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As a teacher, I am often asked for my opinion on various instructional videos. To help my students out in their prospective purchases, I am offering little “sound bites” of various videos, both in my collection or borrowed. You’ll get an honest opinion that is as educated as I can make it. I won’t give you fluff. I’ll tell you whether I liked it or not and why.

The Video: Discover Bellydance: Basic Dance with Veena & Neena Video

Mini-Review by Nita Collins June, 2004

This if the first video in a three-video series

Who is this video intended for?
This video is intended to introduce fundamental basic movements to absolute beginners. The Discover Bellydance jacket series says the videos teach authentic Egyptian Bellydance moves and choreographies.

What is taught?
Some of the movements covered in the first part include wrist circles, framing & embellishing arm movements, snake arms, hip drops, circles& shimmy, rib cage lifts, drops & circles, shoulder shimmy, half-turns and stepping movements. The second part teaches a short choreographed routine.

Veena and Neena execute the movements while they are described by voiceover in poetic and/or comparative terms by an unknown commentator. This commentator doesn’t sound like a teacher—more like an actress reading cue cards.

The video begins with opening credits recommending that you “stretch before beginning this or any exercise program” and doesn’t mention warming your muscles first. You are then led through a stretching “warm up” in which the voice commentator urges you towards optimum stretch. In fact, it has been recognized for some time now that stretching cold muscles can cause damage. You are then instructed on proper bellydance “posture”—lift the chest and lean back. Yiikes!—not only is holding this posture inaccurate and unsightly, it is very dangerous to your back.

I was unhappy with the way some of the movements were taught. Torso undulations were taught using extremely large and unsupported forward and back movement of the chest. This is not only dangerous but inauthentic to Egyptian dance, which they are claiming to teach. Hip circles were taught without mention of the importance of keeping the lower back flat, thus making the unknowing student susceptible to the “duck butt” syndrome and more lower back pain. The extreme laidback posture mentioned earlier is seen again in the hip work demonstration. The voiceover on the hip shimmy breakdown left too much to the imagination of the student, and the shoulder shimmy is described as “punching with your shoulders”—a harsh and inaccurate description of a delicate movement.

The twins end the video by teaching a short choreography. This is a little dance made out of the collection of movements taught in the first portion. The student can see how the movements can be put together into a dance, which is a nice touch. Unfortunately, however, the music is not reflected in the choreography and you are not told the name of the song.

There is a nice catalogue of basic framing and embellishing arm movements in the beginning of the video. The movements are presented using a variety of these different arm positions, which is nice. The movements taught are also presented in combinations and put to music at the end.

You’ll notice that some of the names of movements are different from the ones you learned in class. Sometimes these differences are regional and sometimes they are made up to accommodate the instruction (Aladdin Arms & Genie Arms for example.) These terminology differences are typical and you should expect them in any video.

The video is professionally produced—the set, lighting and camera work are excellent. However, the quotes on the jacket (“sultry movements,” “beguiling stares” and “now you too can be that dancer!”) along with the general feeling that the unknown commentator was hired for her voice and not her dance expertise makes me think that the producers of this video are marketing to the fitness craze audience rather than the serious student of Middle Eastern dance.

Do I Recommend This Video As A Teaching Tool For My Students?
No, as a teacher I cannot recommend this video. The movements are not adequately broken down and too much vital information is left out, leaving the student to use her imagination and assumptions to fill in the blanks. This is a dangerous combination and a disservice to the student who might develop future back problems… not to mention making the honest mistake of presenting poor technique to an unsuspecting audience of family and friends should she ever want to perform what she has learned. This is especially important for students who aren’t able to attend regular classes with a knowledgeable teacher. If you can’t attend classes and are learning with videos, there are better choices for you out there. If you have had a semester of classes and are aware of the posture problems presented, you might enjoy learning the combinations used in the short choreography.

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