Customer Reviews

Ballet Class with Dmitri Roudnev: Demonstration of Exercises for Music of Best of Ballet Class, Vol. V

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I won't mention how many ballet classes on vhs or dvd I have purchased, or how much money I have spent hoping to get what is contained in this DVD Ballet Class by Russian dancer, Dmitri Roudnev, but I've spent a whole lot in my quest for good ballet home instruction.

I have come to find thru all my ballet-hopeful dvd purchases, ballet is more than just exercises at a barre, strange contortions, and over-forced turnouts. A lot more. It is a DANCE. And no ballet video or DVD I have ever bought -- until this one -- seems to recall this oft-overlooked crutial fact.

If you love ballet and have tried (or never have tried) ballet and found yourself discouraged, try this ONE last dvd for your inner ballerina.

This DVD will NOT begin with overwhelming, harmful intensive stretching.

It will NOT exhaust you. It will NOT strip the beauty of ballet from the dance. It will NOT destroy your confidence. It will NOT annoy you. And it will NOT leave you feeling awkward and silly for having tried attempting it, and if you take it easy and listen to your body's limits, it will not injure you either.

Every single ballet dvd I have owned has followed very strictly in what I would call the 'westernization' of ballet in that modern-day ballet instructional dvds make ballet into a boring workout - not a dance but into a segmented 'abs, buns, thighs' workout with ballet flavor.

But real ballet doesn't see the body as parts but a whole which dances fluidly together.

In westerinzed ballet dvd classes, you have oddities like disjointed ab workout sections, over extentions, painful stretches, jazz routines, weight-lifting sections, yoga--you name it, they've blended it with ballet. There are few, if any, pure ballet class or focused instructional ballet experiences on dvd. The westerized versions with such long beginning stretching routines steal your strength. Most of them make you feel weak, feature instructors with dour facial expressions, strange and off-putting new-age music, shuffling herds of confused dancers with little grace or understanding of the mindset of ballet -- and the worst of all: the ones with 'ballet instructors' that look like they just bench-pressed 100 pounds over their heads and their huge bulky arms and legs have you rightly confused at their self-professed 'dancers bodies', thinking you never saw ballerinas with calves bigger than their knees...

That's a perfectly acceptable, hard-won kind of body, but that is not a ballet dancer's body and shouldn't be represented as one, but sadly often is.

This DVD class, however is taught by a wonderful russian ballet dancer of Bolshoi training and dancing method which is considered to have it's associations with the very beginning of ballet dance, and has none of the ridiculous elements mentioned above.

Dmitri Roudnev, the instructor, is as a pleasant, calm, technical, creative, kind, and encouraging as any dancer could hope to have for a teacher. His complete lack of ego or pomp, his centeredness, and his sound grace without stumbling on formality, is humbling and inspiring and creates wonderful focus for a student dancing along with him and his ballerina friend. What an extrodinarily nice man. What a total lack of pretention; I love his charming russian accent - makes me want to curtsey to him in honest thanks every time i put this in, as my respect for his abilities seems to grow with every viewing. I can't say enough about him as a teacher in a ballet dvd. He's a man of carefully chosen words, and doesn't over talk the class to death, filling ever second with distracting comments, which drives me crazy in most workouts in general. It leaves room for thinking, in my opinion, personal focus and self improvement.

Leading by example, he executes what he then asks for through-out the class, which is wonderful because you see his version of it then the ballerina.

After looking for something just like this dvd for years, I'm ashamed to even hint at any negatives regarding the dvd, but it must be said that the sound is a little sketchy, tho audible, but is not perfect in that regard. However, this is the dvd's only real drawback.

It is a 120 minute class. The exercises are preformed in small, natural and pleasing combinations at the barre and at centre - which is how ballet should be learned so that you can get a sense of timing in dancing, preforming, and giving as student or an artist OF ballet-- something you never get from most westernized versions of ballet class captured for home instruction. First one side is worked thru a combination, then the other is done. The exercises are *danced* to the music. Which is what one expects when one takes a real ballet class - in an ideal world, anyway - and what I was starting to wonder if I would ever find until I gave this dvd a try.

Not being the caliber of a professional dancer, I dare to say, doing this class leaves me feeling energized, not hurt, and not stretched painfully and exhausted afterwards. I feel very light and my mind feels the effect as well but this could be becuase I've elimiated intensive stretching before the barre or centre work now and suffer no feelings of pain or failure prior to the ballet class.

