other producers in the market, then I can only say that’s been great for consumers. And IAMED *does* have competition. Plenty of it, and it’s serious.
WDNY films in New York City, so I know their studio space is not cheap. Their typical video is several times the length of a typical IAMED video — so filming can’t be cheap. Their production values are high, and they experiment with different DVD formats. It’s never bare bones. So their production can’t be cheap.
And yet they *can* sell for $10-20 a DVD. I’m sure they’re not selling “hundreds of thousands,” but clearly they’re selling enough to keep producing lots of programs. I’m not a WDNY employee or anything either, but I do think Neon is putting more impressive programs out there, programs that are much better thought-out than anything I’ve seen on IAMED, and that her business focus is to increase the market of bellydancers rather than to complain about it splintering.
I agree, Suzy has got plenty of strong competition. With WDNY, HMC and Michelle Joyce producing good quality dvd’s at less than half the price I think she should be seriously worried, especially in the current economic climate. It sounds as though she’s completely in denial about the threat these other companies pose, because she is right, bellydance is a small world.
I have bought a few excellent dvd’s from IAMED, but I’ve had many more that were disappointing, with less content than I had hoped. Recently I have been far more impressed with my WDNY purchases,even without factoring in the price difference.
Sadie’s dvd’s have been consistent in their quality and content, so I think she is wise to make more, although HMC have also recently released two more by Sadie, again at half the price of the Iamed ones.
Yes, I tend to agree that other producers have shown they can put out fabulous content with sparkling production. WDNY has some videos that are entire syllabuses on belly dancing – Instant Bellydancer and Jenna’s programs, for example. And now there’s Ranya’s massive DVD set coming out. That is indeed 5 hours of rich content for half the money. A few of Cheekygirls’ videos have been pretty good at a low cost as well. Drills x 3 and Pop Lock and Shimmy. And the two series as well.
“The best” has to now be viewed in terms of the cost/value ratio as well.
And I think it isn’t enough to advertise DVDs with great names. The Best DVD with the most famous star doesn’t get me anywhere if the instruction is bad and not thought-through enough and doesn’t make my brain go snap so I can use it.
Shaia – now that’s what I call brand loyalty, a consumer that is proud of the producer for keeping the price up
I am very curious for the Sadie ones though. Have heard only good things about them, notably by you Mala
BTW, Dina, I know you prefer traditional Egyptian style dancing, so I just discovered this wonderful Brazilian dancer named Naima Yazbek (her Youtube channel is naimayazbek), whose style is rooted very much in classical raqs sharqi.
Hi Sajia, wow sounds greeeeaat!! thanks for the hint (and remembering my preference, that s very nice!)!! will check her out immediately.
Do you live in Brazil, or have you come across her via internet?
thank you!!
I live in Vancouver. One of her videos, a recent compilation vid, came up on my “Recommended for you” list. I liked it because of the joyful pictures of men and boys dancing in their traditional garb; you’ll love the last 20 seconds where a little girl dances in a traditional dress.
It’s dances like this which remind me of why I dislike a lot of Western exoticisation so much; because while certainly a lot of the dancing in our culture has sexual connotations within our culture, much of the time the dancing is just dancing for the joy of it. Just as it is stupid for us to assume that women wear bikinis just to be “available”, when they simply want to enjoy the sun and surf.
This sounds lovely Sajia!!
I think i might have to get this video!!!
I am so yearning for nice videos with all kinds of people dancing in traditional gear.
I looove the Egyptian traditional style, music, dance, dress.. although I m not Egyptian, hehe, I grew up in Europe, especially France, and my family s partly in Lebanon, partly in Jordan.
Ya while I enjoy bellydancing, and am grateful there is so much available in recent years because it s been popularized (and exoticized as you put it well) in the West, sometimes it s gotten very shallow to me. And I am more and more thirsting for the “real thing” recently. Like it s been blown out of proportion, the sexual component, and also often the “goddess” component in Western style bellydance.
I love Naima s saidi, I had time only to watch one youtube video, and that was it, and shes amazing! thank you so much for the suggestion! I looove suggestive marketing
Sajia, LOOOOK!!!
“The Classical Oriental is (like Baladi) partially with live musicians (a 6-member Arab band!) and partially studio recorded. It will have a choreography, live music practice, and dance flows focusing on really delving into the feeling of traditional Arabic music, with more focus on maqamat (melodic modes) and how to interpret different instruments. We will be filming the studio component in a few months, so that’s why you have to wait until summer to get that dvd!
”
This will be Ranya Renees next dvd!! She has finished the baladi 2 dvd set (I have preordered), the Modern Orientale which will be a bit Randa Kamel style (I have preorderd
) – and in summer THIS lovely dvd will be released
*faint*
I have to say, I find Suzy Evans attitude to be quite “up herself” is the only way for me to put it. There absolutely is competition out there! Her attitude stinks!
I agree with most of the comments made here…I have bought IAMED DVDs where the content has really disappointed me and has not been long enough, and add that to the huge price tag…makes me feel completely ripped off. Amaya Hips is a good example of this…and Oriental Arms 1…their content, passable, but production and quality of filming is terrible. I find the “odd” performances that sneak into their performance DVD series weird…its bellydance…why are there weird and obscure performances allowed in?
