Customer Reviews

Bella Dancerella Home Ballet Studio with DVD

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My 4 year old recieved this for her birthday last week and I must say, the video is a bit corney from an adults view but for a 4 year old is was entertaining enough to hold her attention for the 30 minutes, as for the bar and the mat they did not match up for some reason, maybe they had a design change and did not completely change everything in the package, the bar on the dvd does look different from the one in the box, my daughter did enjoy the dvd, it covered ONLY the 5 basic ballet positions and nothing really else ballet related, but all in all it was cute and I would recommend it for at home fun and not instead of having your child go to a REAL dance studio for lessons...

Do you ever see attrociously wealthy people with absolutely no taste or class and wonder how they got rich? They come up with an idea like this.

This set should be about half the price it is, and it would still be making everyone involved rich at that price.

The children and teenaged instructor (complete with awkward braces and a "leotard" right out of a 70s latin children's show) all wear permanent, pained and forced "smiles" that look more like grimmaces of pain throughout the video, nodding their heads enthusiastically. "Barney Kids" look more convincing in their forced good cheer. I imagine the kids received a one time, small payment for their efforts in this video, and the promise that it would be their foot in the door for future acting and dancing roles on their rise to fame and fortune. I can just imagine the "instructor" showing the Bella Dancerella DVD as part of her portfolio in several years as she tries to "break through".

Be warned, the *music* is among the worst children's Ear-Worms I've heard recently. It is some acid-house beat/rave euro-club remix pseudo-style, complete with a voice-box reverb over the girl's singing, and endlessly electronically repetitive. There are breaks from this torture for unintelligble dialog, mostly between the instructor and a puppet monkey or two giant dancing stuffed teddy bears dressed as German children.

The kit itself consists of a pair of *flimsy* fake ballerina slippers, a balance bar that is basically purple and pink snap-together PVC pipe, and a vinyl "dance mat" about 2 feet across and 7 feet long that has ballet "steps" laid out on it, plus the 30 minute long DVD of ultimate parental torture (which has the look and production feel of a 30 minute Mentos commercial).

If it had included a TuTu as well, or a coupon for a TuTu (with size considerations, I suppose it wouldn't be practical to include this), it would have been a decent value. But the Tutu is extra.

The packaging is snazzy and has high production value. It is the contents that don't live up to parental expectations.

As the young reviewer above pointed out, (and this thought had already crossed my mind), what your kid learns here is pretty minimal and likely to be useless in a formal ballerina studio. They teach 7 basic moves, repeated twice, for "14" total steps. There are some things implied, like the importance of form in straight arms and legs (something which a kid is unlikely to pick up, so this isn't a baby-sitter; you should be there encouraging your kid and offering advice, and, of course, suffering with the knowledge that you PAID for this torture). This is really geared toward the 3-7 year old range, depending on how sophisticated your daughter is. If a kid can realize, "The video made me stupid and what I learned was useless when I went to real lessons", that pretty much says it all about the age-range this thing is appropriate for. If your kid is catching on about Santa and the Easter Bunny, she is too old for this.

In all fairness, my daughter loves it. It was, to my dismay, the LAST thing she wanted to see last night before bed and the FIRST thing she wanted to see this morning when she woke. That will probably continue for a few days at least. They also cover all the bases in "teaching proper moral and athletic character".

"Practice, practice, practice every day", and...

"It doesn't matter how good you are, as long as you keep trying," and...

all the other important basics. Do your warm up stretches, eat your fruits and vegetables... don't sell your kid's soul to the producer of a cheap instructional dancing video in your desperate attempts to seek fame and wealth through your child's questionable talents...

(Ok... so the LAST one isn't REALLY mentioned... it is only implied)...

It is durable, simply because there isn't anything TO it. A mat, a DVD or VHS tape, a balance bar and some slippers. It might be MORE fun for the kids, but I rated it lower because it is so NOT fun for the grown-ups. I'm giving it a generous rating on educational value, simply because they do cover all their bases. If you are talking educational value *simply* as a ballerina dancing instructional video, the rating would be lower.

Remember in the old Loony Toon cartoons, when Bugs or Porky would do something stupid, and their head would turn into a Donkey or a Sucker for a second? That is how I felt buying this, and also when my daughter opened it and I saw what was in it, and the first time I heard it playing, and every time she has watched it since. Maybe I just resent that *I* didn't come up with this perfectly legal and legitimate way to extort money from parents.

But again, my 3 year old loves it. I'd buy it again, simply for that reason.

