When an instructional video, no matter what its subject, expects the learner to do-along, it must fulfill a bunch of criteria. At least that’s the way I see it! To put it in a nutshell, the instructor must visualize the many ways a learner could be learning with that video.
When I sift through the videos in my dance and fitness collection, I find that the ones I go back to have one thing in common: they’ve got the do-along basics in place. That would be pace, vocal cuing, music, amount of extra chat, repetitions, locus of attention, instruction consistency – and maybe a few other points that aren’t in my conscious awareness. For me, the lack of attention to do-along details often means the video will get shelved and I’ll keep thinking I must get to it one of these days because the content of the program is basically so good.
Jehan’s Ultimate Fitness immediately comes to mind. I loved the look of this video right from the beginning. It has 5 or 6 beautiful segments with moves that are both workout-friendly and danceable by themselves. It’s led by accomplished and attractive dancers who do their job well. To me, what kills it is the instructions. For the first one or two segments, the voice cues don’t exactly match what is going on in the sequence, and the necessary movements are not cued. Instead, it is assumed that you’re watching so very carefully you won’t miss every little twitch.
An intermediate or advanced dancer will figure out what’s happening. But not an early beginner – and that’s what I was when I bought that video. The result is that I keep feeling a twinge of guilt for not having worked with it, but then other videos compete for attention and it stays forgotten. Which reminds me… I totally must pull it out and work with it one of these days!
Let’s not even take up here the videos that are mostly explanation-centered and happen to have a few do-along segments. We’ll look at pure do-alongs that teach almost entirely by looking a little and then learning quite enough to practice along.
One dancer whose voice-cuing I really admire, is Shamira. I’ve long since outgrown her videos, but I do remember how very easy she makes it to learn. She has a nice, comfortable pace to her instruction, but that’s not all. Shamira has perfect timing with her cues. A second or two before you have to execute a move, she calls it out, and she does this without breaking the flow of the move you’re already doing with her. The result is a nice unbroken flow to each segment of her program. And she keeps this going whether she’s teaching a choreography or separate belly dance basic moves. In addition, she switches angles and tells you whether you’re mirroring her ot not. Because of the skillful way she cues, you don’t notice the talking and instructing separately from the stuff you see on screen or even separate from your own moving along with her.
Cueing gets even better when you have to just watch the video thoroughly a few times in the beginning, perhaps stop to learn the moves, and then you never actually need to look again, except to cross-check a detail. Some instructors get that right too! I see that on many of the WDNY videos such as Sera’s East Coast Tribal and Bellydamce Rhythms. I needed to learn Sera’s wonderful 30-minute warm up by looking at it closely a couple of times in the beginning. After that, I haven’t seen it in a long time even though I do the warm up very often – with the video. This is totally because the voice instructions include everything you need. The cues are called out naturally, exactly on time, at the right pace. So, I’m free to not look at the video and instead focus on doing the move better and better and correcting myself in the mirror. By now, I actually don’t need the mirror either. In fact, I can do the entire workout, including the right number of counts, because Sera’s voice has “stuck” in my head and gives me the right cues.
Much the same has happened with Neon’s Rhythms. That, of course, is a more tightly structured program with lots more repetitions to each move, but for all of Flow 1, I no longer need to look. In this case, the dance pattern goes exactly with the drum pattern and so the drum pattern is the cue. That makes the voice cue challenge a little less, in my opinion.
Some of the dance flows that move very quickly from one move to the next drive me nuts. Jenna’s drills, on both her Basics and Beyond and Next Level, are in that genre. I have to watch and watch and memorize to be able to do them along because by the time you watch her and imitate, she’s gone on to another move. Neon’s unique Body Shaping series from much earlier, used this format but had instructions reflected graphically on the screen. Those, and counters, are cute and slick, but they still present another problem for me – calling my attention and focus 100% to the screen.
Many intermediate learners are completely derisive about the need to be looking at your own moves in the mirror while working with a video and insist that you’ll end up getting mirror-dependent forever. I beg to totally disagree. If you can learn a move without watching how you do it, you’re lucky, but to me, a do-along video should take into account the existence of learners who do need to go beyond assuming their bodies are getting it right and not checking at all. Some otherwise great videos have been badly compromised for me because of not having taken different learning styles into account. One of them is the otherwise strong Drills Drills Drills. While its predecessor Pop, Lock and Shimmy does better, this one has isolation drills for which you absolutely must focus on the screen because the move is spelt out briefly on-screen with text. Certainly, it’s explained in a previous section, but when it’s time to do along, you have to be looking to catch the change of move. Arbitrary numbers of repetitions mean that also can’t just remember and change to the next move on your own. While separating a detailed breakdown of the move and explaining its dynamics carefully at leisure in its own section is a good idea, when you get to the practice section, chatting when you should be cuing the next move, is a problem. Chatting comfortably with extra tips and reassurances is really quite nice, but it has to be timed ever so carefully if the pace of the practice is to be kept up. I’ve often found myself listening to a good tip and saying “yeah! Quite right, that!” only to find the move we were doing changed without warning, making me go oops! I lost that… The newsly released Ballet for Belly Dancers needs you to watch watch watch, while the practice sessions have no voice cues and no “plan” on how much of what we’re going to do. There are even places where there are changes in foot position going on but the camera is focused above-waist. I am going to have a tough tough time handling this one – and I so want to work with ballet basics for belly dance. There’s a change in move every few seconds, so there’s nothing for it but to watch the screen. I may get my own positions all wrong – but oh well, that’s not important.
