Here’s more of the lovely Jenna dancing to what I think of as a difficult song. I never know what to do with a long taqsim section in the beginning (I’m talking about alone in my dance room, of course, not some stage performance ) and I wouldn’t know what to do with strong repeated segments of music. I’d be worrying about not repeating myself. Watch out for a an almighty shrieking zagreet in the end from the show host. If you’re in headphones, get out real fast!
Gosh, has it become difficult to evaluate new basics videos or what! There was a confusing number of them when I started dancing, and now there are so many more - and good ones at that. Oh hey, one or two of Michelle’s own videos compete with this one.
While you can’t review a basics video in isolation from all the others out there, you also can’t ignore that each one has its strengths and that no single instructional video teaches you all of belly dancing. Typically, dancers who rely on videos a lot have huge collections of them. So if someone were to ask me whether I’d recommend this (or any other new basics video) I’d first quiz them in great detail about lots of things. Like video collection so far, how in depth they want to get into belly dancing, whether they go to classes otherwise or not, etc.
After all that circumlocution, let’s get to whom I think this video is right for.
Funny thing is, it depends on which half of the video we’re talking about. To take the beginners’ section first, I’d have to say that this really is a crash course. It’s quick and gives you the absolute fundamentals. Hip bumps, pelvic tilts, circles, figure eights, and undulations are explained nicely. But what’s really nice is the little drill section after each chunk. These are gentle and short enough for beginners to practice with - and an option for more knowledgeable beginners or intermediate dancers to use if they feel they don’t want to work too hard on some days.
Many moves that others consider basic - the one-hip circle, chest circles, variations with side to side hips, hip downs - are not taken up here. That makes it ideal for someone who wants to learn a bit of “light” belly dancing and get on with it and take it to the dance floor. If you are the type who can’t bear to miss out on a movement even at beginner stage (like me) you’ll need more in depth instruction. I’m seriously thinking I will lend it to my brother in law who’s tickled pink with belly dancing and wants to try it out. I don’t see him concentrating hard and getting a maya right, but I definitely think he’d be able to shake it a bit with this short but safe instruction.
There are no combinations for beginners, and that’s in order since the drills will be enough work in themselves for a while before moving on to the intermediate section.
I do think though that a warm up would have been good after the posture section. Or before for that matter.
The section for intermediate dancers (or really advanced beginners) gets right into combinations and has you practicing faster versions of the movements taught in the beginners section. There are four combinations in all and these are very nice and usable. Modifable as well. Right from the start you can see that they fit different kinds of music, as Michelle changes tracks for fast and slow versions of the combos. The music, by the way, is really nice. Much of it is from Suhaila Salimpour’s Shehrezad, which I have to get hold of. Thankfully, the combinations are not disappointingly short or anything, and each distinctly gets into separate types of movements. Nevertheless, you could combine them and mix bits of them all up to make your own choreography. I like the combinations a lot and experimented a bit just today, mixing them with some from Jillina’s pop choreography video.
Combos in detail
The first combination goes best with a medium or fast tempo. It’s full of hip drop, drop kick moves, a turn and a shimmy. It’s not a difficult one on the face of it, but the challenge will be remembering when to drop kick, when to drop sit, drop and turn etc when you’re moving fast and repeating the combo on both sides. The slow version is done to Keyboard Solo from Arabian Musicals Vol 2, Suhaila Salimpour. The fast version is done to Bongo Funk from Suhaila’s Shehrezade.
The second combo is shorter but more challenging than the first one. It’s the body wave combo and has some roll ups and roll downs done quickly to worry about. There’s also a deep deep dip and a hair toss which you’ll have to practice to get right but not practice that much as to hurt your back. Some safety tips here would have been in order. There is only a slow version of this combo and it’s done to Arabian Gold from Suhaila’s Shehrezade.
The third combo, the figure 8 combo, uses up eights, mayas, and a flat eight. It’s a slow sexy sort of combo and it has two moves new to me (though I’m no one to go by). These are a pivot with an up eight and a bounce added to the trajectory of the flat eight. Slow to Keyboard Solo again and fast to a nice modern Turkish sounding piece that hasn’t been named.
