Mariella Monroe bellydancing course

J

joannelj

New member
I have been taking a class for 3 years, but a family emergency has caused our teacher to move away. The rest of us are trying to keep things together and keep dancing. I am looking for some videos and ideas to help us keep learning new things.

Anyway, this belly dancing course popped up on my facebook page. Normally websites like this one scare me off immediately as a scam. But it sounds good... So anyway, I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has bought this, and what your opinion is.

Thanks!
JoAnne
 
Mosaic

Mosaic

Super Moderator
It looks OK, & for $47 not bad value, especially if everyone chipped in a few dollars. It is difficult to say just watching the 2 clips if at 3 years of dancing you'd feel this is advanced enough. In the end it would depend on if you are happy to spend the dollars in the hope other lessons would be OK for you. You could contact the teacher/s & ask for a breakdown each DVDs content.
~Mosaic
 
Darshiva

Darshiva

Moderator
Personally, I'm discouraged by the thought of nothing being left to the imagination. For me personally, a big part of the joy of bellydance is the creativity involved.

I've also never heard of her, which is a little surprising considering how long she has been dancing and where she has danced. I'd probably be cautious with how I spent my money but it wouldn't hurt to take a look. She could be quite good. But the only way to find out is to try it out.
 
Jane

Jane

New member
I'm a bit skeptical because of the over the top marketing, but hey it's cheap. If someone on the forum buys this, I'd love a real review.

Why I'm skeptical: I've never heard of her except in connection to her new product. All the hits I'm getting online are ads for this course and "reviews" which are thinly veiled ads for the course. There were some accusations floating around that she was using other dancers videos/pictures without permission. I have no idea if that is true or not. Anyone have any inside info on those accusations or videos of her dancing and not instructing? I can't find any videos of her dancing online that aren't, again, connected directly to this product. I like to see instructors dance before I buy an instructional video or take lessons from them. The master class claims are beyond realistic. "I became a belly dance expert in five major styles with no teacher using only eight hours of video!"* said no one ever... I'm very willing to change my mind and buy it if a trusted forum member, or a dancer I know and respect, gives it a solid review.

*Quote is me paraphrasing claims from the website.
 
J

joannelj

New member
that's what i was thinking..

Jane - you've summed up my feelings, that this type of website screams "scam." I also found some of the "reviews" that just lead back to the website. That's why I wanted to ask here, to see if anyone else had heard of it...

I certainly don't expect to learn 5 styles in 8 hours!! I'm just hoping for some good basics, that would fit my unfortunately small budget.

But the fact that no one here has heard of this world class dancer, and now that Jane says there are some indications that she has borrowed other peoples work - eh. If I had a larger budget, I might get it just to write up a review here. But since my funds are limited, I think I'll go with something tried and true.

Thanks!
 
Jane

Jane

New member
Good luck on your dance journey! I hope you find some videos that work for you. There are a lot of good ones out there for every style and level.

Quick aside- I have no facts or proof that this woman who made the videos used other dancer's media without permission. I heard a rumor a couple places online, that's all. If someone wants to discuss these rumors, I'd be interested in hearing what actually happened. If the video creator is being slandered that is definitely worth clearing up!
 
gisela

gisela

Super Moderator
I read some of the discussions on facebook about this dvd a few weeks ago. To me it DOES look like a complete scam, although I have no proof.

Here are some facts though:
Some dancers wrote in the threads that they had had their picture used without approval.
There are NO google results for Mariella Monroe except ones that lead to the dvd.
All youtube videos about the course, on a huge number of different accounts, were all posted at about the same time.
Mariella Monroes "popular dance studio" was and is completely unknown to other proffessional bellydancers in the same city.
There is no mention of where this dance studio is located and what it is called, which seems to me to be a missed advertising opportunity, were it a real studio.
The sample videos from the dvd can all be found on other channels on youtube for free, posted by the teacher in the sample and expertvillage (I think)
Several images on the site are stock photos.
There are at least three facebook pages fo this dvd course. One which has allowed comments. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bellydancingcoursecom-Belly-Dancing-Course/343819565724534
Even though there have been loads of people commenting about it being a scam, noone has replied to debunk the accusations. I find that weird.

my thoughts:
The request to hurry! get your copy now, offer won't last long hurry hurry, is often used by scammers so that people wont have time to think it through properly.
ETA: How is it possible for a teacher and dvd maker to have such an incredibly strong web marketing campaign for this dvd, and absolutely NO web presence whatsoever for her dance business and studio?