The do-along basics go all haywire when we’re dealing with homegrown videos. Then, the instructor is usually so focused on trying to get you comfortable, she does it by chatting endlessly and distractingly. I believe that this factor adds about 30% “flab” to the video. Joking around too much is not, contrary to belief, cool on a video because if you’re going to work with the video again and again, those jokes are going to begin to annoy you and finally drive you up the wall and down the other side. Saqra, Zhaleh and Veda are some of the instructors that take the chatting too far on their videos. So, instructors have to keep in mind that those videos are going to be used repeatedly and mange the amount of talking – and the overall pace of the instruction – accordingly.
Another odd problem happens when instructors use too many different descriptions for one movement or sequence. While it’s great to describe things in different ways during the explanation, during the practice, stick to one way of referring to the movement to avoid confusion. Anasma can be seen doing just that in her new Liquid Fusion video. She describes how to do something by taking two or three different approaches and analogies. But in the drill, the reference is limited to one.
Of course, there are learners who are intensely visual and must focus wholly on the screen right through. Dancers very much value the music-only sections of instructional videos. It’s a great idea to have such sections but there are also aural learners so just as it isn’t mirror- vs non-mirror learners, it shouldn’t about visual vs aural learners. It’s about taking into account that there will be different types of learners. By the time a learner reaches the stage of using the music-only segment of a video, learning is, more the most part, over. So, the needs of the learner from a video can change over time.
I want to end this with a strange suggestion for those making videos. Try to work along with the do-along sections with your eyes closed. If you can do most of what’s happening on screen, you’re good to go. If you find that you’ve completely lost track of what’s happening and need to open your eyes and look – think it through some more.
Great great article Mala!
I so need mirrors to correct myself. There are visual and audio types when learning movements, too – some are lucky enough to hear what they’re supposed to do, and just instinctively get it right in their own bodies – and some need to see and correct their own positioning, posture, body line..
I consistently found myself doing way better in class with large ballet room mirrors in front, and pretty lost at home without the mirror.
I have no mirror (and no place I can put it), so I work with reflections on a glass cupboard and on my window (which has a tightly knit cat protection surface outside, so I dearly hope I cannot be seen from outside 8-s). This helps so much!
Sometimes one’s own shadow is good too, but can be misleading I believe. Also staring down all the time is a bad habit, too
When watching myself in a reflection I tend to get pretty desperate over videos not calling out the moves. Belly by Sandra does not call out many of the moves in the practice session, but has the variations written on the screen. For the big movement changes that is not a problem at all, as the music will change with them. But the change in tempo, which happens frequently, I miss all the time.
Not a major problem to me – I just tell myself I will be drilling the moves at my own tempo, and once I can do them well I’ll follow the screen more to get the fine tuning.
So not a flaw in this great video, but it would be perfect if there were cues indicating tempo change.
So agreed to all you said Mala!
A while ago in a previous life I used to teach aerobics, and for a while I worked assessing training and newly qualified teachers. Although bellydance has different movements, the teaching fundamentals still remain.
Cueing is a hugely important part of becoming a competant teacher, and one of the more difficult aspects to master. The best time to begin cueing a move is around 2 seconds before you want the student to start. This gives time to process the information and prepare your brain and body for the change. Any earlier will distract from the current move, any later (or not at all) and you won’t have time, and the transition will be a fumbled mess.
It bugs me no end when teachers cue as or after the move is starting. It makes it feel to the student as though they are incompetant, when actually it is the teacher.
Because this is a dance, not just a class, there is an element of needing to let the student dance without constant cueing, but it is extremely important when first teaching the initial sequence of moves.
I’m with you on the ‘flab’ too, there are many otherwise great dvds that are ruined for me because of this. I don’t mind if it’s in a separate section (like Autumn Ward’s) but when it’s at the beginning of each drill it is very off-putting.
I also can’t stand it when a phrase is repeated over and over throughout the dvd (or class) it is an easy trap to fall into, but as a good teacher it is important to work on dropping these habits. Eg saying meaningless phrases like ‘you’ve got it!’, ‘looking good’ or repetitive counting instead of valid teaching points such as ‘keep knees slightly bent’, ‘engage your left oblique as you do this’.
Those supposedly encouraging phrases are definitely annoying. Good job! Beautiful! Etc. Fahteim ends each little segment of her instruction on her Beautiful Hands DVD with a “Have fun with that!”
