Customer Reviews

Ballroom Dancing [VHS]

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

 

 

To those people who are looking for excellent instruction and not hurried or rushed from one phase of the dance instruction to another, these are the videos for you. The dance steps are gone over quite a few times, both for the men and women and executed slowly so you can understand the instruction in an excellent way. Tressa Mason has excellent videos that I also have, but her instruction is not for the average or slow learner. They are fine if you are an experienced dancer, then I say use Tressa's videos. BUT if you are starting out in ballroom dancing and / or brushing up on steps than Kyle and Susan Webb's are the videos to use.

Good instruction, very easy to follow (if anything, some of the moves are overexplained). It's too bad that these tapes aren't grouped by dance type instead of user level. It'd be easier to practice a certain style without switching tapes all the time.

Are they smooth dancers? Not really. Competent, but stiff. Is the oldies type stuff what you associate with Waltz and Rumba? No. However, the important thing is that they teach you and these tapes are great for clearly learning some moves. I find these tapes much better than those by Teresa Mason for learning, although Mason's dancing is certainly superior. We had the Mason tape first, and have found that the Webb's tapes have made it much easier to understand what Mason and her partner are actually doing.

Unless you're 100 years old and don't see well, spend your 10 bucks on something else. Surprisingly cheap tapes indeed reflected the quality of instruction and the lack of performance skills of both teachers. I watched all three of them and couldn't find a single move that I could use neither in my Rumba, nor in Cha-cha. Waltz may be ok, but again only if for some reason you can not move properly, everybody looked stiff and without passion for dance... the instructors were extremely unattractive, even worse... I felt that I threw away my money. I did not give up and bought a tape of another instructor - Teresa Mason- and she's the best. I had everything that I needed and even more - wonderful performance by her and her partner and effective instruction. Don't be cheap and buy good stuff!

After a great deal of struggling to "Get It" I realized that this mediocre dance teacher had very little to offer.

Having learned dances from other instructor's tapes I naively expected them al to be of professional quality. Not so with Mr. Webb and his wife. What a disappointment. . .

Not only is Mr. Webb a poor teacher, but he and his wife appear more to be beginners than polished pros. Examples:

1. Neither looks nor dresses like dancers.
2. Kyle's breathing is labored and is uncomfortable to listen to while he is intructing.
3. The music is inappropriate for the latin dances (more like country/western).
4. The Webbs are both stiff and seem quite ill at ease.
5. The sequences where they show a group of about 12 of what we assume to be their students doing a particular dance, are painful, although some of them seem more graceful than the Webbs -- and that doesn't say much since the whole crowd looks like they were scooped up from the local road house on a Saturday night. In fact, a few of the men seem to be on a "work release program" just to be in the video.

I know these are harsh criticisms. But if I can save you the time and money by avoiding these 3rd rate tapes, my contribution to world of dance will not have been in vain.

A. Are these smooth dancers? Not really. Competent, but stiff.with limited steps covered in 3 tapes Kule does teach you clearly. some moves. I got their $5.Wedding tape, & found several steps duplicated in this set. After 3 hrs, I did find 3 variations we could use.

B. Invest in the Astair, A.Murray or Pozo dance tapes instead!

C. Some of the group dancers were smoother than Susan, she needs to get some smooth dance coaching. Also I found using the same music for Rhumba, ChaCha & Waltz not appropriate.

D. On tape three I found some clothes changes,and many session breaks were copied repeatedly rather than catch different camera dance demos, or better dance tempos.

E. Suggest Kyle enhance his dress & act as other Pro male instructors, rather than a casual local guy.

F. As the "Amazon" No-NO Reviewer notes: Cheap tapes reflect the instruction quality + the lack of teaching skills. Waltz was ok, but everybody moved stiff and without passion for dance...

F. For the VHS price, it's OK, but one would get much more by taking (2) 1-hr sessions at your local dance studio or SR.Center

This product is of good quality and represents a wonderful value. Instruction is excellent. I would highly recommend these programs to anyone. Other dance instructional programs do not compare to the contents of these.

Kyle Webb is an excellant instructor, and this tape is well worth the money. I just wish he had more instructional tapes out with different dances.

We've bought several dance tapes, but the best dance tapes to learn by are Kyle and Susan Webb's. They far exceed all others with their method for teaching those of us that have problems catching on the first time. We purchased Kyle and Susan's Swing Tapes as well, and are very pleased with those. We've even had other dancers ask where we took our dance lessons. It made us feel good that someone noticed.
I would like to find where I could purchase the music provided by the Catillacs. We like it, and would like to use it for practicing without the tapes. Can someone help me out on that?