Drills

[starrbursts]

I know there are a lot of good dvds out there that teach the moves but what about dvds that give good drills? I have been surfing Amazon and IAMED and have found awesome dvds but the only problems is that they don't have drills...right now I have pretty good dvds but I'm suffering, i think anyway, without drills to get them down. It's hard coming up with drills right now for me to do since I'm a beginner and don't quite get it. Like I have a veena and neena dvd (Core COnditioning) which I think has pretty good drills on shimmying and abs but thats it. I feel like I need more. I know the Neon has practice sections but are there any other dvds that have good quality drills on shimmying (strengthing your muscles so your not all over the place), hip movements (teaching you controlled movements), arm, abs, etc...?

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

Take Your Time

Hi Starbursts, no doubt you are finding out vidos/DVd's are limited on what they present. Part of the reason is the cost of producing high quality videos. So many teachers try to demonstrate a lot of movements so the viewer can rewind back to the section where they need the most help.

Because of this limitation, video learning is incomplete. I'm not aware of any videos/DVDs that offer drills except for Ansuya's "Lavish Layers" and Suzanna's "Precision Motion"-both of these videos are too advanced for a beginner dancer.

So I hope you don't mind some advice: Try not to rush your education, the destination is not as important as the journey. If you feel that your moves are not "good" it's becase you have not practiced the movement enough to create strong muscle memory. Buying another video won't make a difference.
Tip#2- Oriental Dance involves a great deal more than moves. What about the music? Arabic music is complex and requires an accomplished dancer to make the music come alive. This takes time!
Tip#3 Emotional expression that matches the music is another hallmark of a good dancer. Too many dancers perform like robots, stiff an expressionless. Do you want to dance like this?

On another post, Viv disusses the "insta-dancer". Someone who thinks they can perform profesionally after a few classes. This type of dancer does not care about the art. No one can learn this dance in a few short months, it requires patience and time in order to cultivate an accomplished dancer.

Since you have started classes with a real live teacher,let him/her guide you in the right direction.
Yasmine

 

[TribalDancer]

My absolute FAVE is Aziza's drills DVD. It is good for all levels, and really fun. I incorporated some of the drills into my classes. I highly recommend this video to everyone.

My second fave for beginners is Rachel Brice's drills and yoga video. it is really for people looking for yoga and isolation drills who don't have a lot of experience with them. It is well filmed and has good info, despite not being very challenging for a more advanced dancer. Still a good one to have in your arsenal.

 

[Gia al Qamar]

I concurr! Aziza's Practice Companion has a WEALTH of drills...really excellent and well planned!
Gia

 

[starrbursts]

Thanks Yasmine a lot for the advice.

I have decided to get some IAMED dvds to help me since I'm only taking bellydance classes twice a month so I need good dvds.

I thought of getting the Art of Bellydance Series for teaching the fundamental moves, Keti Sharif's A-Z Combinations, Turbo Shimmy with Celeste to help on my shimmying. I have a bunch more on my list but I figured these would be very good to start with and help me....

The Aziza Practice Companion looks really good to! Should I get that instead of Keti Sharif's A-Z Combinations or get both?

 

[starrbursts]

Oh yeah, and Rachel Brice's DVD. I've heard a lot of good and bad things about it....some say its way to advanced for beginners some say it isn't. What are some more thoughts on it, Tribaldancer? Because if I buy it, I really want to make sure it's worth my money!

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

Hi Starr(can I call you Starr?) Keti Sharif's A-Z DVD's are a combinations style video in which the teacher puts together short routines based on basic and advanced techniques. So there really isn't much in the way of drills per se.Also Keti doesn't break down the basic movement, in the manner that beginner videos would. Some of the travelling combinations are quite complex. For example in her X-tra Shimmies section she layers shimmies over small hip circles moving on a lateral plane.Layering shimmies is an advanced move that requires strong muscle control.

Nothing really beats practice especially in learning Oriental Dance.How much time are you able to devote to dance? Are there some moves so far that are challenging? Maybe you can drill the difficult moves? Such as using your weaker side twice as often as your stonger side? Or even adding a level change? Just some ideas.
Yasmine

 

[starrbursts]

well since I'm homeschooled probably about two hours a day. Even when I'm not "practicing" I still go aorund the house shimmying or working on hipslides, hip circles, hip drops, hip lifts. Those really are the only moves I know well...but most of the time I always put a random song on and start imrovising trying to feel it. Like today in the store there was some country playing. i Listened to it for a little bit and then just started doing some moves. It was really cool and my mom started laughing.
Yes!! You may call me starr. Easier to write than starrbursts, right?

 

[TribalDancer]

RE: Rachel Brice's video

I think it is a worthy purchase for any level. And no, I don't think it's too advanced for beginners. But let's define beginner!

I would not recommend it for someone who hasn't done any bellydance at all. It is not broken out with that audience in mind. It IS good for a dancer who has limited experience, can isolate, but wants practice in refining her isolations and building her strength and endurance in basic isolation skills.

