Customer Reviews

Aziza's Ultimate Bellydance Pratice Companion

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Aziza' Practice Companion is like nothing else. A self-contained, intense bellydance drill practice and workout, it will make you want to throw all your other dance and exercise DVDs in the closet and just do this everyday. No, really.

First, the basics: the setting is a staged workshop, and you see Aziza over the heads of the participants, as it were. There are online clips of the video in which it seems as though Aziza might be hard to see -- expanded on the larger screen, this is never the case. Aziza mirrors you, calling left as she moves right. The student dancers are a nice effect: while they are skilled enough to keep up with Aziza, they still need her encouragement and correction now and then.

The practice is composed of 6 sections: a warm-up, ribcage drills, hip drills, arm practice, an insanely lengthy, never-give-up, shimmy drill, and finally, a cool down.

The warm-up is thorough, involves a lot of breathing, parallel-foot plies, gentle head movements, bends and arm work, and really does get you ready to practice. (To give you a sense of it, Ava Fleming suggests you do this warmup before using her own DVDs, so it's a keeper.) Posture is covered in detail, but relatively quickly. To jump to the end, the cool-down is even better, involving good leg and back stretches to stretch out the muscles you've just used. Aziza gives posture reminders throughout the program, and is careful to guide your knee placement and to encourage gentle movement of the head for safe exercise.

The ribcage and hip sections include what I find a very fun drill which involves moving the body part in question in six different directions, in a variety of different ways. You really have to use both your back muscles and (especially) your abdominal muscles to keep your posture and do the movement.

The arm section consists of a series of port-de-bras combinations. While still valuable, the arm section is the least unique and innovative part of the DVD. It does, however, have an exercise for learning to move your hands slowly while moving another part of your body quickly. I could imagine this being useful for flamenco dancers as well.

And then there's the shimmy drill. Imagine shimmying. Now imaging shimmying some more. Now imagine doing all sorts of movements with your arms, head, and torso while you shimmy. Now imagine making all sorts of shapes with your hips while you shimmy. Now choo-choo shimmy. Now shoulder shimmy. Oh, now back to normal shimmying, with increased force! Now repeat all the exercises from the ribcage and hip sections while shimmying. After enough time, if you just keep on going, your body enters this zen space where all it knows how to do is shimmy: that's where you start being able to layer things, and you almost don't mind. You think it's about to be over, and then Aziza makes you write the alphabet horizontally with your hips (while shimmying). And then vertically with your ribcage. And then you shimmy some more. And at the end, you find out you were shimmying for twenty minutes, and you can't believe it, because you know you never would even have attempted such a thing if you knew what was in store for you.

In case I haven't made it clear enough, this video is a gem: so is Aziza. She has charm and a sense of humour, and a kind of sadistic gleam in her eye when she's promised one more repetition and says, "I lied! Another one on your right." The two performances at the end are just the kind of flirtatious, playful Egyptian style bellydance I love, and it occurred to me as I watched them that trying to imitate those dances would be an entire other workshop! However, this video would really be good for anyone working on their drills, and Aziza's focus on driving the movements with muscles would probably sit well with many tribal or fusion dancers.

After such a glowing review, I almost feel it necessary to say that I don't know Aziza at all. I just think that this video has so much to give to so many different kinds of dancers that it's an unregrettable buy. I tried for a long time to find it used, and now I know why I couldn't: this isn't something you let go.

Aziza is such a gem!!! As someone taking bellydance classes from a teacher, DVD's typically aren't challenging. This is not the case with this one. The defining moment for me was the shimmy drills! Get your water bottle & a towel ready for this part! Aziza's charm & wit shines through the entire program and her performances are stunning. This is a must buy for any dancer!!!!!

I just went through this DVD with a friend this weekend and BOY am I sore! If you are looking for a great practice companion DVD, look no further. Great drills that really work your muscles and really work the isolations, and of course her famous shimmy section. She has you spell out the alphabet with your hips while shimmying! I couldn't go that far, by then I was ready to pass out and I was just lucky my hips were still moving at all. I couldn't imagine how much you could improve or polish your skills practicing this DVD regularly.

A must have for all belly dancers! Also, Aziza is so charming and adorable...you'll love her to bits!

This is a great, fun, drills workout due to Aziza's great body awareness, fluidity, unrestrained humor, analogies & true love of teaching dance & dancing itself.
Menu chapter choices & 2 performances. It's set in a room with curtains behind, about 8 students partial bodies you can see. You can see her clearly at all times & it does zoom in on her when needed so you don't see the students. Good camerawork, I never felt irritated that it did/did not zoom in when I wanted. I had no problems with the production. The sound & lighting were great, the added music, even though added after is much better then nothing & actually nice fast beat that keeps you going.

