Belly Dance! Magical Motion-A Complete
Home Course!
A Video Review by Nizana
So I’m always keeping my eye out for all things
belly dance, and I went to my local library and found a few belly dance items
including this video. I realize it may not be readily out there for
purchase, but reviewed it anyway for historical purposes. It is always good to
look back on older videos which is what this is (1985) and it is geared towards
beginners, but a lot of the information is very pertinent and I am glad I found
this. It’s about an hour long and was worth watching even with it not being as professionally
made as DVD’s nowadays. They cover some historical perspectives including
screen shots of paintings and other ancient art forms that demonstrate belly
dance origins. Maybe some long time dancers will remember Atea?
Following the intro, Atea leads a short intro on
warm-ups. You can tell she is reading cue cards, and is trying hard to
enunciate very clearly throughout the video. I do have to say it definitely
shows the time period in which it was filmed. Atea and her friends then demonstrate
“Stacatto hips” after “basic stance” to music. She covers isolation, variations,
and then they did improv to show use of the movements. Next up were shimmies
and vibrations, demonstrated and discussed. The sheer harem pants on the one
background dancer was plain wrong…no offense, but please put a skirt on or
something. I did notice some posture and foot placement issues, but I did
appreciate the reminders to keep the knees soft and flexible.
Traveling steps, pivots, and taxim with circles and
figure 8’s were up next, and like the other sections, demonstrated and then
followed by a short improvisation piece. Ribcage isolations started off the
belly rolls and undulations section with a focus on the diaphragm. The next
section covered arms and hands. Throughout, the health and inner beauty
benefits are touted. In the whole video, I probably only learned one new thing,
and I‘ve never seen the move before. It wasn’t a very flattering move, so
perhaps that’s why. The dancers perform improvisation in full costume at the
end of the section before moving on to a solo veil performances and information
about fabrics, music for and use of the veil. Finger cymbals are discussed and
demonstrated, ensuring the sub-title is the real deal. Then they improvised for
a little fashion show to explain costuming. The description of a thobe was “an
elaborate folkloric dress” but overall that was a really fun piece to add to
the video! A colorful mini-hafla of everyone improvising in full costume wraps
up the recording at the end.
Yes, was it outdated and a little cheesy, maybe, but
it was cool to see some of what was happening in belly dance over 25 years
ago.
Note from Zaina:
If you are interested, this video was easily found for purchases on a
few sites, simply put in the title and off you go. And, there are lots of VHS and Beta treasures out there if you have the equipment to watch them.
