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Nikki's review of Belly Dancing The
Sacred Shapes™ with The Goddess Dancing™
Belly Dancing The Sacred ShapesTM
This DVD has excellent sound, lighting
and overall production quality. The DVD menu is clearly organized with
beautifully designed graphics, and very easy to read and navigate.
The level of instruction is aimed at beginners new to belly dancing. Their dance
philosophy has a very strong Goddess centered focus; the dance movements on this
DVD are based on the concept of "Sacred Shapes", which are found in both nature,
and ancient cultures of the world. The shapes are: the Circle; the Crescent; the
Figure of Eight; the Shimmy and the Undulation. This DVD purely concentrates on
these "soft", core movements that are taken from styles of bellydance found
around the world. It doesn't cover any "sharp movements" such as hip drops, pops
or accents, and the arm positions are kept to a very simple minimum.
The dancers demonstrate techniques on screen as a voiceover talks you through
the movements and concepts. This voiceover is expertly done, and the movements
are taught with beautiful visualizations to help you perform the moves
correctly. The set background is decorated with columns and chiffon fabric, and
this is in neutral colours so it's very pretty without being distracting. The
dancers vary their costumes in each section; which range from practice wear, to
costumes, as well as jeans and tops.
The overview section gives a brief history of the group and discusses the
concept of "Sacred Shapes"; for example, the undulation can be seen as
representing the path of a river, or a woman in contractions; the shimmy can be
visualized as excitement or fear running through our bodies, or the life force
flowing through our veins.
The instructional section is divided into six subsections: basic stance; circle,
crescent, figures of eight, shimmies, undulations; there is a seventh section
which is a performance routine entitled "The Creation Dance". I liked the fact
that the basic stance is so clearly taught, and that it is often referred back
to throughout the instructional sections. There is a warm up on this video,
which, from a pagan point of view, is superbly done; the movements and positions
very effectively invoke a whole range of different Goddess images, for example
Diana and Kali. This warm up could also be very effective as a moving
meditation, or ritual for invoking the various Goddess energies. The three
planes of movement (saggital, vertical and horizontal) are also clearly
explained here, with excellent video graphics demonstrating the point.
In each instructional section, the pagan imagery of each movement is first
discussed. There is an excellent range of movement variations taught in each
section; building up from simple core moves to more complicated variations, and
at the end of each piece, you are encouraged to try combining some of the moves
learned so far. Each Goddess dancer changes position and takes her turn leading
the group, which gives you a good idea of how the movements look on various body
shapes. Plenty of practice time is given during this time for you to master the
moves. At the end of the section, the goddesses all dance together using the
movement/combinations of movements just taught, which is a wonderful touch.
What I particularly liked about this DVD was the movement variations; for each
shape, movements using that shape are demonstrated for the hips, torso, and
head; for example on the circle section, hip, chest and head circles are taught.
There is also a more unusual range of movements on this DVD, in the figures of
eight section, head figures of eight are taught (I'd never seen this move before
until I watched this DVD). Each section has a really good range of movement
variations; some simple enough for complete beginners, and other's that are more
challenging, so beginner's will be able to use this DVD to build up their
movement vocabulary, and will have plenty of material to work with.
There are two performance segments; the first being "The Creation Dance". This
is set to a poem which was written by Anna Cristina which has vivid, and very
moving, imagery of many types of birth and moments of creation. The choreography
has been done with much sensitivity and feeling for the sentiments of the poem.
While dancing, the movements that accompany each section flash up unobtrusively
at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to participate in the group
choreography. The second performance segment can be found in the extras section;
this time each goddess does a solo dance; each dancer conveys a different mood
and expression through their choice of dance; Karen performs a sword dance,
Cathy does some head movements, shimmies and figure 8's, which is followed by
Anna Cristina expressing herself beautifully through some expertly performed
floor work, rolls, flutters, spins and turns, before the goddesses all join
together for a group finale.
While this DVD is primarily aimed towards the Pagan market, many beginner bellydancers will be able to learn a nice range and variation of soft movements,
some drawn from the Middle East, and the rest from American or overseas
interpretations of bellydance. The credits list all the music used in the video.
A lot of thought and care has gone into the making of this excellent DVD.
Reviewed by Nikki Brown. Owner and web mistress of:
Raqs Sharqi: The Art of Oriental
Dance
Used with permission.
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