There are some videos dancers use to death. They rely on them over time practically swear by them, and recommend them passionately to others. Dancer’s Library is an attempt to list these.The list can include proven-over-time items and ones with high potential to be in this category.
A Dancer’s Library DVD should have, potentially or provenly, these:
- Good structure
- Comprehensive content
- Long shelf life or ‘replay value’
- Use across different learning levels
Dancer’s Library begins – in no particular order:
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Aziza’s Ultimate Practice Companion
In an informal too-crowded class setting, a constantly lively Aziza takes her students through a warm up and arms segment to move on to a grueling set of drills. This video could have been better produced but that doesn’t stop it from being a permanent favorite of belly dancers. The content a workshop like structure and is, years after its release, still unusual. Accessible to learners of all levels but anyone finds it tough to go through the whole lot at one go.
Instant Belly Dancer
Every belly dancer will be familiar with this vision of Neon flowing out of a teacup. The groundbreaking Instant Bellydancer, in a set of two volumes, Curves and Hipwork, still has no exact parallel in the dance DVD world. Graphic overlays and detailed instruction take the learner through all the basic moves – and then some. There are also combos and in the remake, practice sessions. Even if your style is different, this is keepable and referable for precision and technique.
21 Shimmies and 1001 Variations
The 1001 variations are up to you, but Leyla Jouvana definitely demonstrates and teaches the most frequently used shimmies in this encyclopedic video.With her husband Roland on the drums, Leyla shows how each shimmy is done from each angle and leads you through a few rounds of repetition. Long time dancers use this video to brush up on and refresh their shimmy repertoire.There’s a Vol 2 to this DVD though one can’t say how much of a must-have library item that is or will be.
Ansuya’s Hot Combinations
Of all the combination videos the one you’re most likely to find across everyone’s collections is this. A detailed breakdown of seven distinctive combinaitons, this program truly stood out at a time when there weren’t so many others. The combinations are unique and are not of the standard type that make up the bulk of one’s dancing. They are actually not beginner friendly, but each fragment has been demonstrated and practiced from every angle, so most people will be able to get something out of this. The format is almost standard for IAMED DVDs. The second volume is somehow less likely to be in every dancer’s library.
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As I populate this list, hopefully talking to people and getting their opinions, feel free to give suggestions on which titles you think should or should not be there. Also which new titles should be recommended as must-have library items. Does Jehan’s Sacred Bellydance belong in this list? Does Drills Drills Drills? What about Delilah’s workshop set? New dancers will really learn from suggestions and counter-suggestions.
On Jehan’s Sacred Bellydance, I think it should be in the list. I have referred to it often finding it invaluable for the little nuances of bellydance that I don’t find anywhere else.
I do believe Ranya Renee’s Baladi belongs in every dancer’s library, whether they dance Egyptian or not.
It is just a matter of honour to know about the baladi, much of the foundation of all contemporary oriental dance.
I’d also say for those interested in oriental (as opposed to tribal or fusion), Aradia’s Lebanese Turkish Egyptian combinations video is a MUST MUST MUST have. For the ability to differentiate between styles.
As a beginner, I consider Sadie’s Complete Bellydance, Sandra’s Belly by Sandra Vol 1 and most importanty Shamira Sensuous Workout 2 the ultimate learning tools. They offer a complete package of muscular mastery and pure dance.
Good idea Mala.
It’s a tricky one, because it’s SO subjective, and there are lots of classic dvds that are not necessarily the best.
For example I can’t really see what all the fuss is about over Aziza’s practise companion, it’s ok, but I’d take Drills Drills Drills any time.
If I could choose to keep only 5 dvds they would be:
Drills Drills Drills
Anasma’s Liquid Fusion
Autumn Ward’s Beautiful Technique
Sadie’s Ultimate BD (or any Sadie one really, they are all good value!)
Modern Tribal with Asharah
Ranya Renee’s Baladi
Oops, that’s already 6, and there are a lot more that I would like to put in, but these seem to be the ones that I come back to over and over, and still learn something new every time.
Funnily enough I don’t have Instant Bellydancer, the title put me off when I was just starting out, but I’m sure it would have been heaps better than some of my other first purchases!
