Belly by Sandra, Vol 2
Okay, so Volumes 2 and 3 of Belly by Sandra are here. In my review of Volume 1, I had said that all of the basic basic material should have been together, either on one disk or a set of two. It seemed strange that many upper body moves were not covered then. A learner shouldn’t have to wait for the such a large chunk of basic instruction – this would mean she would turn to other DVDs. I’m also surprised to see no strong continuity from Volume 1 to 2… such as in the menu style, the way variations and combinations are handled, etc.
Well, now it’s here and with it is Volume 3 on which Sandra teaches a choreography. I’d have opted to start a new set of volumes for the choreographies. But let me stop nitpicking and get down to having a look at Volume 2.
The strength of Belly by Sandra, right through from Volume 1, is that she manages to put an extraordinary amount of advice, explanations and tips without getting boring. On Volume 2, we start with a pretty and neat menu.
Instruction
The neat and logical structure in the instruction section divides everything into explanation and practice sub sections. For all sections and subsections though, Sandra gives you corrective advice. She tells you what you could do wrong, what you need to be careful about, what you can do to make the movement look better, and what to avoid to make it look bad. All of this advice, as I’d said earlier, isn’t tedious because even the explanation sections begin with demos and breakdown and you can start working with her.
Arms: In her arms section – which is always a good idea on a beginner’s DVD, Sandra gives excellent tips. She shows you a breakdown of the iconic snake arms, but she also you how to make your arms look longer, how to prevent shoulder injury, and more. She takes up a variation or combination which uses folded in snake arms and a large S curve pose. I wish there was more here, but well, the practice drill would help a beginner with building in the lift of the chest and arms and making movements graceful. Perhaps one variation which gets another move going…say a pelvic circle in addition to the arm move, would have been useful because that multitasking is something important to try out right in the beginning – more so than the Turkish Drop demonstrated on this video, in fact.
Shoulder shimmy: This is an excellent section, mercifully different from the usual and replete with tips I haven’t seen before, including how to keep the shoulder shimmy a shoulder shimmy. The variation is clever because it will make the learner use different speeds and isolate better as just one shoulder is used for a small portion. There are also good safety tips here.
Undulations:First there’s an undulation prep section. Here, Sandra explains the segments of this whole body move and shows you how to bring in different muscles. She shows you how to activate the diaphragm muscles for this move by inhaling, and by using a few tricks. She also explains in detail how to engage and strengthen the middle segment of your abs.. This prep section even has a practice session of its own and some challenging variations with level change.
The main full body undulation section goes in-depth into this classic belly dance move. I find a few of the poses a bit awkward here though I understand there’s some extent of exaggeration to teach the dancer how to really engage right to the depth of the pelvic floor for this move. I find Sandra does this move a little differently from others — or so it seems anyway. This is specially for the lower half of the move. I am a little uncomfortable with the undulation here, but opinions and counter opinions on this are welcome.
Variations on undulations and the traveling camel include a version that uses the releve plie, a dipping undulaiton that many will be familiar with, and the second has a lift lift and dip right down with a big level drop to come up rolling. Watch out if you have bad knees.
An undulation combination is a rather nice addition here. However, the whole undulation section has the same slight awkwardness that I am not comfortable with. This photo from the combination shows what I’m talking about:
Reverse undulations of course have their very own section. It would take a while to put her tips into action. It’s a short section which goes on to the practice to a very upbeat piece of music. Variations, in their own section, include walking with the reverse (forwards and to the side) .
The reverse combo has pelvic drops and some footwork, shoulder pushes and chest drops with the reverse undulation.
The Turkish Drop!
Sandra doesn’t say you need to actually do the Turkish Drop but she includes it if you’re curious to see how it’s done. She also believes that it has elements used in other moves that need to be done correctly. That said, I still believe it doesn’t belong on a beginner’s instructional. In fact, it would have done fine as a bonus on the choreography DVD. I won’t give it away by putting in a picture and spoiling the surprise.
Large Hip Circle: Sandra’s favorite move is covered in some detail. Here again, I find she dips her chin into the chest almost on every repetition. I don’t know if this is a stylization and again, that’s something I’d welcome inputs on. Variations include traveling with the circle and some very nice arm variations. I haven’t seen some of these before in fact. Also some variations on how the chest is used. Deep hip circles are also shown. The large hip circle section actually has the most variations of any move on the video. There’s one final and absolutely beautiful lean with the large circle. I don’t want to spoil the surprise with a photo of it. All the variations together with music make for a wonderful large circle session – except for the chin-to-chest part.
The large circle combo actually begins with some medium circles before getting into some of the more exotic large ones. It’s a danceable combo that includes undulations and more.
Twists: This section begins with some safety tips because you can get injured if you’re too enthusiastic. There’s a nice upbeat practice segment. The short combo for twists focuses on weight change. This is also a nice one you can take straight into your dance.
Finally, there’s a big practice section where you can go through the whole lot of the previous practice segments together. Cues appear on screen.
Sandra’s performance here is to a lovely Latin sounding piece of music. It’s a live performance, evidently not filmed for this video in particular. Sadly, they have the camera on her hips some of the time without showing the whole figure — common problem.