The hip circle combo has medium traveling circles, large hip circle with a dip, and snake arms. This one is rather short and maybe the easiest of the lot - except for the deep dip. Arabian Gold and Bongo Funk again.
So there we are. Another basics video for belly dancers. To sum up what I think this video has to offer: a quick get-down-to-dancing instruction on absolute fundamentals, gentle short drills food for beginners and doable for non beginners who want to take it easy, and - four great combinations to play with.
Somewhere along the line, I got a bee in the bonnet about sensuality. Actually, soon after I began belly dancing I went on a big hunt for videos that taught “slow moves”. The sensuality bug was reinforced when I happened to see a video clip of Blanca.
There are many words that come to mind when you see Blanca dancing. Graceful, natural, feminine, beautiful, spellbinding. But perhaps the word people associate most with her is sensual. She dances with everything she’s got - her eyes, her hair, a tilt of the head, a twirl of the wrist. She also dances with enjoyment and emotion putting all of herself into her dancing.
Blanca told me her teacher had two instructional videos coming up: They were to be a set called Sacred Bellydance. I got them as soon as they were out. I soon saw that sensual dancing was not just about isolations and tried to work with the mesmerizing Jehan’s instruction. She taught me about the wholeness of belly dancing.
Blanca’s own instructional video, Sensual Bellydance, came much later and I dropped everything else I was doing. This was what I’d wanted all along; someone to give me something tangible to do that would set me off in the right direction.
Blanca’s beautiful video ended up being a huge hit with belly dancers — beginners right through to advanced. I loved learning her Venus choreography. I danced it for family and friends who have marveled at how graceful it was, so I must be in the right direction. Learning with Blanca’s video made a difference to all my dancing.
What came next in my dance journey is an “age of drills”. That has by no means ended. I loved many of the videos I bought and had no end of fun working with them. But what I really focused on is drills. Ariellah, Michelle Joyce, Asharah and Sadie have in differing measures helped condition my body for belly dancing.
Areillah’s Contemporary Bellydance and Yoga Conditioning was the first serious drills video I worked with. Most dancers I know are very fond of Aziza’s Practice Companion, but I didn’t quite manage to get into that one. That, I think was just a matter of personal preference in styles of instruction or just the way the video is structured. I “outgrew” Ariellah’s video and moved on to Asharah’s 3-hour workout, which is what I stick with right now. I also took up yoga and a smattering of pilates, which helped strengthen the core and back no end.
I worked fully or partially with many other videos. I loved Sadie’s Sultry and Slow Moves. I really enjoyed learning and informally performing Jenna’s Celebration of Rhythm, and had a total blast with Jillina’s drum solo.
I’ve spent so much time on drills that there’s sometimes been very little time left for dancing.
Things got serious when I started to figure out that my isolations still had a long way to go. They needed depth and control. And luckily, a series of new tribal fusion videos began to be released.
East Coast Tribal
With this wonderful video, I think I moved to another level. I saw with the sinuous snaky combinaitons done by Sera and her troop that isolaitons need to be worked on more than I ever imagined. I really looked more like a confused earthworm than a snake, so it was obvious there was much to do.
I really stuck with the 35-minute workout led by the gorgeous Sera. Sera’s method of exaggerating the isolation and then reining it to a controlled amplitude, works well for beginners.
Arabian Spices
This video by the beautiful Sahira is the one that really, really taught me how to learn a choreography. The choreography itself is beautiful too — and so is the music it’s set to. DJ Kambo’s Arabian Spices or Istanbul Dream.
I learnt this choreography by getting downright obsessed with it. First, I did nothing but watch it several zillion times. That must have helped. And then, I jumped into the first combination. I always learn the first combination of any choreo very quickly.Then I got down to work properly.
First, I learnt the movements and their sequence for the first chunk of combinations. At this point, I didn’t look at how well I was doing the moves (not well at all) but just focused on “getting them”. If I bumped into a basic component I couldn’t do, I drilled that. For example the “roll up” or interior reverse undulation.