Ruth, I lost momentum on this one
And that’s precisely because I couldn’t make up my mind on whether Dancer’s Library should cover DVDs that dancers tend to have, or ones that I recommend. I started out doing the former.
Everyone seems to have Aziza’s Practice Companion. I personally don’t like it that much either and have only worked with it a couple of times.
Instant Bellydancer i another story. Even today it’s one of the most comprehensive DVD sets I’ve seen. You must see it somehow, just to know what all there is on it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that isn’t overly excited by Aziza’s practise companion. I like her, and her dancing, but this dvd doesn’t do a whole lot for me. And neither does Susanna del Veccio’s Precision Motion Workout that everyone raves about. I think they both have some value, but I just don’t get why dancers go so crazy over them.
If your list is dvd’s that a lot of dancers have, then in addition to your list the first Rachel Brice one, and surely everyone has a Neena and Veena tucked away somewhere!
Uh oh… I share your views about the Susana del Vecchio as well. For one thing, she’s really not a very good video-instructor. She’s tense, cold, and doesn’t relate to the learner for a second. In fact, she looks unwell. Makes me uncomfortable. Secondly, the whole video (I have two of hers and both are much the same) has a sort of dark atmosphere to it. Washed out and gloomy. And finally,the most important, is the strange conceptualization of the program. It doesn’t seem to be logically organized and leaves me feeling confused. On top of that, she glosses past some movements and takes inordinately long explaining something simple! Drives me nuts. I never have used it and won’t be doing so!
I think I have the other one too, is it Lock, Flutter and something or other?
I found it a bit dull, I have to admit.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to turn this into an ‘instructors I’m not keen on’ thread!
Talking of which I really must go through all my dvd’s and streamline my collection a bit. There are a few turkeys lurking in there…
Ah you can go ahead and turn it into instructors-I-don’t-like. After all, it’s totally open to discussion.
I don’t have the Flutter one but something called Dynamic Combinations or some such. The content is not bad, but again the whole presentation kills it.
Another one for the library is Serious Bellydance by Tamlyn Dalal. I don’t dislike it… but I don’t think it’s the bible people think it is. That’s another “Library” item. And so is Amaya Hips.
In the light of the DVDs coming out now, I think many of these oldies have lost their lustre!
Oh dear, now the floodgates are open!
I’m not a big fan of Amaya’s hips either.
I’m also not terribly impressed by Princess Farhana’s teaching. She’s fine when explaining concepts directly, but the drilling is so robotic and all that counting with no music drives me crazy. The production quality is not the best either.
And I would like Fahtiem’s Arm dvd, except it bugs me that at the end of every segment she does a slightly strange face to the camera and says ‘Have fun with that!” so I can no longer bear to watch it.
I haven’t seen the Tamlyn Dalal one, and I likely won’t get it if you don’t think it’s amazing!
Ruth.
We seem to have exactly the same likes and dislikes with our DVDs. I don’t like the Amaya Hips either and can’t see what the fuss is about! Plus, that’s another dark dingy bit of filming with her wearing something extremely odd that makes it no easier to see whatsoever! Not that I like the whole style of dancing to begin with! And as for Fahteim’s video…. 
for a while there I thought she was joking! But she said it again and again every time! But hey, I worked with it ONE WHOLE TIME. The Princess’ videos need some life, for sure. I like something about her, but am unable to work with the videos, which is why I don’t buy them and review them. Not at that price!
I know it’s a little late to weigh in on this topic, but I had to add my two cents about Aziza’s Practice Companion. I was relieved to see that I’m not the only person in the bellydance world who isn’t completely entranced with that dvd!! I love Aziza’s dancing and her personality is delightful but that, unfortunately, didn’t make me fall in love the dvd.
I bought “Practice Companion” at the recommendation of one of my dance teachers but never understood what was so good about it. I found the cramped quarters and tight camera angles rather annoying. I only used it a few times and relegated it to the back of my shelf.
When it comes to learning how to practice, I got more from Michelle’s “Drills, Drills, Drills”, Autumn Wards dvd and the “Lovely, Luscious and Hard Candy” series from Neon.
AND there is a misedited bit on Practice Companion where the section of practice on the left hip and the first bit of next sectino on the right hip are missed out and you either have to stop the dvd, or miss that bit out. You go fronm hip over on one side to scoop with the other side – which is just damn sloppy for the price
And it’s still at the original price? That should totally be changed. When it first released, there was less competition. Now the scenario is quite different.
