I’ve always wanted to Moonwalk. Specifically, I want to master it and then wait for someone to ask me to go get something, whereupon I will say “Sure, you got it!” and will then proceed to Moonwalk for the next 15 minutes.
Other than that, though, I’ve never really had a hip-hop sort of persona. And I still don’t. So when WDNY announced Anasma’s Hip-hop Belly Dance fusion DVD, I was mostly ho-hum about it. Curious at best. I love belly dance pretty much as it is, and don’t feel an overwhelming need to fuse it with anything. But Anasma, well, she’s an amazing fusion herself – half Tunisian and Vietnamese, brought up in Paris, living in New York – and isn’t shy of fusing whatever dance form catches her fancy.
When I began to watch her 2-disk DVD, I was very quickly amazed. Not only has Anasma been put together without bones, she’s incredibly creative in the way she puts together elements of her dancing. The result is very compelling and now I find I really would love to learn all that’s on her program. Though I’m probably well past the age for it, I’ve ignored that thought and started working with the two DVDs. I’m still not into hip-hop, I’m still not into theatrical dance, which is Anasma’s forte, and I’m not into funky modern expression. All the same, I’d love to learn all the waving and gliding and floating that she’s taught here.
Watch a bit of Anasma “Aggressively Slow” before we get into what’s on the DVDs:
The instructional program begins with a 30-minute warm up and conditioning. It’s the same difficulty level as a Suhaila style workout. Yoga and intense stretches. Very solid workout indeed.
So, the two DVD set is absolutely filled with content. Never-before content, at that. Logically but ingenuously, the first DVD focuses on belly dance and the second on hip-hop. But, neither of the two disks is “pure” one form or the other. Bellydancers who want nothing whatsoever to do with hip-hop will not find “regular” bellydance instruction on the first DVD. Anasma briefly describes a basic isolation or move and then goes into a drill with hip-hop stylization. For instance, you could be doing shoulder rolls and the drill would have you doing scoops with level changes and a shoulder see-saw. On the hip-hop DVD, you could be doing a Moonwalk, and the drill will have you layering a maya on that. The fusion is evident throughout the instructional program and is totally seamless.
As an instructor-on-video, Anasma comes across as very likeable and engaging. She’s also exceedingly cool. She’s encouraging, humorous, un-self-conscious. The instruction is clear though a little brief in places. She’s full of analogies and explains concepts in more than one way, giving you the choice of picking a method that works best for you. She relates very well to the learner and in many places looks like she’s in the middle of a conversation with you, almost stopping to get a response.
On the belly dance DVD, Anasma describes movements in terms of lines, circles, figure-8s and shimmies, making the path very clear. She goes through all the basic belly dance isolations briefly introducing each for review and a check on how she herself will use them before going on to the stylization. Movements for hips, chest, shoulders, head are all taken up. Also elbows because this is particularly important for arm waves. There are 9 short drills on disk 1 and you can make a longer drill section by accessing them in their own section.
The hip-hop DVD is when things get really interesting. You go through standing hip-hop moves of waving, liquid, popping, dimestepping and strobing, mannequin, tutting, glides and floating, and side floats. My favorites are the waving and liquid and the glides and floats and include the Moonwalk. The ones I don’t like are the more robotic mime-like moves. That’s the funky, theatrical side that I’m not into. Anasma aims this at belly dancers, so she explains it from concept upward. The drills on this disk draw in some of what was learnt on disk 1. The drills are all combos rather than a single repeated movement. These are used in the choreography. In fact, the 11 drills here are much much longer than on disk 1 because they start building up for the choreography.
It’s the tribal fusion side of me that loves this second whole part of the program. It’s really quite challenging: you need to know your isolations and layering basics and be quite ready to put all that together with hip-hop.
Moving on to the choreography section, Anasma first tells you the story of the piece she’s teaching. She also tells you the emotions and facial expressions that go with the choreography. I’m afraid I tend to gloss over this. There are separate choreography drills or practice sessions here; 9 of them. And a demonstration, of course. And finally, two breathtaking performances. One that use the movements taught: New Seed and a structured improvisation, Placebo, set to music by Pete List and Rob Mestrianni. I mean it when I say these performances are breathtaking – particularly the theatrical story-telling one: Placebo.
Anasma is completely boneless, that’s for sure.
Oh I love this review Mala
I happen to love the program too – I watched into it briefly when I received it some weeks ago. Now I’m really in the mood of watching again and soon starting with it.