When I’d got the moves, I began to focus on the counts for each. I no longer just did a move but made sure I counted it out till it was perfect. I also practiced bits of the choreo whenever I got a chance; for a moment in the loo, for a little while in my office room if no one was looking… All dancers, I think, have been through that sort of thing.
Then, I began to fit the moves with counts to the music. Now, one big flaw of this video is that when Sahira teaches each combination, she just has the music start from the beginning of the piece. She doesn’t use the actual parts of the music that the combination is intended to go with. That’s shocking, considering the video is otherwise made so well. I listened to this piece of music endlessly on my iPod, doing the choregraphy mentally.
Finally, when I could dance it rhough to the music, in sequence, witht he right moves, I started to work on finessing. I may have been doing a maya but was it a good maya? I drilled many of the components and paid attention to details like the level of arms in a move, whether the elbows were turned up or not, where to look during a move, the “amplitude” of each move, etc. I also worked on the floreo, specially. It’s not taught on this video, so I found a breakdown of it on a flamenco instructional video and practiced with that.
I did run throughs of Arabian Spices every day for several rounds. Finally, I performed it for a small informal audience. And for friends who would come over. Their reactions told me I was doing something right. “It’s like a prayer! It’s so difficult! It’s so beautiful! It takes me into another world!” etc. I even performed it at an office party. This was years ago and people still remember. A handful keep asking me to “do that same dance” again. Finally, I “oil” the choreography every now and then because the moves will now only look better with improved isolaitons. Each time I take it up after a gap, I’m able to correct or improve something. Recnetly, I added a set of moves to the end, because the choreography actually does have a serious tone and changes the atomsphere in a room completely. Sometimes, I might want to lift out of that atmosphere and go back into a party mood — so I added a little optional chunk to it.
Learning the Arabian Spices choreography may sound like hard work, but thereafter it helped with learning all subsequent ones. I’m now aware of the process and don’t have to break it down so much. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Shira’s Yahoo Belly Dance Video Group played a huge, huge part in my dance journey. Not only because we’d alert the group about new videos, but because of the discussions, analysis, sharing, exploring and support for everything from knee problems to weight loss. We’ve talked about many aspects of dance and dancers.
Most of all, what the video group did for me was to give me the opportunity to make some lovely friends whom I’m in everyday touch with. We know each other well, even from far away, and support one another on issues that go way beyond dance. My wonderful friends have been part of what’s so nice about belly dancing.
As I acquired more videos, I let my reviewing instincts kick in and wrote a lot of detailed reviews of DVDs. This too helped me learn and know the belly dance community.
Belly dancing in India was practically non existent when I started. Not surprising, considering there are religious extremists always waiting to pounce with their moral policing and use any incident they can for political furtherment and power. There was one restaurant where a Russian belly dancers performed on Wednesdays. But I never did go there. Today, there’s a sudden surge of interest and I hear there’s an instructor who has about 200 students in Delhi. I’m not tempted.
I couldn’t believe my luck when a friend, totally in passing, mentioned his wife was going to join ballroom dancing class. I had no idea there were any ballroom classes in Delhi! In fact, was there anything other than bollywood and bhangra in the country?
Of course there was, but clueless Mala didn’t know that. Anyway, I wasted no time at all joining “Ballrumors” dragging a hapless friend of mine with me. I loved the dancing right from the start. I loved the baby cha cha cha, the dated jive, the dreamy elementary waltz and smattering of salsa we did. I was no good at it, of course, but I loved it all the same. I had terrible posture, awkward rhythm at best, and I sort of panicked when I danced.But there’s no doubt I loved it and never ever missed a class.
This is how I wanted to dance:
I stuck with Ballrumors for two years and then moved on to a more advanced class for about three years. Impassioned by Latin dancing, I could think of little else, really.
Neonissima
One day, while looking for some instruction on video that could improve my creaky isolations, I stumbled upon “Instant Bellydancer” by one cute blondie named Neon. I waited for my Amazon shipment. I popped the DVD into my player… and I couldn’t believe it. How amazingly she danced, this Neon! What an incredible system she had for teaching!