We bought this toy for our daughters 3rd birthday. She LOVES LOVES LOVES it. The movie is kind of annoying and low quality, but I hear the family put it out on their own w/out the help of a "big toy company". Either way, my daughter loves it and watches it over and over and over. She sets the bar and mat up her self, it's very light weight. Although she can't fallow the steps perfecty, she does watch it and try to move her arms and legs like the little girls on TV. It's really cute. I didn't buy the 17.00 bella matching tutu. I went to target and got one for less then 10$. Ye-ay me!

My 4 year old wakes up every morning asking for Bella. SHe is now Bella obsessed! She runs to her room and puts on her tutu and slippers and dances through the whole video. She has learned that there are 5 positions and while the video is on she tries to do them all. Even when the dvd is not on she uses the barre and mat to practice. This is such a hit in my house that I'd recommend it to any girl who loves to dress up and dance around the room. Its much better than watching all the junk thats on cable - plus she is active for the 30 minutes instead of vegging. For those whose dvd's came broken - I can't see how you can judge a toy's fun value based on that. And for those who say the dvd and bella are cheesy - I actually agree but since my daughter loves it so much I can't really judge it on that...

My little 3 year old just loves this. It started her love for dance in general. She can dance for hours to this - though it is not the best quality, it has been the most fun for her. I don't think she will become a great dancer just from this one product, but it was a great introduction and it keeps her entertained.

This was a hot toy for xmas 2004. My parents went through hoops getting this for my 5 year old "ballerina". I guess the bar and pad were sturdy enough but the movie was terrible. Very poor quality (you think they could have done better for the money) and didn't hold my 5 year old's attention even through the first sitting. She has NEVER asked to see it again. (This is the same girl that has watched every Barbie movie 20 times!) I didn't want to sit thru the movie either - horrible sound and weird costumed people bouncing around (after a lot of talking). Bad.

This movie teaches the basic ballet steps with the use of a mat. Although it is a little slow in the beginning, once the dancing starts my daughter is hooked. We started with with a VHS and had to buy a dvd because we played the video so much.

My daughter received Bella Dancerella for her 7th birthday. It covers the basics well and what mattered most was that my daughter enjoyed it. If you want to learn advanced ballet, this dvd won't show you much. The video is a little funky and annoying to me but again, the kids like it. Even her 4 year old sister was doing it alongside of her. The bar isn't very sturdy but it's not meant to bear weight just aid in balance. I like that it's lightweight and can be taken apart to be put away.

For my daughter Julia's fifth birthday I was pleased to have something to suggest to my mother to give to her. Thought Julia would love this, she goes to a weekly dance class. Had heard of it at Christmas time. I also read some positive reviews about it. We opened it up and tried it. The

dvd does have a long introduction and there's not really much to the whole thing. It was too fast for her to follow and she lost interest. She put it on again in the morning herself and told me she wanted to return it. There are just two songs and only the five steps are taught by a sort of annoying host, pretty much a rip off for the price. So, we returned it tonight and for the same price she got 3 toys she's very happy with. All kids are different and the great thing is you can always bring things back.

I personally didnt expect much, it is a toy after all, but my 6.5 year old daughter apparently did. She requested the toy for christmas, and my parents gladly indulged her. I think because she is desperate to learn how to dance, she thought she'd be able to do more ballet with it. The video moved too quickly, and she quickly became very frustrated and began to cry. In the movie's defense, she's a perfectionist who expects to do everything 100% correctly the first time.

I did find the video to be a bit cheezy. But then again, most kid videos are pretty tacky. I do wish it had put more effort into making up more of a routine for them to follow, even if it wasnt exactly "proper" ballet. Something to play along with. It was predominantly like any other video, mostly passive watching.

Despite her frustration over the ten minutes of instruction on the mat and barre, she did watch the video anyway, after I told her maybe if she viewed it a few times she'd get better at it. I suppose it is geared to meet the middle age of the 3-8 years which is perhaps why it has so little interaction and more viewing. A smaller child would have trouble keeping their attention span to anything more than that, I suppose. Mostly, when buying this toy, realize that is exactly what it is, a toy, and nothing more.

Lastly, my daughter also received a "costume" to wear that had the bella dancerella trademark on it. Sadly, it does not fit. It would fit her younger sister easily, which is understandable since she is three, and still wears 2T clothing. However the packaging says "3-8 years of age." I think, at least, there should be a more narrow age range on the package since that is what my mother based her decision to buy the costume on. My six year old is quite skinny (her pants fall off all the time) because she eats like a bird. Its not as if she's abnormal in size for her age. There just wasnt enough length in the bodice of the tutu and the slippers were way too small. It isnt a big deal to us, as she has more than her fair share of tutus and ballerina costumes that do fit. It was more of a disappointment and thought it would be helpful to another parent to realize the costume is designed to fit a 3-4 year old.