You may want to check Dmitri Roudnev's site, [...] for information on how he believes extensive stretching can be harmful to the ballet dancer before barre and centre work ("Intensive" stretches before ballet barre diminish training and increase the risk for injury.") and I heartily have applied his advice and find it is the key to keeping my ballet full of energy. All that crazy stretching before ballet always left me exhausted and it hurt, and, frankly, too tired to execute anything much beautiful at all; it also left me mildly resentful of ballet, which i think was the cause of my frustation feeling I couldn't perform with the proper energy.

I don't profess to speak for or allude to Mr. Roudnev's meanings, as he is a professional and i am barely a novice; I only want to express what I have gleaned in my own personal interpretation of his words, so please do see his thoughts on the matter, and decide for yourself. His own words about intensive stretching can be found here:

[...]

Oh, my, I am gushing about him, and I'm all ga-ga over this dvd, aren't I? I would apologize but I believe that all my compliments and recommendations are fully credible to him and this dvd, and if I can help some other budding ballerina find a dvd that is ballet proper in a box, then I am grateful for the opportunity to do so.

This dvd assumes you have basic ballet instruction before hand. If you don't, don't let this put you off from buying it. Buy a beginner's dvd to learn the basic positions and executions thereof and then graduate to Dmitri Roudnev.

I know many people will be concerned and worried about buying an intermediate ballet dvd but really it's no harder to learn the steps in this than it is any modern aerobic routine. Of course in ballet, execution is everything, but as far as learning the routine, it is not impossible by any means. The FULL execution and the full extention of all the moves *is* advanced. But that comes with time in ballet, so never force or be in pain or over reach or push and you'll be fine, and will blossom to fuller extentions and skill over time.

It should also be noted that this is not a lavish, slick production that holds your hand. It moves along at a very nice pace with no stops between exercises other than to demonstrate, and i do the demonstrations to keep the pace.

Like ballet, this this dvd is unglamoursly hard work, very plain, and to the point - it's just an empty room with a barre and two dancers. It's about as stark as it gets, and the production value is based solely on the bodies of two people and nothing more. And yet beautiful in it's simplicity and desire to uncomplicate the complex soul of ballet. A ballet dancer and/or afficianado knows what I mean by this spirit which fills an empty room. This dvd is a no-frills intermediate-to advanced class with no MTV-style cut-aways, close-ups, or extras. Just a constant body shot which is so refreshing on the eyes. I would personally recommend for every single beginner (and obviously advanced dancer) out there. Why?

Well, if you're like me, you like your details executed with seeminly-effortless perfection to inspire, and you like to give it your all and take your direction from someone who knows what they are doing, not someone just guessing or flattering themselves that the are ballet dancers, much less teachers, then you are like me and want learn from the very best.

And this is what this is.

I hate to over-sell anything in my enthusiasm but I believe after having ordered, over the years, ever-so many ballet classes on dvd, that I would readily burn all the others I've purchased and amassed to keep just this one fresh, unassuming, quiet, timeless bit of ballet-instruction perfection.

I came upon this DVD by chance, while searching for a good ballet class. This is one of the best ballet programs I have seen in many years. Dmitry is an outstanding teacher. I highly recoment his series of ballet classes and music for ballet classes (by the way) to anybody who is after the REAL CLASSICAL BALLET. Do not get dissapointed by not so perfect DVD recording - the content is priceless.

Extraordinarily good ballet class. Dmitri Roudnev is an excellent teacher, and not only did my technique improve dramatically, but my ballet teacher noticed that I had acquired a more beautiful port de bras. I was so pleased, because beyond the breathtaking jumping ability, I admire the port de bras of the Russian Vaganova trained dancers I have seen. They carry themselves so beautifully and artistically. I plan on completing my library of Dmitri Roudnev ballet dvd's, I love the results!!!

Fantastic class. I love that he leads the video just like he would a class (instruction so you can mark it, and does both sides) albeit with probably a little less critiquing of the dancer. His barre is a great workout, though some of the center pushes me beyond my capabilities, a good center workout will do that. The sound quality is not good, but if you are a dancer who wants a real isntructor you won't care. I bought the accompanying CD and I love using to modify the workouts. I definitely recommend it.

I read the review by other customers here and bought all of Dmitri's Ballet DVDs. All of the contents are great no matter you are beginners or relatively advanced ballet dancers. One minor suggestion though, it would be great if this DVD has a detailed menu of moves from Barre to Center works like his other DVDs.

