Aziza DVD

[dancingleaf]

This is a long DVD broken down into warm up, ribcage, hips, arms, shimmy and cooldown. Also has 2 performance pieces but I haven't watched them yet.

THIS IS NOT FOR THE BEGINNER!

I would have said I am a pretty good intermediate but I found this quite a challenge. Particularly the 20 minutes straight of hip shimmies, (with variations)

Not all of the instructions are clear, most are pretty good but I found a few times I couldn't quite figure out what it was she was doing. Also the camera work - blah. You need to see the whole body including the feet and sometimes they were cutting her off at the waist and only showing the upper body... bad job. Setting seems to have been a studio/classroom with fabric draped walls - with a few students - she jokes around a bit and has a good sense of humour. There are a number of ballet references - so if you have a ballet background that may help.

It is a good DVD in that the drills are quite a challenge. I think if I do this DVD it will actually improve my dancing but I'm fairly sure that I'm not going to do it often, and it isn't going to become one of my favourites.

http://azizashop.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=28

I purchased this through a vendor at our hafla/bazaar for a hefty price tag, $55 CND.

My Personal opinion: If you want to try this DVD I recommend purchasing it with the intent to share it around with your bellydance friends. If you like it you can always purchase additional copies.



Cross-posted.

Comments

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Post away!

I haven't seen this one, but I have her veil DVD. I thought it was pretty well done, but I was watching it from my couch, and not with veil in hand. Maybe my opinion will change then. Heh....

[dancingleaf.livejournal.com]

I did not so bad with it... just I couldn't figure out what the heck she was doing in the second half of the arms,

which foot is in front? what direction is she turning? is that left or right arm up? I watched it twice and tried it again but still couldn't follow it.

and about half or 3/4 of the way through the shimmies, my shimmy became so sloppy I couldn't add the layers and direction changes into it anymore.

Next time I try it I will start with the shimmy section and then maybe move on to the others.