Why on earth are the DVDs priced double other companies? Other companies produce DVDs which are longer, better content and for lower prices…which do you think sells more copies? The other company of course! Surely this business practice of pricing everything higher is actually negative…I’m sure she would sell more copies if she dropped the price to even $30. I wont even buy these new ever, I have to wait for them to come up used.
As for her resellers, a lot of them have terrible business practices also, they charge the hell out of us with excessive postage charges and price them up higher than should be.It all leaves me very annoyed at such nasty practice.
HMC, not too fond of their low quality filming and strange visual effects that can make you dizzy.
WDNY all the way!
A lot of people agree with you on that one. I wish they’d generated some goodwill – and done something about pricing that would get you 3 DVDs elsewhere.
Ya I agree.
I wonder how their sales will be given tighter economic conditions.. I wish them all the best because I do think they put out a couple of amazing videos (notably Sadie), but they’ve put out a lot of overpriced poor ones (like Oriental arms Vol 1), too. And the performance dvds (I got only two so far) are extremely disappointing for the price.
I believe the question is not IF they’ll have to adapt to their lower cost competitors, but WHEN. Or if they’ll go out of business or reduce their output/presence significantly for lack of will to change/adapt to this new environment.
As a student/consumer (with a tight budget) I have to add I am personally grateful to WDNY and Cheeky Girls Productions, notably, for having allowed me to build up a great bellydance library of outstanding quality of instruction at a *very* fair price.
What gets me is…a few of the DVDs have become availble on the UK Amazon site, and they are priced at about a third/quarter of the price they are listed for on the IAMED site. They are only slightly higher than the other DVD companies also listed on UK Amazon. Now why is that? Why are they still at such high prices on the main IAMED site when resellers can obviously sell them for substantially cheaper? Greed.
I may be breaking from tradition from other dancers who sing IAMED’s praises, but you do NOT produce “the best bellydance videos” in the world. Refusing to acknowledge theres competition is simply ridiculous. You’re prices are super-inflated and some of the DVDs are actually only passable. I feel ripped-off whenever I buy one.
NB I am just a dance student, nothing to do with any DVD company, who is annoyed by the “milk as much as you can” and superior attitude of IAMED.
I just had a look on UK Amazon, and I couldn’t see any cheap IAMED’s…lol, I’m such an addict!
Umm, maybe one or two…
I have to keep reminding myself that there are good reasons why I don’t have them all.
Haha when I read the message I looked there too.. bad, bad girl!
I did see the “classical” ones most of which I have.
None were available at the moment anyway. and no price reference for how much they normally sell..
I am guessing it was a sub-seller with a certain quantity, maybe s/he wanted to sell them off quickly and lowered prices?
those who got some were definitely lucky.
If I ever bought IAMEDs in the future, I’d go through Oceanstatemedia. The price is pretty low (35,- USD approx.), the best price I’ve seen so far! (except for shady ebay offers I have never trusted – who knows they won’t sell bootleg copies?!)
Amazon UK was selling the 4 Art of Bellydance for Beginners for £8/9 and Ansuya Advanced Finger cymbals for £9-10. Still listed on Amazon UK, don’t know how you can’t see them…available from Marketplace.
I went to amazon.co.uk and searched for Ansuya’s DVDs. There surely seems to be some variable pricing going on here. I saw one for £10 and another for £50! All from partner sellers though. Strange business, really.
Oh I saw Ansuyas advanced finger cymbals, that’s been on there for a while at that price though. I seem to remember some site in the US was selling it very cheaply a while back, (cduniverse?) along with a couple of other IAMED’s. These offers seem to filter down to the UK through partner sellers eventually. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, for my wallet!) there was nothing that I was interested in getting.
http://search.deepdiscount.com/search?w=bellydance&af=cat1_dvds
4 IAMED’s for the grand total of $11.07 with shipping
and Ansuya’s for $13.84 with shipping
I’ve had enough with all the gouging that’s going on.
Hmm interesting! I did not see the amazon.co.uk prices – I am guessing depending on your server location you may not have access to them; I have often experienced that with amazon.fr – amazon wants you to buy at the local (German in my case), and will not let you order “undercutting” foreign amazon products… what’s gouging?
I wondered that too.
From wikipedia:
Price gouging is a pejorative term for a seller pricing much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a felony that applies in some of the United States only during civil emergencies. In less precise usage, it can refer either to prices obtained by practices inconsistent with a competitive free market, or to windfall profits. Non-pejorative uses are generally in reaction to what the writer believes is an unjustified restraint on the market.
So now you know!
Thank you very much Ruth
so it s basically overcharging/milking consumers right?
I must say charging a high brand premium is nothing “wrong” business-wise – I do not agree with it, but, hey I’m free to not purchase it at the price. They’re free to set what price they find justifiable, and will then have to see what turnover and sales they have with that price.
But having resellers give away the same dvd for SO much less does not make sense. It destroys the brand strategy, and makes those consumers who previously paid the high brand price angry.
Hmm we’re getting into really deep business questions here. What great market analysts we’d all make