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.