I have to say I feel a certain amount of indignation at never having been told any of this in jazz class. Or any dance class, for that matter. Even though technt ique and posture is so critical to executing spins and turns correctly, I only remember being to watch, follow along, and for heaven’s sake keep up with the class. I’ve taken a good toss during a turn and ended up with a fractured wrist, chipped cheekbone, and a cut at the corner of one eye – so I should know.
I was pretty keen on seeing what the Turn it Up DVD from CheekyGirls Productions had to offer to see if I could finally pick up learning turns again because turns do magical things to belly dancing.
Intermediate dancers should definitely consider this video if they haven’t mastered spins and turns in actual classes yet. Dancer Summer Sahar knows her jazz and her ballet. On this video she shows you how to apply what she has learnt about turns from these genres to belly dancing. And she does a pretty good job of it.
There isn’t a warm up on this video, so when you start to work with it, go and do one of your own first. I’d say 10 to 15 mins of whatever you generally do to wake up the body and prepare for dancing should do. I’d avoid working with the video right after a long session of conditioning and other dance routines. You need your concentration and alertness to listen to your body when working with turns. That’s my two cents anyway.
We start our work with turns with the all important Spotting. The explanation is just fine here. What would have been better would have been some nice spotting drill because it’s a dead boring thing to do on your own. Luckily, just a few rounds here and there begins to make a big big difference. A spotting drill would be quite appropriate, I think, on a turns dvd.
Then we have those critical tips that were missing from my jazz class. How to hold the back, tuck the tummy, whether to have straight legs or slightly bent etc are taken up here.
Summer is quite right in saying that it takes a lot of muscle to do turns. Any compromises on that and you end up with injuries. So, you grab a chair for balance and work on a set of very specific strength and balance exercises. Each exercise is done 2 or 3 times, but again, I think a nice drill would have helped. Cued, with music. I’ve done similar exercises using ballet conditioning videos and have seen that these can be beautifully drilled. Here we move rather quickly from one to the next and there’s a slight fragmented feel. These exercises seemed to be filmed separately but would have been better in a smoother flow. There are about 4 or 5 exercises.
The turns instruction begins now and you have a whole lot of them to work through. Thirteen, to be precise. Summer explains each turn with a breakdown and safety and execution tips. The way to work with these would probably be to watch whichever one you’re working with many many times, pause, go try it out gently, correct, and then practice several times. There’s no separate practice while teaching the turns: that comes later. It would have been better to run through the turn a few times — with some safety tips. The extent of breakdown too should have been a lot more. For example, I remember doing the compass turn in jazz class. It isn’t enough to demo it once. Is the standing leg to be bent? Is there something you can do to avoid twisting your angle as you go around 360 degrees on one foot? How do you prepare your posture for each turn? These questions should have been taken up.
Here again I’d have thought a practice session of some kind would have been useful, but on the other hand, if you were to do the lot in one drill, it would get anyone confused and dizzy. Still, I think to go through each turn say 5 times and then stop and go to the next would have been ideal.
We get to a section on combinations next, and this is the real meat of the DVD. There are eight whole combinations – and they are not to be sneezed at. They’re Egyptian. Or at least Egyptianish. Summer says she has deliberately taken these up a notch so that there’s something to work towards and I think that’s a good idea. This isn’t a thing you can rush, so building up turn skills slowly and carefully is quite appropriate. Each combo takes up two or more turns and is “music free” in the sense that you can use them as-is anywhere else. The main practice will come from these combinations. Each combo has a music-only extended practice session. I’ll bring up a favorite grouse of mine – these should be gently cued. There no need to call out the break down, but just some minimal cues would be good. That’s because while you’re dancing along, you cannot possibly look at the video – you’ll be busy doing your footwork, turning away, and hopefully spotting real good etc. But all said and done, these combinations are impressive. And there are so many of them they could keep someone like me busy for a year. You can practice the combinations in an extended practice session separately as well.
This video ends with three performances from Summer. One of them actually involves a Secrets of the Stage style commentary where Summer tells you about the challenges of dancing and turning in restaurants. I am horrified to learn that a false hair piece once flew right off during a turn. Good thing it landed on the floor and not in someone’s plate.
On this DVD, you will not find the basics of belly dance moves explained. Thank god for that. There are enough DVDs for that. In any case, if you’re ready to tackle turns, you’re probably not a complete beginner. I’d recommend this video for those who know the very basics. It will also be helpful for those who are taking classes and need specific help with turns.
Overall, I would have rated this a 5 for being unique and Thisdoing a good job of bridging two (or indeed three) genres of dance) and for covering so many turns. The sheer number of wonderful combinations too deserves a 5. But I will take off one point because breakdown for each turn should have been deeper, there should have been more safety tips, a mini practice or try out with the turn explanation, and slight cuing during the extended practice. Whatever points it gets, it’s a useful part of a dancer’s toolkit.
This dvd arrived this morning, I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl, (bad pun intended!) as my turns are rubbish. From reading your review I am beginning to see why, so I’m sure this dvd will help, providing I can get off my lazy butt and actually use it.
Great. I’m really keen on seeing what others think.
