Belly Dance Tribal Fusion NYC with Darshan
As Reviewed By: Nizana
Darshan is featured in this 85 minute long Tribal Fusion DVD produced by World Dance New York www.worlddancenewyork.com . This is an instructional DVD, but there is also a performance by Darshan www.darshandances.com at the end. Darshan, based in NYC, performs various Tribal Fusion styles, as well as Oriental styles. She is co-founder of global dance activism PURE and has performed with the Dalia Carella Dance Collective and toured with Gypsy Caravan.
Starting at the beginning, but also throughout the film, I found it distracting that they kept switching cameras and she would still be talking to the other one. The music level was also pretty competitive in trying to listen to her talk. On the other hand, there was some really good content. Her warm up, while a bit on the long side for my tastes, had some great stretches, and gentle posture reminders. She really warms up and engages all the different muscle groups. Then she goes in to drills.
The “first” combination (section) after the introduction and warm up is called “Contemporary Tribal Fusion.” The backdrop was pretty psychedelic, and her movements were easy to see. Darshan demonstrated and drilled lots of cool combinations most of which included undulations.
The “second” combination is called “Tribalesque.” Backdrop colors remained the same, but the graphics changed. Here Darshan demonstrated a couple of cute combos in the “Tribalesque” style.
The third is World Tribal Fusion, and the background graphics changed once more. Darshan had a couple of Latin flavored combos here. She is very good about having you practice on both sides of your body and at different speeds and directions. The last combo (yes, another backdrop change) is a focus on transitioning between combinations. She puts the combos together to “traditional” music to demonstrate how they end up placed together. This DVD will give you a full workout if you dance along with it from beginning to end.
The last part of the DVD is Darshan’s very dramatic performance She incorporates the combos she taught throughout the video and adds a lot more additional movements, using a “modern” piece of music. (Music credits are at the end.) Darshan has a lot of control over her movements, and it is a very enjoyable performer. Overall, I enjoyed the DVD.
www.worlddancenewyork.com