So – how doable is the moonwalk, Mala?
I haven’t got to the moonwalk part, Dina. I’m worried about my weak ankles and heel problems. But apart from that it looks very doable. It’s like creating an illusion.
oohh right! so u better take it easy
No…. I’ll jolly well try it!
I just got this dvd the other day too, I haven’t had much chance to watch it yet (darn work keeps getting in the way!) but I watched a little bit of the first dvd and I like what I see.
I also find it very refreshing that she doesn’t have an american accent. Not that there is anything wrong with american accents, but it is a nice change, maybe more so for us ‘foreigners’. I think I’ll stop now before I dig myself into a big hole!
Ha. Ruth, you needn’t be that alarmed about the deep hole. Yes, her accent is cute. So very French. You’ll find, as you watch the rest of the program, that she’s very engaging. To me she seems very young and energetic and cute. But most of all just look at her range of motion! I don’t know whether it’s sheer range of motion or stylization that’s doing this but she just seems to flow from one extreme end of a movement to the other. Like chewing gum. But then she’s done gymnastics and so many other things, so it shows.
Her dance is certainly impressive, the gymnastics shows (incidentally did you know Sadie used to be a gymnast too?)I think she is lovely too and it really comes across in her dancing and teaching. There are a lot of things I would probably never use (mannequin face anyone?? Lol!) but the drills/combos I have done so far are great -tricky and creative but do-able. I can’t wait until I have time to look into this dvd more deeply.
No, the manequin faces are not for me either. Isn’t it like a mime? I hate the heck out of mimes. And clowns. And probably even puppets.
Anasma’s drills are so interesting! Something different! The waving move reminds me of some style of Turkish arms.
I didn’t know Sadie’s done gymnastics too!
When I spoke to Sadie after one of the workshops I did she was adamant that she had no dance experience whatsoever previous to bellydance, and when she started she had no natural ability at all (yeah right!), but as the conversation progressed she admitted that she had done competitive gymnastics from an early age. I know it not exactly the same field, but it has to help in my opinion!
Yes mimes are not my thing at all.. and clowns oooh, I hate them, they give me the willies. Ooops probably another politically incorrect statement, that must be two in one day what with the accents and all, lucky I’m not on the forum that begins with Bh… otherwise I would surely be jumped upon and beaten with full force by sparkly saidi canes!
It definitely helps. Autumn Ward has also done gymnastics. Lucky them! I wish I’d had the opportunity: I’m light-framed and light-boned so maybe that would have been an asset. And potentially flexible too. Too bad it’s too late.
OMG! I just got back from Bellydance Congress, and Anasma is AWESOME! I was so impressed by her, and there were lots of top teachers and dancers including Sadie, Randa Kamel, Fifi Abdou, too many to say, but more than anybody Anasma blew me away.
I knew she would be good, but I am lost for words about how incredible she is when she dances and teaches. Not taking anything away from the others, but Anasma was wonderful, she was the only dancer who got a standing ovation during the performance and I even cried in her ‘expressive bellydance’ workshop, she did a short improv to express love and heartbreak -and I never cry because I’m a hard hearted b*tch! I could go on gushing about Anasma all day, she was that good. I’m definitely inspired to do a lot more work with her dvd now.
Ruth! You are so so so lucky to have seen Anasma dancing in person. Is she that amazing, really?? She certainly moves like an absolute eel, but it’s amazing to know that she’s that “feelingful” as well! Also, she just looks absolutely charming and fun to be around!
Yes, she is REALLY that amazing! I have seen her a few times on youtube, and I was impressed by her technique, but not that excited. In real life she dances with so much feeling and expression, I was totally captivated.
And in the workshops she was very approachable and down to earth, she even stayed behind after class for an extra 20 mins (instead of rushing off to get ready for her performance) so we could run through all the stuff we had learned, and she said everyone was welcome to record it on video so they could drill at home. Not ‘buy my dvd, it’s all on there’, like most teachers say!
In the class I managed to get the airwalk quite well, she did it alongside me which really helped, along with a few other moves that I struggled with at on the dvd. She is fun to be around and sweet too, and I have a bit of a bellydance crush on her now!! (Just in case you hadn’t noticed!)
She sounds lovely! Actually she DOES look what you describe – warm, considerate, not at all inwardly focused or self-absorbed or worried about her own doings. The self-absorbed aspect is there with so many other dancers! Not her.