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Solo: Desert Wind Veil Dance with Saqra

Review by Nita Collins
September, 2004

This is a veil choreography to “Power Flute” by Desert Wind. It was produced on VHS in 1998 and has been recently made available on DVD. This is a two-DVD set.

Who is this video intended for?
This video is for students who have some bellydance experience, who have a basic level of familiarity with a veil, and who want to add to their repertoire of movements and/or learn a choreographed dance that focuses exclusively on the veil.

What is taught?
22 different veil movements are taught. The movements are taught individually and in the combinations that will be used in the choreography. In addition to the veil movements, Saqra breaks down spot turns, dervish turns, windmill turns, barrel turns, hand ripples, lotus hands, head slides, snake arms, horizontal figure 8 hips, the “float,” and various ways to walk including walking with a torso undulation. Most of these are found in the choreography. Nothing is left to chance. Everything that is in the choreography is broken down and reviewed.

DVD #1 teaches all of the movements that will be included in the choreography. There is a section of approximately 23 minutes at the beginning of the video called General Info & Tips. This is the section where she covers the movements of the choreography that do not use veil and talks about useful things such as what to do if you should drop one end or fumble with your veil. There is a wealth of information in this segment. Following the General Info & Tips section, the video moves to the individual veil movements and combinations. As is usual for Saqra, movement breakdowns and demonstrations are excellent. There is just enough repetition to allow you to follow along and practice the movement with her. She demonstrates each movement to show you what it should look like, verbally breaks it down, and then leads you through repetitions with her back to the camera.

DVD #2 teaches the choreography. Saqra briefly discusses the musical breakdown of the piece of music used. She talks about musical phrases and counting out the music. She points out meter changes. She has chosen a very rhythmic song to choreograph to, which makes it easy for the student to follow the musical cues (often “typical” veil music is rather formless rhythmically.) The choreography is taught section by section with a lot of repetition, making it easy to learn and remember.

The video was filmed in Saqra’s studio and home. The set looks quite lovely with a window and large plant. Except for the General Tips segment, the lighting is good, the colours are clear, and Saqra is easy to see. In the General Tips segment, overexposure sometimes causes the colours to wash out and her face to disappear into the glare. Also, there are some problems with her voice being out of sync with the film in this segment. There are no problems in the rest of the video. Saqra is very upfront in telling you that this is not a professionally produced video. At $30 USD for tons of information packed into 2.5 hours of tape, it is excellent value for your money.

Would This Video Be A Good Study Tool For My Students?
This is a good video for learning and practicing actual veil “steps” (movements.) The movements are unique and beautiful. Some are simple and others are quite challenging. While some veil dances are really just a lot of turning and swishing (which is lovely in its own right), this choreography is comprised of a series of individual movements strung together into one long combination. Whether you want to learn this particular choreography or not, you will learn many nice moves and combinations that you can use in your own dance. As you would expect, Saqra’s breakdowns are thorough, complete, broken down with safety in mind, and are easy to understand.

Students should have some dance experience and have danced with a veil before. This video would best suit level 2 & up for practicing and learning the veil moves, and level 3 for actually learning and/or performing the choreography.

Where Can You Purchase This Video?
I purchased mine from Saqra on-line at www.saqra.net