And that was the end of my affair with ballroom and Latin dancing.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that even learning belly dancing was more fun. More fulfilling. I no longer had to wait for my 2 minutes of instructor time, no longer had to wait around for one or two men in class who could lead well, and I no longer had to depend on someone else’s teaching pace. What’s more, in a short while, I could hold my own on a dance floor even with elementary belly dance moves.
So I do owe it to Neon for having started me off on belly dancing and for getting me through the basics in the absence of a live teacher. Her Instant Belly Dancer set is so effective it’s been translated into other languages and is still, I think, the flagship product of her video producing company, World Dance New York. I spent hours with those DVDs trying hard to get the moves right. I didn’t even know it would ever happen because I looked terrible and somehow couldn’t make my positions for each move look anything like Neon’s. I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I used to dance in my shadow because I didn’t have the wonderful 7-foot mirrir I do now.
I also owe it to Neon for having gotten me through to this point without any belly dance injuries. On her Instant Belly Dancer, Neon actually doesn’t spend too much time on safety tips. But, if you follow her graphic overlays and her instruction carefully, you won’t get hurt. With my eyesight being as weak as it is, those graphic overlays were a treasure.
I stuck like Velcro to the Instant Belly Dance program for a good two years. There’s so much to work with on those videos. Even today, watching Neon’s clean sharp technique teaches me soemthing each time I look at the videos.
Sensuous Workout
If it hadn’t been for the Yahoo Belly Dance Video group, I really wouldn’t have discovered Shamira. But someone pointed me in the direction of her website, and before very long I had acquired a bunch of her videos, most of them “no frills”. The one that really worked well for me was Sensuous Workout 2. I think what Shamira did on this video was to make it easy for me to turn those isolations into dancing. Her gorgeous arm work and her demure, pretty poses made belly dancing more appealing. I worked with her three choroegraphies and the 22 little chapters covering the basic belly dance moves.
I later moved to her Zeina choreography and took my time trying to get through that. At the time, managing a whole choreography was unthinkable. I took it slow. But even so, I must have been getting somewhere because a friend of mine took some phone videos and anyone who saw those said “Wow, how professional!” and “Holy smoke!”.
When I got this video, long ago, I was neither exercise savvy and nor did I have any other exercise videos. So I was quite delighted with it and at finding it was doable. I hate those high-velocity aerobics videos with their flat-everything bimbette instructors whooping their way through a workout. I’ve just never ever been able to work with those.
Tanna’s video, in which she instructs you through a workout designed by fitness expert Andy Troy, seemed quite an antidote to the category of aerobics videos I hate. It’s smoothly and comfortably paced with not one instance of “yeah, yeah, you can do it!” etc.
But first off let me say that many buyers have felt that this video has been “misnamed”. It isn’t all abs, but 4 10-minute workouts covering stretches, upper body, lower body and abs. So it’s really one-fourth abs. Of course, one does need a full body workout but what if you buy it to work on in addition to other instructional videos you have or to add a big component of abs exercises to a routine you already do?
I wish all exercise and dance videos would include a five-minute segment that warms you up and gets the blood flowing enough for you to start stretching. But they just tell you to go run around the block or play with the kids or climb the stairs. In that time, most people will go off and do something else.
The four 10-minute workouts on this video are supposed to be able to be done in any order. But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t really really skip the stretches and go straight into lower body squats and kick backs. It will be too abrupt. So most people will start with and not avoid the stretches, which is the first 10-minute segment of this video. Here, you go through 10 or 12 standard stretches going from arms to quads to back, etc. To me these are not totally tame. After so much yoga and intense dance conditioning, they’re so light I can do them in my sleep. But they’d be good for exercise-beginners. I did, in fact, try to teach the stretches to an exercise-averse friend of mine and she didn’t find them easy at first try. Later, yes.
The lower body workout comes right after the stretches and includes bridges, lunges, kick backs, squats and leg lifts. Of these, it’s the lunges and squats that are the most challenging, specially if you have knee problems. In fact, that’s the only reason I find them challenging and go easy on them. It’s a much more active session than the stretches and the section that follows it.
For the upper body workout, you have to use weights. Now, I just never manage to do any exercise that relates to props, so I only do parts of this segment, bringing in other exercises that I now know to fill in for those I don’t want to do. The push ups are the most challenging part of this segment. Tanna herself gets tired doing them. After a while, I wasn’t getting out of breath and it felt good to be able to do these.
