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Aazura's review of the video
Belly Dancing the Sacred
Shapes™ with The Goddess Dancing™
Since Napolean's 1789 expedition to Egypt,
traditional Middle Eastern dance has met with a wide range of influences from
throughout the western world. As a result, "belly dance" as we know it today,
has come to mean different things to different people. From Raqs Sharki to ATS,
our dance genre is truly one open to personal interpretation.
With this in mind, I popped The Goddess Dancing's instructional DVD, "Belly
Dancing The Sacred Shapes," into my player and watched. I must admit, I'm one of
those Raqs Sharki dancers and do not embrace the theory that belly dancing is
about goddess worship. "However, I respect that some women find strength and
courage in the goddess theory, and I'm all about discovering your own personal
empowerment.
The DVD begins with a brief history of The Goddess Dancing and their philosophy.
The Goddess Dancing team is made up of Anita-Cristina Calcaterra, Cathy Moore,
and Karen Uminski. Through their research of ancient goddess cultures, they have
discovered some common patterns of dance movement which they have termed "The
Sacred Shapes." These shapes - or movements, rather, as some aren't technically
"shapes" - include the circle, the crescent, the figure eight, the shimmy and
the undulation.
The DVD then proceeds to a discussion of basic posture and a brief warm-up which
they call "Goddess stretches." I enjoyed the way descriptions of ancient
goddesses and their attributes were used as the foundation to these warm-up
movements. However, the movements were performed too quickly and not held long
enough to be an adequate stretch. A stretch needs to be held a minimum of 15
seconds to be effective; calling these movements "stretches," therefore, is
misleading, and renaming the section "Goddess warm-up" would perhaps be more
appropriate.
Moving into the instructional portion of the DVD, each Sacred Shape is
introduced and described, then shown in a variety of planes, as well as body
parts. The circle, for example, is demonstrated as a horizontal hip circle, a
horizontal heart (ribcage) circle, a vertical heart circle, a sagittal heart
circle and, finally, a horizontal head circle.
Thoughout their demonstrations, the Goddess Dancing team consistently reminds
the viewer to check her basic stance and posture, as well as to visualize the
shape she is creating. In addition, the team positions themselves so that the
movements can be seen from multiple sides and angles, which is always helpful to
the beginner trying to follow from a video.
Another fun aspect of the DVD is the costume changes the team makes for each
segment. Not only do these changes help to keep the video visually interesting,
they are also helpful to a beginner who may be looking for some basic costuming
ideas or some help in knowing what types of garments are appropriate for class
wear. The only time I found their garments inappropriate or distracting
was during the shimmy segment, when the team wore blue jeans. I feel strongly
that jeans are not appropriate dance attire and discourage my students from
wearing them in class.
I will allow some leeway for when belly dance movements are to be used in a club
setting, but as this DVD is not geared toward that market, I think the use of
blue jeans sends students the wrong message. Furthermore, wearing jeans during
the shimmy segment resulted in making the movement harder to see as they did not
have the added benefit of a fringed or coined hipscarf.
Despite this misstep, the Goddess Dancing team provides an excellent overview of
basic dance isolations that both a novice or advanced-beginner dancer would find
helpful. The DVD is well produced, with clear sound and solid instruction.
Because of the strong use of visualization throughout the video, students who
respond best to this teaching method would benefit most. This is not to suggest
that the movements are not fully-broken down, but rather that the break-down is
at times glossed over in favor of the visualization method. Individuals who need
a more verbalized break-down of movement might have trouble in some segments
where this occurs.
It is also important to point out that this DVD only covers isolations and does
little in the way of
choreography (The Creation Dance segment at the end of the video is less a
choreography than a method of structural improvisation, showing students a way
to string together the isolations just learned). Students looking for traveling
steps, hipwork, or arms will be disappointed with the Goddess Dancing. However,
for individuals looking for a basic instructional video, and find the ultra-fit
bodies of Neon, Veena and Neena, or Dolphina hard to relate to, the Goddess
Dancing might be just the ticket.
This review courtesy of
Aazura
and
Habibi
Magazine Online Newsletter ,Vol.
2 #8, October 2004. Used with permission.
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