belly dance dvds
Aug. 26th, 2008 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alonewiththemoonAfter about four hours of power outage at work yesterday, we gave up and closed up the office. I took advantage of my extra couple of hours by finally finishing the Aida Nour workshop DVD I got three or four months ago. I really enjoyed it. It's not a terribly complex choreography but it's a very satisfying one. There's enough repetition in it that I think I could use it to drill arabesques and other turning foot patterns, since there's a lot of them, so it's a DVD I'll revisit. The choreography is Reda orientale but Aida Nour is definitely more of a baladi/shaabi dancer so it's very grounded, even with all the swooping and turning. A technical note--this is very good quality filmwork compared to some of the other workshop DVDs I have, and Aida Nour is a very clear instructor, obviously very comfortable teaching. There does seem to be some continuity issue such that I wasn't sure that the choreography was presented in all the right order, but it's repetitive enough that it's easy to sort it out when it all gets put together. All in all, I'd recommend it. It's her 2005 workshop with Little Egypt. (back when I first got this DVD, I couldn't make it through more than about 45 minutes of it due to foot pain. Last night, it was no problem at all to complete it. Yay progress!)
Then while I ate dinner, I finished watching a Mona Said/Hanan/Nelly DVD that I had also previously only watched part of. I'm so in love with Mona Said, she makes me cry happy tears. These are the performances in which she wears a black fishnet dress with a lot of gold fringe on the lower half of the dress. In one of the pieces, she spends the entire song (an Om K piece whose name I don't remember as I'm bad at names and a taqsim) pretty much rooted in one place, moving her feet only when needed for balance in a back bend or sway. It's just stunning, all raw emotion and passion. So, so inspirational. I liked Nelly a lot too; her hipwork is very intricate in a Tahiya Carioca kind of way and she's got a very nice stage presence, tons of fun. Hanan did not do much for me. She was Nagwa Fouad-ish and had the plastic smile that doesn't reach the eyes thing going on, and it just looked awful, especially next to Mona. I know she's well regarded, so maybe it was just this performance. The DVD included some of Mona's gold bikini drum solo, but unfortunately there's footage of the other dancers (dancing to other music) cut in. Anyway, a good purchase and like the Aida Nour instructional, something I'll go back to again.
I'm certainly all fired up for dance class tonight!
Then while I ate dinner, I finished watching a Mona Said/Hanan/Nelly DVD that I had also previously only watched part of. I'm so in love with Mona Said, she makes me cry happy tears. These are the performances in which she wears a black fishnet dress with a lot of gold fringe on the lower half of the dress. In one of the pieces, she spends the entire song (an Om K piece whose name I don't remember as I'm bad at names and a taqsim) pretty much rooted in one place, moving her feet only when needed for balance in a back bend or sway. It's just stunning, all raw emotion and passion. So, so inspirational. I liked Nelly a lot too; her hipwork is very intricate in a Tahiya Carioca kind of way and she's got a very nice stage presence, tons of fun. Hanan did not do much for me. She was Nagwa Fouad-ish and had the plastic smile that doesn't reach the eyes thing going on, and it just looked awful, especially next to Mona. I know she's well regarded, so maybe it was just this performance. The DVD included some of Mona's gold bikini drum solo, but unfortunately there's footage of the other dancers (dancing to other music) cut in. Anyway, a good purchase and like the Aida Nour instructional, something I'll go back to again.
I'm certainly all fired up for dance class tonight!