Same, too, for the yoga portions. If you have never done stretches from yoga before, then it may not be super clear. But most dancers I know have had yoga incorporated in some small way into their practice at some point in their lives. So beginners in this will also find this portion helpful in guiding their toning practice through yoga.

There is a way to break the DVD out into a 15 minute practice, a 30 minute practice, and a 45 minute practice. This is, however, a litlte misleading as about the last 10 minutes of the DVD is clouds floating by while you lie in Shivasina (corpse pose or resting pose).

I found it rather elementary, and not very helpful for my personal *practice*, but as a teacher, I always evaluate my videos on content aside from whether I already know or use the information contained within, so I can recommend it to others, or possibly learn a new way of thinking about a skill and thus new ways to approach or teach it. I think this video is good for many levels of dancers to have in their collection.

 

[starrbursts]

One more question (sorry I'm so full of them! 0.0)...does she drill on a particular style or is it just a dvd for any style?

 

[TribalDancer]

No problem!

It is for anyone. It has no style to it, save for the sample dance footage at the end. The drills are for anyone, applied to any dance style.

 

[Ludmilla]

Starr -- again, Yasmine's comments are so helpful and explain extremely well! Yasmine, I really like the way you explain this process!
In addition, although it is not about drills per se, for a more beginning level (than Ansuya's Lavish Layers DVD), 21 Shimmies and 2001 Variations I found extremely helpful to practice with -- again, not drills, but to review what went by so fast in class and be able to review it many many times -- Just thought I'd add that to comments because I can really relate to the effort to have an at home practice and try to make the most of that between classes and that one helped me so much! -- much success --- Ludmilla

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

well since I'm homeschooled probably about two hours a day. Even when I'm not "practicing" I still go aorund the house shimmying or working on hipslides, hip circles, hip drops, hip lifts. Those really are the only moves I know well...but most of the time I always put a random song on and start imrovising trying to feel it. Like today in the store there was some country playing. i Listened to it for a little bit and then just started doing some moves. It was really cool and my mom started laughing.
Yes!! You may call me starr. Easier to write than starrbursts, right?

Hey Starr, sounds like you are getting off to a good start! It's also good that you are able to improvise to familiar music too. Zaghareets to you, Starr!
Yasmine

 

[starrbursts]

Cheers!

BTw not to sound ignorant but what does Zaghareets mean?

 

[da Sage]

Cheers!

BTw not to sound ignorant but what does Zaghareets mean?

Zaghareets are those high-pitched ululating noises that you hear at belly dance events, or in some middle-eastern movie scenes. It's not entirely unlike the noise Xena makes (if you have ever seen that old TV show). It's a sound that expresses joy and excitement.

It is very cool that you can already improvise. Keep having fun with that! It's hard for me to do, so I am a little jealous, but very happy for you!

 

[starrbursts]

Oh well thank you. I don't know how good it is but heck, I'm enjoying myself. My number one favorite song to right now is Rak Africa on the bellydance superstar dvd. Holy cow, I love it so much!! Yesterday, I think I danced to it like four times before I was like, eh...I'm hot and sweaty. hehe

Oh...my mom can make that noise. I try but it turns into a theee like what the spanish do.

 

[milky]

Zaghareets are those high-pitched ululating noises that you hear at belly dance events, or in some middle-eastern movie scenes. It's not entirely unlike the noise Xena makes (if you have ever seen that old TV show). It's a sound that expresses joy and excitement.

It is very cool that you can already improvise. Keep having fun with that! It's hard for me to do, so I am a little jealous, but very happy for you!

Hi,da Sage. I heard such high-pitched noises from the audience after the performance on bellydace videos(esp. the tribal style).And I thought they were so interesting and cute! R these lovely noises Zaghareets u described above?:think:

 

[Nayila]

drills

please try to look at The heartbeat of bellydance by jenna--it has a shimmy drill section. not real fond of the choreographies..but the drills i do in my class and with my little one.

Everyone else---good tips ..glad to hear about rachel brice's dvd and the aziza. keep asking questions b/c the info is great!

nayila

 

[elle21]

Hi Starrbursts,

Once again, I applaud Yasmine for her quality advice!

I don't want to sound discouraging, but I'm not sure that a drills DVD is the best way forward anyway. You are usually your own best judge of what you need to drill more and what you need to drill less, and staring at the tv screen implies you're not looking at yourself as much as you should probably be. More productive and ultimately more flexible is learning to devise your own drills. And when you're bored of your current drill you can change song, combinations, etc while a DVD gets old quickly!

Start off by deciding what you want to drill. Then pick a song that feels almost impossibly slow. It's tempting to try to go as fast as you can but that proves nothing, slow is where the control's at! With every repetition you should be striving to do it a bit better than the last, all the while not forgetting the rest of the body (posture!!) and at the same time concentrate on the inner sensation of the movement so you feel the movement too.

And if you are not sure about how to go about achieving something, there are some incredibly talented and sharing dancers on this forum who have given me all sorts of inspirational ideas on how to work on problem areas.