Warm-up - 8 min
Posture - think of your breasts as eyes & keep them wide open ... eggs under your armpits ... piano balanced on your hips. I love her analogies.
Detailed & full head rolls & spots to stretch, shoulder rolls, shoulders/chest open/closed, snake arms w/wide leg stance, side stretches, torso rotations, spine rolls, standing fwd bend w/bending & straight legs.
Ribcage - 9 min
Jumana points - moving only the ribs (not the shoulders!) right fwd corner, side, back right corner, left fwd corner, side, left back corner.
Moving the ribs/torso to the points, first just pushing/reaching in those directions & back, scooping upward to those corners, scooping under to those corners, lifting to those corners, dropping to those corners. She also do 4 little locks to those corners which is very tiny & hard to do.
I love this, my torso felt so much looser & more free after doing this.
She always reminds you about your posture just when you need it.
Hips - 9 min
You do the same thing, but this time with the hips, though now they look more familiar as they are like hip bumps/thrusting, hip dropping, hip lifting, half figure 8s, etc. My hips felt looser here as well.
Arms - 8 min
Being more aware of your arms as you open arms, raise arms, arms to the side, 1 arm at a time, arms behind head, 1 hand up as other goes down, adding with a spin, adding wrist circles to the same movements. She reminds you of intention of not just focusing ahead of the pose, but the journey as well which gives the fluidity & body awareness. She adds some you don't see in other beginner bellydance dvds.
Shimmies - 21 min
You are shimming straight leg "knees to the back, back back, like your cold, like rubbing your knees together" this ENTIRE time with only a few short breaks to do shoulder shimmies. She jokes to, "if you lose your shimmy, start it back up like a lawnmower vaaaarrrroommoomoooommm" ;-) As you are doing shimmies, she adds various fluid arm movements, arm poses (I love the ones she chooses, it's not the same you always see), shoulder rolls, rib isolations, undulations, hip isolations, choo choos (shimmy on tip toes), hip circles ("I lied, one more time around!"), etc. I did it, though I slowed down a bit here & there & then I couldn't feel my legs!
Cool Down - 11 min
If you can still move... lunge stretch, reclined knees to chest, single leg stretch, reclined figure 4 stretch, reclined spinal twist, hands/knees cat/cow stretch w/hip circle after, downward facing dog & ends w/standing torso rotation.

Two performances:
First one (9 min) is on youtube under, "Aziza's Ultimate Bellydance Practice Companion - Performance"
The second one is on youtube under, "Aziza Belly Dance Drum Solo"

Short video clips on youtube under:
"Aziza's Ultimate Bellydance Practice Companion" (sounds terrible here, DVD is much more clear)
"Aziza's Ultimate Bellydance Practice Companion - Intro"

Trailer for her new DVD on youtube:
"Aziza's new instructional DVD; Hands, Harms and Poses !"

There are 12 more reviews on an older listing under the same name on here under Aziza's Ultimate Bellydance Pratice Companion

This is a great bellydance drill DVD. Aziza is charming and the drills are well planned. The shimmy drill lives up to its reputation and will give you better shimmy control as you practice it. Don't worry if you don't make it all the way through the first time, just keep practicing. Using this DVD a handful of times has made me more aware of my posture and has improved my dance technique. This is really a must-have for bellydancers.

I just wanted to stress what some others have mentioned. 1. This video is not for beginners. You should know the basics before you attempt this. 2. The price of this video is well worth the shimmy section alone, and the two performances at the end are an inspiring bonus!!!

I didn't care for this.

Content: It's okay. The pace is very slow, which bored me. There is a nice section on arms, but everything else just lacks any excitement, and doesn't bring anything that a million other bellydance DVDs don't also offer.

Setting: Not good. She's facing a small army of students to are about six inches from her at all times. Cramped and strange.

I felt this DVD, for me, was not really worth spending money on. I think it could have been a lot better with different pacing and a better set (and no students!).

Aziza does not actually teach steps or choreography in this video. But as a practice enhancement it is a wonderful addition to my collection. She uses what I would call ballet terms. She doesn't explain some things; she assumes you have some background. I am in my 20th week of a belly dance class and there were a couple of things I said "what?" to. But for the most part a basic understanding is enough. I find the 'choo choo' a bit challenging. I love the Jumanna (sp?) points for chest and hips. She does the Egyption straight-legged shimmy which I wasn't used to, but my shimmy has improved (I think). She is facing you in the video, several students have their back to you. When says "your right" she is actually using her left. I find that helpful. Overall, I love this view and Aziza is her usual charming self. At the end she performs two dances.

Although other reviewers have complained about the unusual presentation (filmed within what seems like a small space, with a multitude of students within arm's reach in front of her), I didn't find it too distracting. It would've been nice if there was at least a mirror behind her, but it didn't strike me as too much worse than being in a class in a small studio. Maybe it's because I was watching it on a 50"-plus t.v., but it wasn't horrible.

Aziza is charming as an instructor and I find her drills thorough and novel compared to others I've encountered in DVDs and live classes.

Nice and complete warm up and cool down.

The drills in particular can be challenging, but it didn't take long for me to feel a payoff as both a cardio workout and as a technical practice. I was also surprised when I realized that the practice is just over an hour, as it didn't feel that long.

I would not recommend it for absolute beginners at all, as she doesn't go into much basic explanation of execution for moves like shimmies (standard hip shimmies or straight-leg) or how to do an omi, for example.

If you've already taken a beginner-level class, however, you should find a good deal of benefit from adding this DVD into your practice repertoire, particularly if you want to learn to layer movements on top of shimmies.

I found this drill dvd from Aziza to be a bit more entertaining than most of my drill dvds. Most of us do not have time to complete 65 minutes of anything extra but this has been worth the extra effort. It began with an effective warmup which lasted for about 11 minutes. Next is 8 minutes of work each for the ribcage, the hips, and arms/hands. Then comes the 20 minute shimmy section which moved very quickly. Finally there is a much needed 10 minute cool down which thoroughly stretches what was worked. My daughter even did this and she typically hates cool-downs!

The class setting was a little confined but not too distracting. I liked how Aziza interacted more with the students and didn't just stare at the camera. She really made the 65 minute drill session 'doable'. Plus I think shimmying out the alphabet with my rib cage and hips were a well worth it pleasant surprise!