Aziza’s Ultimate Bellydance Pratice Companion
March 21, 2010 by admin
Filed under Belly Dancing DVD's
Description
Practice Better! Dance Better! Join Aziza and her students in an intense and effective technique class. Covering all aspects of stationary technique, Aziza will help you perfect all of your bellydance moves. Aziza will tr… More >>
Aziza’s Ultimate Bellydance Pratice Companion
I don’t know why I tried this DVD, I guess it’s because I always like to try new things and different artists. But, I have to say just stick to Suhalia Salimpour and a few others. The rest aren’t even second best.
Rating: 1 / 5
I purchased this dvd from a bazar based on the reviews on amazon, and my disappointment with its content made me write my first review on amazon after being a customer for years:
- The dvd is very much over-priced considering that it is a budget production & second-hand content. Notice how there is always a good review added here when someone has a copy for sale!!
- This dvd is recommended on Aziza’s website for “experienced bellydancers”. But its cover & title doesn’t correctly represent the content. It is basically an exercise dvd, the content lacks originality if you are experienced in bellydance and in parts the repetitiveness is boring. It claims to teach “stationary techniques”, but this is a cover up for the fact that it has been filmed in a small confined space. You can see if students and the teacher tried to move, they would trip over each other. Student’ look more novice than experienced. Visually it hasn’t got a nice presentation since in parts the teachers movements are obstructed by student’s hand & arms.
- Special feature favourite music recommendations: the dvd was advertised for “experienced dancers”, then your intelligence get insulted when two cds are displayed on the screen. There is no explanation about what type & style of music they are or how they are relevant to the “stationary techniques” taught on this dvd.
- Special feature live performance: You get to see more of the back of people’s head than Aziza’ dance moves. In parts, two third of the screen is covered with the audiences hair & shoulders. Although you can’t rate Aziza as high as the likes of Sahra Saeeda and Shareen El Safi, her performances are ok. But on this dvds, Aziza dances as if she has been cornered. There isn’t enough room for her to dance her usual style of moving from one side of the stage to the other.
- As for the fan club of “Aziza is a gem and so is this dvd”, I am sure she is a lovely girl. But if you have studied the Egyptian style of bellydance, then Aziza is good but typical of her type: toned body and nice outfits with good technical display of an acrobatic sequence of movements while the music is being played in the background. Bellydancing is an art, not a “challenging exercise” routine (unless one is a couch potato). As for the word “Ultimate” in the title of this dvd, you just have to laugh at the arrogance of the person who chose to use it.
Rating: 1 / 5
I purchased this dvd from a bazar based on the reviews on amazon, and my disappointment with its content made me write my first review on amazon after being a customer for years:
- The dvd is very much over-priced considering that it is a budget production & second-hand content. Notice how there is always a good review added here when someone has a copy for sale!!
- This dvd is recommended on Aziza’s website for “experienced bellydancers”. But its cover & title doesn’t correctly represent the content. It is basically an exercise dvd, the content lacks originality if you are experienced in bellydance and in parts the repetitiveness is boring. It claims to teach “stationary techniques”, but this is a cover up for the fact that it has been filmed in a small confined space. You can see if students and the teacher tried to move, they would trip over each other. Student’ look more novice than experienced. Visually it hasn’t got a nice presentation since in parts the teachers movements are obstructed by student’s hand & arms.
- Special feature favourite music recommendations: the dvd was advertised for “experienced dancers”, then your intelligence get insulted when two cds are displayed on the screen. There is no explanation about what type & style of music they are or how they are relevant to the “stationary techniques” taught on this dvd.
- Special feature live performance: You get to see more of the back of people’s head than Aziza’ dance moves. In parts, two third of the screen is covered with the audiences hair & shoulders. Although you can’t rate Aziza as high as the likes of Sahra Saeeda and Shareen El Safi, her performances are ok. But on this dvds, Aziza dances as if she has been cornered. There isn’t enough room for her to dance her usual style of moving from one side of the stage to the other.
- As for the fan club of “Aziza is a gem and so is this dvd”, I am sure she is a lovely girl. But if you have studied the Egyptian style of bellydance, then Aziza is good but typical of her type: toned body and nice outfits with good technical display of an acrobatic sequence of movements while the music is being played in the background. Bellydancing is an art, not a “challenging exercise” routine (unless one is a couch potato). As for the word “Ultimate” in the title of this dvd, you just have to laugh at the arrogance of the person who chose to use it.
Rating: 1 / 5
I’m surprised that no one else has mentioned the major editing mistake in this DVD. During the Jumana (sp?) points the video jumps from doing one type of exercise on the left hip to another exercise on the same hip, thereby cutting out several minutes of workout. It makes the entire demonstration uneven, so a viewer has to pause the tape and complete the missing exercises before going on. Otherwise only one hip gets the complete workout. This is an unprofessional mistake that should have been caught long before the DVD went to distribution.
On the whole, I find the presentation distracting. A professional teacher uses a mirror, so that both sides of a move can be seen. The presence of the other students seemed solely to show that she’s popular and added nothing to the demonstration.
Also, most of the time there is music playing in the background, but she is not doing the moves to the music. As a dancer and teacher I find that VERY annoying. Either use the rhythm of the music playing or turn it off.
Having said that, do I still find the DVD useful? Yes. The continuous shimmy is challenging and I find the Jumana points useful in extending my range (with the missing section added).
Rating: 3 / 5
Why Amazon always asks me for my view? I may receive many attacks afterwards!
The teacher is a bit on the plump side; she is of the biggest build amongst all my DVD teachers but she is not obese! There are many new things I have learnt from her like moving the arms, wink, and dancing non-stop. She has a very attractive face and smile!
But I have grown through this stage. In comparison to 21 shimmies that I bought at the same time, it is not challenging enough! You can either have it or give it a miss, unlike 21 shimmies, which I would recommend everyone buy it!
Rating: 4 / 5