Review: My Favorite Instructional DVDs

I was chatting with some dancing friends the other night about dance DVDs, and I thought I should follow-up with a post on it.

Favorite Drilling DVD
Modern Tribal Belly Dance by Asharah (World Dance New York).  I love this DVD for drilling.  I actually own two copies.  There is a 45 minute "warm up", 55 minutes of isolation drills, 30 minutes of modern tribal movement ("pops and locks"), and a short choreography.  As a bonus, there are two performances by Asharah.  The isolation drills and popping section are sub-chaptered by movement, so you can easily jump around if you want to focus on a certain area.  The drills closely mirror my dance teacher's drills, which I assume is because both Gina and Asharah have trained with Suhaila Salimpour.  As such, this makes a perfect DVD for our summer class break.  The movements start slowly, then build speed, so beginner dancers can stay at a level comfortable for them, and advanced dancers can begin at full-speed for a challenge.  Asharah is my favorite tribal dancer, and her teaching on this DVD is perfect--enough description to really understand the movements, but not so much chatting that I go running for the Mute button.  The DVD is also well-produced and reasonably-priced.

Tribal Fusion - Yoga Isolations and Drills for Bellydance by Rachel Brice.  The DVD consists of three workouts--15, 30, or 45 minutes.  They begin with Sun Salutations and Locus Pose for warm-up, and then drill some core belly dance moves (locks on the up and the down, pelvic squares, umis, body waves, etc).  The workouts basically consist of the same movements, simply a few more of them as the workouts get longer.  As such, there is not a great deal of content on this DVD.  However, the content is does contain are core movements that every dancer should be drilling regularly, in convenient time segments.  If you already are disciplined about your home practice, this DVD may be too basic for you.
But, if you are looking to start a home practice regime, this is a great place to start.

Information
Bellydance Egyptian Style--Baladi and Taqasim: Improvisation Skills & Drills with Ranya Renee.  I absolutely love these DVDs.  The format is similar for both:  Ranya provides an indepth explanation for the baladi and the taqasim, including the instruments, the rhythms, and the musical structure.  Then, she explains a host of movements that can complement each section of the baladi and each instrument featured in a taqasim.  She also provides tips on posture, breathing techniques, musicality, and building an improvisational practice.  Then, she dances through several loops of a song.  You can chose an entire baladi or taqasim or loops of different sections, and you can try to follow along or do your own thing.  As a bonus, there are performances by Ranya.  These are perfect for me.  I can sit and listen to lecture after lecture on Arabic music, then watch dance after dance.  I can get up and follow her or turn away from the TV and do my own thing when inspiration strikes.

Practice
Hard Candy with Neon, Sarah Skinner, and Elisheva (World Dance New York).  Once you get past the silly name, this is a great idea for a belly dance practice.  I've also done Sensual Bellydance and Love Potion, which have a similar format (and are available through my local library and Netflix, respectively).  The DVDs have movement explanations and practices for beginners, which I haven't really watched.  The "workout" is 40 minutes of straight belly dance moves and is build on progression:  the dancers do a move for a few repetitions, then another move, then string those moves into a short combination, build another combination, then string those together into a longer combination.  As a result, this is a fun and effective way to instantly get up and dancing and learn some new moves without tedious stops for explanations. You just dance.  You can watch it with or without voice cues.  Granted, if you don't need all the beginner-features, there's only 40 minutes of content.  However, these DVDs are already reasonably priced through World Dance New York directly, and you can often find copies for under $10 through Amazon.  So, for the price of a belly dance class, you can get one that you can watch over and over at home.

Props
Learn Finger Cymbals with Ansuya.  This DVD taught me how to play zills while dancing.  Ansuya covers four rhythms: basic gallop, baladi, bolero, and chiftitelli.  She explains the rhythms as dom, teks, and kas, and also as right and left hand (with the right hand taking the doms and teks and the left the kas, like you were drumming).  She then turns away from the camera so you can follow her hands, and goes through each rhythm, slowly building speed.  Each rhythm is then taught with a dance movement, then all the movements and rhythms are strung together into a short practice flow.  (Adding a plug here that my copy is now for sale.  Email me).

Bellydance with Veil with Sarah Skinner (World Dance New York).  I have a longer review of this DVD in a previous post.

Choreography
Bellydance Egyptian Style--Modern Oriental with Ranya Renee and Masters of Egyptian Choreography: Volume I with Randa Kamel.  I used to not enjoy learning other dancer's choreographies, but these have completely changed my mind.  It's a great way to pick up a variety of combinations and movements in a compact, easy-to-practice format.  I reviewed Masters of Egyptian Choreography  in my last post, so I will focus on Modern Oriental.  This is a long choreography to "Layalina" by Yousry Sharif.  It is  divided into two sections (beginner and intermediate/advanced) with each section broken into smaller sections for instruction.  As she explains in the introduction, modern Egyptian dance often involves traveling movements, so this choreography highlights a wide-range of footwork and traveling patterns.  As a dancer who used to fear footwork, I love this focus.  The beginner choreography is just a couple of minutes to the song's finale.  The movements are basic and explained in detail, though it is hardly a simplistic or boring finale.  Then, there is a choreography to the entire song for intermediate/advanced dancers. Again, each movement is explained in detail, with tips and tricks given along the way (it took me a while to work through this whole choreography).  There is time to practice each section twice to music before moving on to the next section.  When Ranya comes to the finale section, she covers it more quickly and includes extra embellishments to it.  There are also practice loops of some of the more complex foot-work sections, which are very helpful.

American Tribal Style
Tribal Basics by Carolena Nericcio. If you want to learn American Tribal Style or understand the basic posture and movements underlying Tribal Fusion, these are must-haves.  For learning the movements, see Volumes 1, 6, and 7 (I have not see Volume 8: Floorwork yet).  For learning layers to add to these movements, try Volumes 2 and 4 (though the zill work in Volume 2 is very basic, so, if you are an experienced ziller, you can skip this). And, if you want to perform straight-up ATS, particularly in a troupe, see Volumes 5 and 6.