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Sharina's review of the video -
Belly Dancing The Sacred Shapes™
with The Goddess Dancing™
Here’s a great new video that you can
watch if you’re a beginner dancer that wants to learn the basic concepts of
belly dance, a more advanced beginner who wants to work on her isolations, or
any dancer that just wants one of those “feel good” moments in her day!
The video features Anita-Cristina Calcaterra, Cathy Moore and Karen Uminski of The Goddess DancingTM, a
group of dancers based in the Boston area of Massachusetts. The teaching format
is based on curriculum developed by The Goddess DancingTM through
years of study and experience.
They have taken the core movements of
belly dance and grounded them in the ancient movements of goddess cultures.
Five common patterns of movement were selected, which they refer to as The
Sacred Shapes: the circle, crescent, figure 8, undulation and shimmy. The
power of the dance resides in the isolation, and they chose 3 different
directions (planes) in which the body can move: horizontal plane, vertical
plane and the sagittal plane. Their curriculum focuses on the sacred shapes
isolated on these 3 planes.
Each segment of the video is introduced
by a different teacher, and the movements throughout the video are demonstrated
by all three dancers. The video has excellent camera work so each movement can
be clearly seen at different angles. Rather than the usual classroom
environment, the setting for this video is the lush interior of a palace or
beautiful tent, with a backdrop of vibrant veils, carpets and furnishings to add
to the atmosphere. Also, there are little extras to keep our attention, such as
a change of costumes in each segment (ranging from classroom attire to
performance costumes to jeans) … and then there’s the beautiful music in the
background by Alan Bachman of
Desert
Wind that really enhances the mood.
The instruction in the video is very
clear and includes a more spiritual side of the dance along with a breakdown of
the movements. The video begins with a discussion of the basic stance and a
brief warm-up, and then moves into the Goddess Stretches. The Goddess Stretches
use images of the goddesses such as Isis, Kali and Diana to illustrate and
define the stretches. Now we move into the Sacred Shapes: each shape is
defined by movement, as well as related to parts of the body and the world
around us
Movements in the Circle segment
include: Horizontal hip circle, horizontal heart circle (the circle traced on
the horizontal plane with the "heart" or the upper body), vertical heart circle, sagittal heart circle and horizontal head circle. Good visuals are used so the
explanations are very clear (vertical heart circle: imagine there's a circle
drawn on the wall in front of you). And the camera angles are excellent so
every movement can be clearly seen as done by each of the 3 dancers.
The Crescent includes: Horizontal hip
crescent, horizontal heart crescent, vertical heart crescent and horizontal head
crescent, then goes into some combinations of circles and crescents.
The Figure 8 includes: horizontal hip
figure 8, vertical heart figure 8 (the figure 8 traced on the vertical plane
with the heart), and vertical head figure 8. Once again, good visuals are used
to demonstrate actually what is meant during each explanation.
The Shimmy includes: Earthquake shimmy
(shimmy made on vertical plane with hips), twisting shimmy (shimmy made on the
horizontal plane with the hips), heart shimmy (shimmy made on the horizontal
plane with the heart) and ecstasy shimmy (vibration).
The Undulation includes: The wave (an
undulation made on the sagittal plane with the whole body) (good visual are
given of walking into the water and swaying into a wave); and the snake (an
undulation on the vertical plane with the whole body).
And now that we have the basic
vocabulary to create a dance, we are advised to let the magic of the ancient
symbols move through us. The teachers then present The Creation Dance, based on
the sacred shapes and inspired by a poem written by one of the dancers. The 3
dancers perform to the reading of the poem and subtitles appear on the screen as
to which movement they're doing
As a special bonus on the DVD, each of
the teachers gives a solo performance. These performances aren’t on a stage,
however, but are within the palace setting and are a wonderful example of women
dancing with other women just for the joy of it. This uplifting and enjoyable
video is recommended for beginners since it provides excellent instruction for
work on basic movements and isolations! To order a copy, see the ad on the
next page.
Reviewed by Sharina, Publisher/Editor
Zaghareet! Magazine.
Reprinted with permission: This review originally
appeared in
Zaghareet!, January/February 2004.
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