Every Shimmy in the Book with Bozenka

If there’s something special about Bozenka’s “Every Shimmy in the Book” I’m afraid I couldn’t find it. I’ve seen more detailed shimmy instruction on general belly dance videos, forget shimmy-specialized ones. Bozenka shimmies real smooth and pretty. But what’s the fuss about?

First of all let me point out that this certainly is nowhere near every shimmy in the book. I must say it’s a very confident title for a video that the producers must know doesn’t cover the subject comprehensively at all. Even the video by Samra that someone apparently ripped off (Belly Dance: Total Workout for Body Shaping) and the 101 series covers more than this one. If you have Leyla’s 21 Shimmies set or any of the others that everyone’s been using all this time, then Every Shimmy in the Book gives you precisely… sit down for this one… nothing. Except a good look at Bozenka, who has beautiful form and is a fantastic dancer.

I think if the video had been named more honestly or had even been called Shimmy with Bozenka, for lack of anything more clever, it would at least not create an expectation that isn’t met. The DVD has 12 shimmies that are the ones apparently most commonly used and are her own favorites. That’s fine and nothing wrong with that. But why every shimmy in the book, then?

Well, I suppose it’s no different from Leyla’s “1001 variations” which I’m still looking for. But I do think that titling videos just anything you like and creating expectations that aren’t met, isn’t a fair practice.

And as if it wasn’t enough o claim that this video will teach every shimmy in the book, it goes on to say, in the subtitle: A Bellydancer’s Complete Guide to Mastering Hip Perfection. Now would you look at the expectations all this creates? A bellydancer’s… meaning it’s probably not a beginner’s instruction. Complete guide? Is 12 shimmies all there is to hip work in belly dance? Hip perfection… is there practice? Some drills? In one word, no.

But to get on with it, the problem isn’t just a matter of a title that doesn’t precisely say what it gives. I couldn’t believe my eyes, ears and head when I timed one of the sections (3/4 shimmy) and found it was all of 2 minutes from beginning to end. Wow. One may argue that an intermediate learner doesn’t need any more than that – but then the content of the teaching has to be beyond basic. Instead, the shimmy is demo’d, broken down minimally, looked at closely and then finally done up to speed. That’s the format for the lot. There’s no detailed breakdown, no practice, no drills. There’s a warm up and cool down on the video but why I’m not sure because the instruction isn’t really formatted for do-along mode – it’s more demo mode. So each shimmy goes through in this format

–Let me demonstrate (30 secs)
–Let’s break it down slightly (30 secs)
–Look with the camera close at a slower demo (30 secs)
–Let’s try it together up to speed (30 secs)

Over and out. In 2 minutes.

So, I couldn’t even figure out the Hagala, which I’ve been trying to learn. She said you go up-down-up with one side and “add a twist”. But where does the twist come in? Is it up-down-twist-up or up-down-up-twist and back? There’s absolutely no detail. In the shoulder shimmy section it’s more of a demo than ever. There are zero tips on how to actually isolate the shoulders properly from the torso. I wouldn’t blame a beginner for trying to twist the entire upper body, which is what she looks like she’s doing, though for Bozenka it’s probably a result of the huge range of motion she has. If one is still learning the shoulder shimmy, it would be nice to get into posture, neck position, keeping the hands still, keeping it out of the chest, and so on.

So. The shimmies covered here are:

Shoulder shimmy
Basic shimmy
Shimmy on the toes
¾ Shimmy
¾ Shimmy side-to-side
¾ twist—Hagala
Bedouin shimmy
Egyptian shimmy
Tension shimmy – Freeze
Pelvic shimmy
Twist shimmy
Steady shimmy

No posture tips, no safety instructions. I seriously don’t know what we warmed up for but we do a few circles and gentle stretches for 4 or 5 minutes before the “instruction sets” begin. And another few head circles and arm circles and such at the end.

All said and done though, Bozenka shimmies beautifully. She performs a drum solo improvisation which is rather nice in its simplicity. But guess what… the same drum solo features in the bonus section! How generous is that! Thank you Miles Copeland! There’s an interview with Bozenka in which she tells you how excited she is about the whole concept of the DVD. What concept would that be? There’s also something about shimmies and how they’re used in many styles. And some nice bio background. There’s a little interview with her and Issam. They talk about the importance of improvising.

The exotic piece of music threaded through the video is Galactic Caravan’s Voice from the Moon. I like the piece.

Bozenka is such a smooth and wonderful dancer that I can’t help feeling this whole video is a lost opportunity – not to mention a lot of lost money. I got it for $14 or so, but on her website it’s listed as $30. This is Bozenka – she should have given you something more Bozenka-specific! Instead what you get is stuff you’ll find in all your other DVDs. If you’re a total beginner, then this video does not have enough breakdown or posture and safety info to work with. If you’re a beginner-intermediate (or knowledgeable beginner) you won’t learn anything additional. For everyone else in between.. well…

Miles Copeland does it again. Disappoints me.

Other shimmy videos to explore

21 Shimmies and 1001 Variations – Leyla Jouvana
More Shimmies! And 1000s of Variations — Leyla
Turbo Shimmy (drills) – Celeste
Technique 2 (indepth ¾ and layering instruction) — Yasmina Ramzy
Saqra’s Drum solo vocabulary and improvisation series (watch out for overlapping content)
(more coming up)