I think the idea is to make you feel you’re in the same room with the instructor – but it just ends up coming out really condescending and patronizing.
Some people manage to carry it off without talking down. Sadie, for instance. I think she says the occasional “good” but because her manner is very professional all the rest of the time, it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.
If 2 seconds before the move is what’s good, then Shamira definitely manages that very well.
There are a few videos I have that completely make me hyperventilate because of what I see as over-instruction. Commands fly at you so thick and fast that there’s zero time to process them! Perfect in Ten Pilates is one of them. Inhale-lift up-exhale-stretch-forward keep your back straight inhale lift up, exhale… Puff! I can’t handle those. From the same series, Perfect in Ten Abs, has a doable pace. So, much as I want to learn pilates, i can’t do it with that video, but I’ve worked with Abs many many times.
Yes the Fahtiem dvd is a prime example.
She has a slightly crazy look in her eyes when she repeats that phrase as well, it is really odd.
I agree that Sadie has struck the right balance, sometimes she is a little on the chilly side, but give me that any day over bubbly and annoying!
I was a little confused at first and was thinking of Sahira instead of Shamira, I don’t actually have any Shamira dvds *shock*, although I’m mildly tempted because she sounds like my kind of teacher I’m trying to be good and only buy dvds that I ‘need’!
Incidentally I don’t really use mirrors a whole lot, and find that I can copy well from watching someone on screen (this hasn’t always been the case), but I still agree that being able to follow instruction without constantly watching is important. Much as I like Anasma, there is a lot of bending over in her warm-up section and a lot it is tricky to follow because you can’t see the screen.
I just booked my ticket to Bellydance Congress, where both Sadie and Anasma are teaching, I can’t wait to meet Anasma! Also Fifi Abdou is teaching which is exciting, along with Randa and Raqia Hassan, a big line up!!
That’s a lot of big names all in one place! Lucky girlie! I’m sure Anasma will be super friendly. She looks it.
Were you always mirror-independent or only after many years of dancing? I definitely have to look during the learning stage. At least the initial stage. But most specially if I’m doing a new basic/isolation. For example, Autumn’s twist-shift-pull in. Or while learning any Egyptian flavored moves, because those are new to me and I won’t be able to tell if they’re looking smooth and juicy. Or even correct. But even if I weren’t looking in the mirror, I definitely wouldn’t want all my focus on the screen. I might just want to relax and say, feel the move a little bit.
I rather think a lot of the dancers on my tribal DVDs have got it right. Ariellah, Sera, Darshan, Asharah — all of these. And yes, Sahira too. She’s a good animated presenter.
I think Shamira’s DVDs are too basic for you. Way too basic. I don’t use any of mine any more. Pity she hasn’t made any more.
Mala, why not email Shamira on some new content?
Her workout dvds were shot in the 90s I believe (the 1st one definitely mid-90s – it seems to have been a huge VHS hit; I can’t believe back then the general public tended to learn from a REALLY good teacher and dancer rather than the cheesy fitness instructor goes bellydancer stuff from today).
She is amazingly friendly, I instantly liked her when I bought my first instructional from her. I really think she should make more!!!
Let’s convince her!!
Oh Ruth – WOW! Have fun!!!!!!
And yes I bet Anasma will be a doll! She comes across as SO likeable.
Dina, we already tried convincing Shamira. We wanted her to do a video on arms. She did warm up to the idea, but later it fell through. I guess she just doesn’t have videos as top-of-mind and is more busy with teaching and performances. At least at this point in her life
Awe what a pity!!!
You like Shamira’s videos a lot do you? Do you have her Smokin Hot? That’s an interesting, unusual one. She teaches 9 4:4 combinations and she fits them into a choreography, but she shows you how they can be danced to a zillion different pieces of music. To fit the combos over a whole song, she makes small variations on the nine moves. There are a lot of learnings in there and I thought it a really nice one for beginners. Post having learnt the main isolations, that is.
Perfect stuff also for those who don’t want to get seriously into belly dancing but want to get straight on the dance floor at a party and do something.
And this video is very well cued and instructed.
Ya I do.
I need to check out the Smoking Hot one.
I think she was out of all of her videos except for the 2 mainstream ones some time ago, but indicated at least the Smoking Hot she might have again sometime soon.
The reason I loved her was on her Sensuous Workout 1 you can actually see her dancing, all whilst showing the beginner moves. Now for many beginners this might be a bit frustrating, because there is so much to learn and one probably does not look like her for a long time. I found it encouraging to see the “real thing”, the dance done well and emotionally from head to fingertips to feet. And she has the whole package, expression, beautiful hands and arms…
She really dances the oriental way from fingertips to toes to her eyes.
The feeling for the music is 100% there.
I think she was my first video instructor of oriental descent. It made me think “YES; this is the detail in the hands and finger tips I one day want to dance like”. Reminded me a lot of the Egyptian movie stars, with a quality most American dancers do not have, even if they are excellent bellydancers.