Dance DVD reviews
Today I finally had an afternoon with nothing--nothing at all!--scheduled, so I did my Randa Masters of Choreography DVD and the first disc of Cassandra's Conditioning for Dancers DVD.
Randa's DVD is exactly what I'm looking for at this stage in my dancing. The movement vocabulary is mostly well known to me, and what I didn't know, made sense based on what I do know. What makes this DVD a real challenge/valuable learning tool for me is 1) executing those movements like Randa, strong and precise; 2) understanding how the movements match with the music, i.e. better learning an Egyptian dance aesthetic and 3) getting my dancing up to Randa's breakneck speed while maintaining any sort of grace and elegance. The thing about her dancing, as I felt it while following along, is that it's really pretty simple, but every movement is exactly in its place, delivered with strength and conviction, regardless of how quickly it goes by. She's very different from Dina in many ways, but some of what I learned last year in Dina's workshop was very helpful, especially the turns and how some of the deep core moves can reverberate throughout the body (for those who have the DVD, I'm thinking of things like the step where she says to pull your shoulders in along with your deep ab muscles, as though you have a stomach ache). I did make it through the entire choreography today, in a rather fumbling kind of way, but I've already learned a lot.
Some drawbacks to the DVD are that when movement combinations are repeated in the choreography, there is no note of that made in the narration, so you are expected to just recognize the start of the choreo (or the start of the musical phrase it accompanies) and know to do it again. Once you're about halfway into the choreography it all makes sense, but it threw me the first few times. And although there is a technique section, this is definitely not a technique teaching DVD. I would say you have to be fairly knowledgeable about Egyptian style to be able to follow Randa's instructions. While most of the camerawork is clear, often I wished for a closeup of her hands when she talked about her hands, and one of the cameras used a confusing angle and seemed to be perpetually slightly slowed. But otherwise, I would say this is a very high quality DVD as belly dance instructionals go. It is taught in my favorite DVD style, with the camera behind the instructor as she faces a mirror. My brain finds that easiest to interpret. And because Randa is speaking in Arabic as a translator repeats her words in English, I felt like I was getting a bonus Arabic lesson.
All in all, this is an exciting DVD that I know I will go back to again and again for a challenge and for inspiration.
Cassandra's Conditioning Class DVDs are something I wish I'd had earlier in my dance career, but I'm glad I have it now. She was one of the instructors at the Arab Dance Seminar and I fell in love with both her style and her teaching there. This is a two DVD set; somewhat confusingly, both the website and the DVD packaging give a total running time of 85 minutes, but I'm pleased to say that seems to be per DVD, not total for both. As she says in her introduction to the DVD, the point of the material being taught is to prepare a dancer's body for the challenges presented by intensive dancing, to help prevent injury and to extend one's dance career past what is normally thought of as one's prime. Cassandra herself is the best advertising for the effectiveness of her conditioning programs. DVD 1, the one I did today, is considered level one while the other is considered level two, but even as an experienced dancer with an active yoga practice I found it a bit challenging in parts, highlighting what areas I really need to be working on. I was very happy to find a lot of emphasis on building strength in the feet. The program is billed as a warm up, but I found it a decent cool down as well after the Randa experience.
The camera work is great--one really nice feature is there is occasionally a little window in the main picture showing the viewer what Cassandra is doing from a different angle, so you know, for example, that her arms are behind her head in one exercise rather than alongside the ears. I really can't think of any drawbacks at all to the DVD. There are sometimes birds squawking in the background, so I suppose if you hated birds it might be an issue, but I found it charming. The DVD also contains Cassandra's performance to Zeina at Oasis Dance Camp 2007 as an extra treat. In that performance, I could strongly see her Bobby Farrah training in a way that I didn't when she was performing with the live band at the Arab Dance Seminar. It's a beautiful and educational performance.
I need more days like this. I'm even baking real dinner tonight, a savory pumpkin quiche!
Randa's DVD is exactly what I'm looking for at this stage in my dancing. The movement vocabulary is mostly well known to me, and what I didn't know, made sense based on what I do know. What makes this DVD a real challenge/valuable learning tool for me is 1) executing those movements like Randa, strong and precise; 2) understanding how the movements match with the music, i.e. better learning an Egyptian dance aesthetic and 3) getting my dancing up to Randa's breakneck speed while maintaining any sort of grace and elegance. The thing about her dancing, as I felt it while following along, is that it's really pretty simple, but every movement is exactly in its place, delivered with strength and conviction, regardless of how quickly it goes by. She's very different from Dina in many ways, but some of what I learned last year in Dina's workshop was very helpful, especially the turns and how some of the deep core moves can reverberate throughout the body (for those who have the DVD, I'm thinking of things like the step where she says to pull your shoulders in along with your deep ab muscles, as though you have a stomach ache). I did make it through the entire choreography today, in a rather fumbling kind of way, but I've already learned a lot.
Some drawbacks to the DVD are that when movement combinations are repeated in the choreography, there is no note of that made in the narration, so you are expected to just recognize the start of the choreo (or the start of the musical phrase it accompanies) and know to do it again. Once you're about halfway into the choreography it all makes sense, but it threw me the first few times. And although there is a technique section, this is definitely not a technique teaching DVD. I would say you have to be fairly knowledgeable about Egyptian style to be able to follow Randa's instructions. While most of the camerawork is clear, often I wished for a closeup of her hands when she talked about her hands, and one of the cameras used a confusing angle and seemed to be perpetually slightly slowed. But otherwise, I would say this is a very high quality DVD as belly dance instructionals go. It is taught in my favorite DVD style, with the camera behind the instructor as she faces a mirror. My brain finds that easiest to interpret. And because Randa is speaking in Arabic as a translator repeats her words in English, I felt like I was getting a bonus Arabic lesson.
All in all, this is an exciting DVD that I know I will go back to again and again for a challenge and for inspiration.
Cassandra's Conditioning Class DVDs are something I wish I'd had earlier in my dance career, but I'm glad I have it now. She was one of the instructors at the Arab Dance Seminar and I fell in love with both her style and her teaching there. This is a two DVD set; somewhat confusingly, both the website and the DVD packaging give a total running time of 85 minutes, but I'm pleased to say that seems to be per DVD, not total for both. As she says in her introduction to the DVD, the point of the material being taught is to prepare a dancer's body for the challenges presented by intensive dancing, to help prevent injury and to extend one's dance career past what is normally thought of as one's prime. Cassandra herself is the best advertising for the effectiveness of her conditioning programs. DVD 1, the one I did today, is considered level one while the other is considered level two, but even as an experienced dancer with an active yoga practice I found it a bit challenging in parts, highlighting what areas I really need to be working on. I was very happy to find a lot of emphasis on building strength in the feet. The program is billed as a warm up, but I found it a decent cool down as well after the Randa experience.
The camera work is great--one really nice feature is there is occasionally a little window in the main picture showing the viewer what Cassandra is doing from a different angle, so you know, for example, that her arms are behind her head in one exercise rather than alongside the ears. I really can't think of any drawbacks at all to the DVD. There are sometimes birds squawking in the background, so I suppose if you hated birds it might be an issue, but I found it charming. The DVD also contains Cassandra's performance to Zeina at Oasis Dance Camp 2007 as an extra treat. In that performance, I could strongly see her Bobby Farrah training in a way that I didn't when she was performing with the live band at the Arab Dance Seminar. It's a beautiful and educational performance.
I need more days like this. I'm even baking real dinner tonight, a savory pumpkin quiche!