I’ve watched a small part of this now, and it does seem to have a lot of useful information, I felt a big improvement in the turn I tried (I only did the first two, paddle turn and crossover turn, (Summer calls it something different, but I can’t remember what at the moment!) and wow, what a difference the correct posture and technique makes. Like you, I feel a little cheated that no-one has ever mentioned any of this to me before.
I agree about the lack of drills in the technique section, just as I feel I’m getting it a bit it’s moved on. I guess the idea is to pause the dvd and drill it by oneself, but I like having my hand held when I practise from a dvd. I also found it a bit disconcerting the way her outfit changes colour after every little section. It’s nice to have one or two changes, but this is a little over the top, especially since the outfits are identical in design! I found it funny.
I’m looking forward to working with this, but I’ll definitely follow your recommendation and work with 2 turns and one combination at a time. It does seem to be a very good addition to my dvd collection, and not something that has been covered much before. I have actually got the Marguerite dvd, but I can’t remember what is on it at all, I’m not sure I have even watched it. I’ll have to have a look at it, and finish watching the rest of this one, then I’ll get back to you Mala.
Thanks for writing your impression! I like it when others say something about a video too.
Ah yes, the outfit changes were too many and made it look like the video was filmed in little pieces. It’s an unnecessary fragmentation and seeing this made me realize that one actually needs continuity specially when learning something difficult. It’s like I didn’t want to notice or deal with any other stimuli because I need to focus fully on those turns. A change of outfits may not be that bad if we’re dealing with distinctly different combinations. Say a tribal one and then a folkloric one. But when it’s all turns, it’s not psychologically comfortable. You feel the change of outfit signals some change in instruction or mood –and then you find it doesn’t. I also didn’t think there was any need for Summer to wear outfits that completely hid her legs and feet —and then have to pull it up.Why do that? Just wear something appropriate to begin with.
When it comes to turns, I feel hand-holding is totally in order. Anything that’s physically challenging should be taken slow and with a lot of practice and detail and safety tips. I tried the compass turn…and pretty much nearly fell over. There’s obviously something more I need to fix, but I don’t know what that is. The big sweep just doesn’t go 360 degrees for me.
I watched the Marguerite again, and I can see now why I haven’t used it. It is pretty much the opposite of Turn it up, in that she doesn’t give many teaching points, or advise on technique (apart from repeating keep knees soft, which is the opposite of Summer). There is a lot of drilling the turns, which is follow-along style, not easy to watch when you are turning too, and to me some of her turns look a little sloppy compared to Summer’s. So it’s going back into the box on the top shelf! I haven’t done any more work with Turn it up yet, although I am intending to.
In fact I have barely done any dancing at all recently, I’m trying to learn Sahira’s Bella Donna ya Helwa, to dance with my troupe, but it is very difficult. Looks gorgeous though, and I love the music.
Ah. Thanks for saving me the trouble. I don’t know where my Margarite video is and I won’t bother looking for it.
I’m afraid I haven’t danced either!!! In fact,I’m quite out of shape unless you count round! attacked one one of my favorite cardio ballet workouts to begin correcting that and get backto the dancing I used to love so much!
Sahira? As in the Sahira who made the lovely Arabian Spices?
Yes, the very same Sahira.
Bella donna is her troupe, here is the link to it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HXLY1rSx4c
performed as a troupe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5STupXLuho
Yes,I saw this after you mentioned it. I don’t recognize Sahira as the same person on the Arabian Spices though! is this choreography taught? It’s a long long one!
Yes, it’s taught in four sections, each section by a different one of the troupe members. I find that quite appealing because they are all good teachers, and it makes it more fun to learn. I have a very short attention span when it comes to learning choreo from dvd’s although in class and workshops it is never a problem.
It is definitely the same Sahira though. I loved Arabian Spices, then was a little disappointed by Ali, so I’m glad this one is good. Just a shame it’s difficult!
Wonderful. Might consider it if I ever get thin again! And if I can get back to dancing. That Sahira is wonderful.The Arabian Spices choreography has major major impact. Someone told me “it’s like you’re in a trance and you’re taking us with you”.:-)
I didn’t get Ali and haven’t even seen it. Didn’t like the forced indian touch. Bhangra like. I hate Bhangra.
Sahira is amazing, she was at BDCongress last year but I didn’t take any of her classes. I wish I had, but there just wasn’t enough time. I really want to learn Arabian Spices, it’s one of the few I would like to be able to perform sometime. I think it would also look nice as a group dance, so maybe I’ll see if the troupe fancies learning it at some point in the future… ha ha, I am like a stuck record…in the future….one day…sooon…never!!
If I can learn it, you can learn it. I learned it many years ago fairly early in my dance “journey”. Working with it taught me invaluable choreo-learning skills! And I really went all the way to learn it. I would pore over every second ofeach combo again and again and work on it piece by little piece through the day. If I stood up from a chair, I’d do some little movement that came from the choreography. In other words i made myself get obsessed with it. Technically, I’ve heard dancers criticize Arabian Spices, but when I perform it (and I’m not much of a dancer) people are riveted. I must have made it a strong self expression in some way.
It looks beautiful with 3 people. With 1, it’s mesmerizing and personal. But with more, it’ll be emotionally diluted. That’s my opinion!