As a total ballet novice, I was initially dead-set on getting a DVD that went over basics and little else, but I decided this one would have a longer shelf life, and I'm firmly convinced of that after practicing with it just over the last few months. I love the fact that this set of exercises and dances - which are done with just Dmitri and his graceful assistant ballerina - are done without background music until the sequences have been reviewed. This is helpful for people who'd like to concentrate on getting the positions right before attempting them to music. The music itself isn't new-age or techno-inspired crap, which is one of my biggest pet peeves with workout videos of all types (though this isn't a workout, it's a ballet class, so adjust your expectations accordingly). They play the same piano tunes over and over, but it's all familiar classical fare - including Rossini and other masters, so it's easy to listen to (or not, I just turn off the volume now). I also love the compilation of routines because they progress in difficulty over the course of the DVD - which is about an hour and 20 minutes, give or take a few. And they repeat all the sequences on each side instead of making you rewind so you can repeat them yourself.

I DO have some complaints with the DVD itself, however, the biggest being the TERRIBLE sound quality! Dmitri's voice is calm, soothing, and utterly charming with his soft Russian accent, but I can't hear a single word of his clearly, nor understand most of the instructions he gives during the class. It's obvious they didn't bother to mic him for filming, but they certainly should have! Mostly I've just had to observe the positions and copy the ballerina when she moves, rewinding certain portions to better absorb the movements. But I've given up on actually hearing Dmitri - as I don't like blaring the television during practice - and there are no subtitle options either, so there's no way to subvert this problem. So I give the sound a thumbs WAAAAY down.

The good news is the class is quite good, and I'd even recommend it for a beginner like me. As a class, it is better helping me learn the positions and improve my technique. It's the rest that makes it not so much worth the price, though, as there are dozens of ballet DVD classes out there that don't cost as much. You don't get any production value here. The sound and picture quality are both dubious, at best. And there are no subtitles, extra features or even chapter selections - it's truly a no-frills class and a no-frills DVD. But the content of this DVD is something to celebrate. Dmitri is a great dancer, even if you can't hear him half the time, and the routines he walks you through are fun and challenging.

All in all, I'd say this is a DVD I'll practice with for a long time to come, but I can't give it top marks because of all the things you DON'T get with it. But the bottom line is, if you're interested in learning ballet (and not just doing ballet-style workouts), this DVD is worth a look - just try to get it on sale.

Again, as with the other video of Mr. Roudnev's the video and sound quality is less than perfect. Whatcha gonna do? You could settle for a crappy class with great sound. I've seen those too. Tell me...when in a real class can you hear everything the teacher is saying as if her voice is amplified and on filter? Eh? Its a great class. So what if the quality of filming isn't there. You can see and hear what you need to.

I was torn about this video. The instruction and movements appear to be excellent, but the learning experience is marred by poor audio quality. While going through the lesson I was straining to hear the instruction and the names of the positions and was frustrated by inaudible words and, at times, a high-pitched hum. The piano is tinny and irritating, but if I turned the volume down I would lose the musicality in the movements, and that's a big part of the learning experience for me.

I missed many of the names of the positions, therefore missed the opportunity to build my ballet lexicon; with that information a student could research the positions in additional dance instruction resources in order to fine-tune their movements. Plus, during a live class, a student would immediately understand what a ballet instructor is looking for when she requests a certain position or movement.

The contrast in production values between this video and The Finis Jhung Ballet Technique Level 1: Barrework for Beginners is stark. Ultimately I returned this one, but I look forward to a new release by this instructor, with better production quality - hopefully soon.

As a true beginner to the art of ballet, this DVD is fantastic. The exercises start fairly easily and quickly increase in intensity and difficulty. With patience, perseverance and diligent use of the "replay" button I am steadily improving my technique, flexibility and strength. I recommend the use of mirrors to check yourself compared to the examples given.

The class I teach had been using the music CD that is a companion to this DVD. We had danced to it (and others) all year. When I brought in this DVD instruction to show the class (one exercise a week), it was quite inspiring to the students to see high level work done to "their" music. I will use the DVD in subsequent classes to demonstrate good technique and the unique way Dimitri Roudnev has of choreographing basic exercises to be challenging and lovely. It is not of the highest quality audio-wise, as you may not be able to catch every word clearly at first, but every move is obvious as he demonstrates and then as the demonstrator performs the exercises to the piano music.