I don't believe she is a real person, I think she is made up completely, along with the people recommending the dvd on the site.

I think you should go to a trusted source of dvds instead, such as cheekygirls productions or world dance new york.
ETA: No matter if it is real or not, this dvd uses images of dancers that hasn't given permission and based on that, we should turn to ethical businesses instead.
 
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Roshanna

Roshanna

New member
I've also seen a lot of discussion of this in various bd Facebook groups, and the consensus definitely seems to be that it's at best dodgy and unethical and at worst a complete scam. Their marketing techniques are also extremely spammy. In the last couple of days spam posts about it have started appearing on bhuz, and when I saw the title of this thread, I initially assumed this would also be spam.
 
Amanda (was Aziyade)

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
This product is a complete SCAM because it uses STOLEN video from respectable dancers. There is no "Mariella Monroe" -- this is a clever thief who ripped individual instructional videos from dvds and stuck them all together on this.

DO NOT support this thief, please. If you want the instructional content, please support the artists themselves.

I'm going to ask Salome to remove the ad from this site. It's a disgusting and shameless bit of thievery, but because of how the thieves are operating, it's very difficult to send DMCA takedown notices.
 
Mosaic

Mosaic

Super Moderator
Aziyade said:
This product is a complete SCAM because it uses STOLEN video from respectable dancers. There is no "Mariella Monroe" -- this is a clever thief who ripped individual instructional videos from dvds and stuck them all together on this.

DO NOT support this thief, please. If you want the instructional content, please support the artists themselves.

I'm going to ask Salome to remove the ad from this site. It's a disgusting and shameless bit of thievery, but because of how the thieves are operating, it's very difficult to send DMCA takedown notices.
Click to expand...

Where is the ad Aziyade, is it a post or an actual ad?
~Mosaic
 
I

IOnah

New member
The DVDs do use copyrighted/stolen images at the very least

Hi all - I am jumping in late to throw in my 2 cents because I am doing research on this Mariella Monroe and her company (which is elusive to say the least), and came across this thread. I do know for a fact that she uses stolen images because literally at least 7 of my friends sent me screenshots of an ad they saw on Facebook for her DVDs using MY photograph! I also saw that ad a few days afterward on my own Facebook page! Also, 2 friends reported to me that the images on the website are of dancers they know that they also know did not authorize her to use the content. That is third-party, but I can guarantee my image was used and I didn't authorize it. This company is shady and I am struggling to find how to report this problem because I cannot even find company information. I would like them to at least stop using my photographs and take down the ad, but everything (as people have mentioned) leads back to the website. They are definitely very sneaky.

For the dancer looking for videos, I hope you have found some good ones. Ranya Renee's Beledi DVD is great as are her Improv and Modern Egyptian one - they cover a lot of great topics crucial to the modern style of American as well as Egyptian dance. Artemis and Ruby Beh each are respected dancers with Turkish stylings and so I would recommend their DVDs, as well, for that flavor and variety to get a bit more in depth. I have not myself worked with Aradia's DVD that talks specifically about Lebanese, Turkish & Egyptian, but that might be a helpful crash/mini-course in the stylistic nuances of some of the 3 "main" styles of non-American Orientale/Cabaret style belly dance. For folkloric stuff, which apparently Mariella doesn't consider important at all, I YouTube a lot of things, but also have Ibrahim Farrah's DVD. Reda Troupe would be an important, important search - they also have a performance DVD out and you could look at old footage of the troupe and solo members. Of course, I travel to take workshops in these styles, but hopefully if you are looking for video-only training, these will give you the tools to supplement it in a relatively well-rounded (but still ethical) manner.

Best of luck - I am sure there are a million more DVDs out there to help with your training, but yes - I do think these are good starts that would essentially cover the topics Mariella's claims to or ought to cover to give dancers that kind of well-rounded dance background/knowledge.
 
Jane

Jane

New member
If I were you, I'd contact as many of the artists as possible who had their works stolen and get a lawyer as a group. Start collecting your evidence of ownership and document everything with screen shots of the offending site. Best of luck!
 
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