Nadira presents 5-Layers, From the Ground Up!
As reviewed by Maia of Lake Oswego, Oregon
Nadira
is a multiple-award-winning Seattle-based dancer with many years of dance
training, performance and teaching experience. In this DVD she proposes
to teach dancers of all levels technique to layer (or in my vocabulary,
combine) 5 levels of movement. All in all she does a superb job with clear,
concise explanations and demonstrations of the dance vocabulary, and a
well-organized product that allows for practical use on an ongoing basis.
In her Introduction,
Nadira comes across as a warm and sincere teacher who wants to share insights
into the dance to help us with the complexity of combining these
movements. She has a sweet voice which is pleasant to listen to -- that’s
important, because you’re going to want to view (and dance with) this DVD again
and again.
Nadira’s
Warm Up is heavy on stretching, which feels really good and is
appropriate for skillful dancers who are very fit. Less advanced (or less fit)
dancers might want to engage in warmups before the warmups so they are ready
for the stretches. However, everything is taught in a safe manner, so no one
should find themselves injured.
The
studio in which Nadira is filming the DVD is excellent, and viewers get a
rear-view as well as a mirror-view of the movements. There is no distracting
background, and her teaching costume is clean-lined and makes it easy to
follow-along with her motions. It is as though dancers are in her class.
Posture
and Body Alignment
are critical to the dance, and Nadira provides a clear explanation for why and
how to stand correctly. We find out here that she dances with a rather severe
injury -- a herniated disk -- and has worked very hard to protect her back
while becoming an exceptional dancer. She also reminds dancers throughout the
DVD to engage their core and dance in proper alignment. This is a real service
to the community; all levels of dancers will benefit from practicing proper
alignment.
In the Technique
sections, Nadira describes and demonstrates several basic dance movements, with
an emphasis on safe dancing and allowing for layering later on. This
section would be a great practice aide for beginning students who are trying to
perfect their basic technique, since Nadira’s demonstrations are so clear and
easy to follow. While she does not cover the entire vocabulary of the dance in
this section of the DVD, she provides enough variety of movement to enable
dancers to create interesting, musical dances. Nadira’s approach to the shimmy,
a basic yet difficult to master movement, is eminently practical and creates a
relaxed and even shimmy.
5-Layers is a multi-part section; for each
of the eight movement combinations, there is a teaching section and a practice
session. Nadira teaches a “basic” combination of movements and then
provides “upgrades” or additional movements to layer onto the existing
combination. The basic combinations will be challenging to beginning and
most intermediate dancers, while the upgrades provide advanced and professional
dancers with opportunities to add even more texture and musical interpretation
to their dance. The practice sessions are, again, wonderful adjuncts to
regular (in-person) class, allowing dancers to work as often and a hard as they
want to on just the movement they want to practice.
The
following section, Combos, takes the eight movement combinations learned
in 5-Layers and adds traveling or other complexity. Again, each combination has
a teaching section and a practice session. Depending on a dancer’s background,
this section could prove quite demanding.
The next
two sections are Extended Practice (layers) and Extended Practice
(combos) and they are precisely what they are called: extended
practice sessions to help perfect the movements. At more than 12 minutes
(layers) and more than 7 minutes (combos) these are an excellent adjunct to the
previous sections.
During
the Performance section, Nadira incorporates all of the combinations
she’s taught during the DVD into a dance. It’s obvious why she has won so many
awards with her matchless technique as well as her sparkling smile and
exquisite costuming. It’s informative to see how she’s connected the movement
combinations into a completely realized dance. Following is a stage production
number with Isis Wings which also includes many of the combinations, but also
showcases Nadira’s musicality, grace and strength more clearly.
This DVD
would be an excellent addition to any dancer’s library. Nadira’s calm, friendly
demeanor, clear instruction, and graceful demonstration, even of the most
complex combinations, will help all dancers to grow their dance skills. The
quality of the production is superb, and the structure of the DVD allows for
extended practice of troublesome movements, and for finding and choosing the
movement to work on easily and quickly. A most excellent value for serious
dancers.