The actual abs section is the last segment. You begin with 5 planks and go on to do a series of regular crunches and obliques with variation. The most challenging part of this section is probably the planks and reverse crunches, which are difficult to get right in the first place.
Tanna does give you posture tips that I’ve absorbed enough to carry over into other exercise and dance prep work. It’s from this video that I learnt how you have to maintain good form and keep the rest of the body still and in the correct posture while executing a move. My ex yoga instructor, who threw in crunches into the routine, would ignore the posture and just go, more more more, faster faster faster - which is not the way to ever do it.
The abs segment works rather well for the upper abs. I have strong upper abs and it helps a lot with upper body moves in belly dancing. But there isn’t that much work for the lower abs, which is my big (sigh) problem. All in all, along with so much other stuff I’ve worked with, this workout has helped me. I just can’t tell exactly how much because of the irregularity and the multiple things I do to exercise. I know though that I’ve gone from struggling with the programme to finding it dead easy - so I guess it has done something. Now, all I need is that pot belly to go, preferably taking my backside with it!
All three of Jenna’s instructional videos have been incredibly generous in content. In The Heartbeat of Bellydance she teaches you three complete drum solo choreographies, beginning with a short, easy one and building up to a long, detailed advanced one. This video, one of World Dance New York’s best releases, is probably a part of every belly dancer’s video collection. Bellydance, Basics and Beyond is a comprehensive in-depth belly dance beginners course. Jenna explains and demonstrates all the fundamental moves in very solid detail. She gives safety tips all through and moves you through a warm up, basic moves, compound moves, traveling steps, arm work, combinations and practice and more. All in all it’s a three-hour workshop. I revise my basics with Jenna every so often, correcting and polishing the basics.
The Next Level: Transitions, Turns and Layers takes up beautifully where Basics and Beyond leaves off. Unlike with many videos, there’s no doubt that is a clear step up from beginner to intermediate (for want of better terms).
Tough seven-minute warm up
I’ve seen so many warm ups on so many belly dance videos. I’ll tell you straight off that this one is different. It’s not that there are new movements, but that there are complex moves that change after just two or three repetitions. You begin with some head rolls following a figure-8 trajectory. You go on to some shoulder rolls. And that’s where easy ends. From then on you go straight to undulations, double undulations with level changes, hip twists with a layer of upper body undulations and more and more moves. I personally have a big problem with movements changing after just a repetition or two. You just hear and get the explanation and begin to try out the move and it’s time to move on to the next. But perhaps more advanced dancers will find that easy. I try to solve this problem by watching a few zillion times before working with that section.
The warm up here is made up of full fledged belly dance moves rather than stretches, yoga, or pilates exercises. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I can’t say - but it’s challenging. I tend to do different warm ups when working with this video and use the warm up like a long challenging combination. I use it for skill building.
Many many moves in a hip layering drill
Much in the style of the warm up, Jenna takes you through a series of hip moves using the flow rather than the repetition method. You will not find yourself doing the same move 20 or 30 times. Rather, you’ll go from one move to the other like a long, long combination. The “drill” aspect will have to come from doing this whole sequence many many times. The moves include mayas with twists, twists with reverse undulations, one-hip horizontal circles layered on a traveling step… ah, there’re too many to list!
How I tackled this segment is by watching it many times. Then, I went so far as to record the audio part and move it to my iPod. I listen to it in the car or during other free spells and mentally do it along. Then I actually get to the sequence for real and work with it. Only with many repetitions will one get it smoothly. Nice and challenging.
This is a very different layering drill from say, Sadie’s or Michelle’s. The whole approach is different.
Upper body layering
Rib cage circles, shoulder pushes and shimmies in different patterns, shoulder shimmies layered on chest slides, torso rotations, squares, hip circles, and on folkloric steps. This is a short short intense drill. There’s no breakdown and explanation of moves here. Remember.. this is the next level. If you need breakdowns you’ll need to go back to Basics and Beyond.