I noticed that too, it really bothers me when practice sections are uneven, when they are obviously not supposed to be. I guess that’s the aerobics teacher in me, because it doesn’t worry me with choreographies at all.
Uneven in a choreography may be by design. Uneven in practice sessions is by omission. No?
Yes, it’s something I feel should be picked up on during filming, or at the very least during the editing process. A lot of choreographies are designed to be uneven and that’s fine of course.
Aziza’s Practice Companion dvd costs waaaay too much to have such a huge editing error That was only one of many things that bothered me about the dvd. I thought it was a dispointment for the price.
I guess it’s now largely of historical interest, gathering dust as it is, in most dancers’ libraries! By now there are so many better ones. The tribal workout videos actually do a fantastic job of drills.
I agree totally! I’ve gotten more out of Ariellah and Sera’s dvs than I ever did out of Aziza’ Practice Companion. I recently got Irina’s tribal Fusion Workout and, even though it zips along rather quickly, I think I’m going to like working with this one (a bit down the road…) For now, I’m putting it on the shelf until I’ve gotten back into a regular practice routine. I’m afraid I’ve gotten very lazy lately and done very little dancing. I’m afraid I’m almost back to square one!
I’m back to round one! But they tell me round is a shape too.
I love your “round is a shape” comment – you really put a smile on my face just when I needed it most!
I am most definitely back to (pre) beginner level in my dancing. In fact, I’m so out of practice that I don’t even know which dvd I should work with at this point. I suppose Love Potion would be as good a place to start with as any. I need to learn the basics all over again. *sigh*
I guess you go back to something you were comfortable with. I go back to East Coast I and Asharah’s drills. And Luscious. Having done one session of each, I’m also now looking for one of the basics videos that will make me go through circles and hip lifts etc all over again. I might pick one of the newer ones for this. There’s a long video by a Leila that might do. Or maybe Belly By Sandra (1). Yes,in fact that was rather nice. I think that’s the one!
I have the dvd by Leila and it’s pretty good. In fact, it’s darn good!
I ordered it on a whim (not expecting much for the low price I paid) and was pleasantly surprised just how much information was covered.
I can’t wait until I have the time to work with this dvd. I think it was a real find.
Hi Mala,
I love your reviews on Amazon!
Thought I might mention Kaya’s Hip notic is worth it just for the belly rolls section.
I was a bit disappointed with certain sections of her dvd.The best way to put it would be that it wasnt engaging enough and bordered on ‘boring’,until I got to the belly drills section.Its very well explained.
She doesnt have too many drills with the other sections.
I am Beginner-Intermediate and mainly rely on dvd to learn from.
Ah, I was a bit disappointed with it too! It’s sort of a patchy bunch of mixed things. Haven’t seen it in a while, but I picked it up to jump right into it and ended up being a bit nonplussed.
Wow, am I really the only one who liked Aziza’s practice companion?
I wish I were far enough along to think in terms of “Dancer’s Library”… for now, I still think in terms of “Dancer’s Curriculum.” That means lots of basics, as well as videos to practice with, move up with, etc.
This Dancer’s Library is a stalled project-let of mine. I wanted to collect all those DVDs that learning dancers seem to think are a must-have. But, it’s not awfully scientific. And my own library grew to over 300… or is it even more. I’ve gvigen up keeping track of the titles in spreadsheets like I used to!
But I certainly never ever took to Aziza’s Companion. I think that more now, when I’ve seen many other videos. That said though, I think when one finds that one is comfortable with a dancer’s style of teaching, one should just stick with it and ignore whether the video is living up to new expectations arising from the flood of DVDs that came afterwards. After all, this one was so much earlier than the drilly ones we use now. Including Drills Drills Drills. And the WDNY tribal ones that thoroughly drill you in the basics.
I’ve been noticing this as I pull some of my older vids out and work with them… the standard of material has gone up so much in the pat decade, in no small part due to WDNY and, later, Cheeky Girls. Both the amount of material covered and the organization, teaching concepts, etc., are so much higher now, that it’s hard to judge the older videos fairly.