Product Details

• Actors: Drummers of Damballa
• Directors: Wyoma
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sounds True, Incorporated
• VHS Release Date: September 16, 1998
• Run Time: 77 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1564555747
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,492 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

African Healing Dance, with lead dancer Wyoma and the dancers and drummers of the Damballa dance troupe, is a step-by-step dance course on healing traditions and spiritual movements that are special to the African dance heritage. An African proverb teaches, "If you can talk, you can sing, and if you can walk, you can dance." Thus African Healing Dance is suited for beginning to advanced dancers, students of dance, instructors, and choreographers studying and/or performing African dance. The instructional video and included manual provide an effective guide for a dance or exercise program at home or in a workshop setting. Director of the Damballa dance troupe as well as head dancer, Wyoma begins with a simple warm-up, including breathing techniques; body articulation movements for the hips, chest, shoulders, and feet; and stretching. She then artistically integrates the teaching of six traditional African dances with the passion and joy of connecting dance movements that have the spirit and energy of nature and the elements (water, wind, fire, and earth) and animals such as the snake, elephant, and bird. A final portion of the 70-minute video is called "The Healing Journey," in which Wyoma encourages personal exploration of inner rhythms and feelings through improvisational movement. As one watches this video, it is difficult not to feel the pulse of the drumbeat and the spiritual strength of Wyoma and her celebration of life through dance. --Christine Aiken

From the back cover

The Healing Art of African Dance

In Africa, dance is much more than physical movement--it is a direct way to celebrate life and create healing. African Healing Dance is a step-by-step course on the healing tradition and expressive movements that are unique to Africa's dance heritage. From the movements of nature and everyday life, the tribal people of Africa developed specific dances to summon the energy of the world around them into their bodies for connection and healing. Through dancing, they became the bird and the wind, the fire and the serpent.

Join Wyoma, the respected lead dancer and director of the Damballa dance troupe, as she teaches you the African way of moving your entire body with passion and joy ... symbolic animal and elemental gestures ... secrets of hip, torso, and shoulder articulations, and much more. Here's the instructional program you need to have a high-energy African dance class at home. Can anyone learn these dances? "If you can talk, you can sing," they say in Zimbabwe, "and if you can walk, you can dance." So get ready to move--and be moved--with African Healing Dance.

Learn 6 African Dances:

• Sowu--"The Dance of Life," from the Ewe of Ghana
• Gbêgbeacute;--From the Ivory Coast, a call for vision and strength
• Focodoba--a post-initiation basket dance from the Bambara of Guinea
• Umoya--A South African dance to draw energy from heaven and earth
• Nago--An Afro-Haitian warrior dance to claim your power and domain
• Yonwalu--A voudoun invocation to Damballa, the serpent deity
• A Healing Journey--Dancing from within

Wyoma is the director of Damballa, a performance group that features the dance and music of Africa and the diaspora. She is a dance performance artist and consultant whose workshops integrate African dance with the healing arts for personal growth and development.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must buy for all Afro dancers, September 20, 2001

By 

Salsavideoreviews.org (Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: African Healing Dance [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a Master level workout of beginners to advanced Afro &
Afro-Caribbean steps. This is very similar to the way I was trained. I have been training in these dances for over 45 years as a performer & instructor.
The instructor has missed all the boring steps & has given you the most enjoyable movements. The instructor is one of the best at explaining this form of dancing I have seen. She is also one of the best dancers I have seen.
This is a must for all Afro, Conga, Guaguanco, Arara, Gaga, Bodu, Tajona, Yoruba dancers.
This will not be an easy video for most of you to follow but any of you who want to become Master level Salsa dancers should at least understand the beginners steps from the Afro dances. You can just use the first basic step Wyoma teaches you until you get the feeling for the other more advanced steps.

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars inspiring, November 3, 2001

By 

Susan Hinojoza "It's a full life." (Union City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: African Healing Dance [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is an outstanding video. The teacher, Wyoma, has a warm and inspiring personality. The video starts with some connection exercises, designed to get your spirit into the dance forms and connecting with the elements and animals. Then, there is a warm up section with isolations which uses the movements from the connections section. What follows are instructions for five traditional dances from various Afric nations. What I liked most is how Wyoma explains what each movement means. This really gets you into the spirit of the dance. The video ends with an improvisational dance.

All is accompanied by live drumming on Djembe, Conga and other instruments. Highly recommended.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars for a healthy spirit as well as a healthy body, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: African Healing Dance [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video is excellent for those who want to get in better shape, but hate the monotony of the average aerobics tape. If you love to dance--really set your body free, not concerning yourself with whether you're supposed to spin or dip--then this is for you. You'll be sweating after a half hour, but you'll be doing it with a smile on your face. There's plenty for beginners as well as more advanced steps. The rhythms are intoxicating and invigorating.