Both these drills are also a lesson in transitions as you move smoothly and quickly from one move to the other.
A bit of a turn
Explanations begin in this section as Jenna breaks down each turn. She explains each in detail with all associated body movements, footwork, arm work, weight change, etc. She goes through several turns before moving into the actual drills segment. This begins with showing you how to spot. And then, systematically, you begin working on the turns, first with the main elements and adding on more as you go along. Many of these are used in the choreographies later on the DVD. Beautiful, graceful turns. I haven’t worked with this section yet, but just watching it makes me want to.
The only thing that comes as a bit of a shock is that this too is a super short section. It’s over before you know it. Thankfully, the choreographies will use what is in the drills and you’ll get practice, but I have to admit I’d have liked much, much longer drill and turns sections.
Celebration of Rhythm
I have thoroughly enjoyed learning this choreography. Thoroughly. I worked with Jenna as systematically as she has worked to teach the 9 combinaitons that make up this choreography, set to Celebration of Rhythm from Jehan’s GoddessDance CD. It’s a saidi-like piece with the second half being quite drum solo like. I’ve loved the idea of completing it.
Jenna first demonstrates the whole choreography. Not in costume. And then we go through each combination, one at a time, with two rounds of practice with music each. Each combination has only its own practice sessions, not the previous ones in a building block format. I’m fine with focusing on one combination at a time. The teaching is at a lovely pace. Not too fast at all, and not painfully slow. And it’s completely detailed.
This choreography is quite lively and I’ve performed it (informally) to small appreciative audiences. It’s a perky, cute one.
Raks Bedeya
If you add the previous 9 combinaitons to the 27 in the second choreography, you have a staggering 36 combinations on one DVD. And remember that’s not the only thing on the video. When I compare this with a lot of other videos, specially some from IAMED, I’m amazed at the amount of content one gets for less than half the money. You can’t get more generous with combinations, really. Two whole performable incredibly-taught choreographies.
I haven’t learnt this second choreo yet but plan on getting to it pretty soon. After Jillina’s Egyptian Pop. It’s a long, long tough one. Lots of turns, nuances, detail. It’s a very pleasant choreography and one from which you’d be able to take away so much. All the transitions and turns are packed into this choreography. Get through it and it would affect the rest of your dancing, for certain.
Raks Bedeya is from Wash Ya Wash 2 and is a lovely piece with lots of variation built into it. Changes of pace and all.
This choreography moves a fraction faster and does have chunks practiced together rather than only one combo at a time, going all the way through 27.
There’s a cooldown of gentle stretches.
Performances
Jenna performs both choreographies in costume. She looks cute and if you work witht his video, I’d really recommend looking at the full choreography on each practice session. You’ll take in the nuances that kick in only during a stage performance.
I miss my cat although it’s been thirty years since I lost her. After a recent discussion we were having on the yahoo group I found myself remembering how strangely my cat used to react to my singing. I used to sing Indian classical and used a “tanpura” which is a four-stringed instrument that gives you the base or drone to fix whatever octave you’re comfortable snging with. Well, my cat who was otherwise an independent, unrufflable, elegant creature, would considerably agiated when I sang. Much like my brother, who’d muffle his ears up with something or the other. Anyway, my cat would climb up on my knee and meow straight into my face. She was pleading with me to stop stop stop!
I first heard this hypnotic piece of music on Kajira Djoumahna’s American Tribal Style videos. And I was totally spellbound. At that time, I couldn’t even get the music because music wasn’t sold downloadable online and anything shipped from Amazon took a month and a half (it still does) by which time you get disgusted. I also wasn’t very belly dance music savvy so wasn’t sure where this piece was from.
Much later, I found it. Mirage, on Gypsy Caravan’s Migration. In fact, for a long time I thought the piece was called Migration and that delayed my finding it since there are a few zillion songs called Migration.
I still love this piece of music. I like doing slow slow slow tribal moves to it, though I run out of ideas very fast. It’s also lovely to sleep to.
) and I wouldn’t know what to do with strong repeated segments of music. I’d be worrying about not repeating myself. Watch out for a an almighty shrieking zagreet in the end from the show host. If you’re in headphones, get out real fast!
