Customer Reviews

Bella Dancerella - Home Ballet Studio Swan Lake DVD

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

 

 

Let me first say that this product is listed for almost $80 and I bought it for under $20 at a discount retail and clothing store. I suggest you look for a better price elsewhere. That being said... buy it, it's great!

We bought this for our 3 year old daughter (who loves to wear her tutu everywhere), despite some not so shining reviews. She absolutely loves it. She wants to watch again and again everyday. It is very engaging for a little girl just starting to dance. However, I think a little girl who has been taking lessons for a while would not get a lot out of it.

The video does its job of being a FUN and visually appealing intro to ballet with upbeat music, positive reinforcement and a pleasant teacher (Bella). There are probably more thorough instructional ballet videos out there. If you want more serious instruction this might not be what you are looking for.

The video is sectioned into segments of warm up, ballet basics (Plié,Port de bras, Relevé,etc.), ballet lesson (foot positions and twirling), "Bellamotions" (face, body language & dancing using emotion including "happy", "sad" and "angry"), "Curtsy"ing and a Swan Lake dance finale. The finale is set on real theatre style set and the the ballerinas wear pretty Swan Lake style tutus. The entire video is produced very well on very nice sets.

In addition, the teacher emphasizes that you need to "practice, practice, practice" and "practice makes your good better, and you better best". My daughter was repeating these phrases herself. The progression of the video shows the girls practicing in leotards and ending up on stage in beautiful tutus, showing that hard work leads to rewards. A valuable lessons for all ages.

The ballet barre is more of a prop than a "real" barre but my daughter likes it and can move it around easily (as they do in the video)and the mat gets a little wrinkled (not too bad), but again she like it and can unroll it and set it up herself.

Overall, this product does it job to get a beginner dancer interested and makes dancing FUN.

My four year old daughter loves this dance video and mat. She really tries to put her feet in the right spots and loves to play with the bar.

I realy recommend this for any girl who likes to dance and is between the age of 3-5, maybe older. My little girl has already learned several dance steps.

Like the other reviewer said, you can get this for around $20. I found mine at Walmart and I have seen them in used clothing stores (kid to kid and such)

Seems like everyone has a different experience with this product. My daughter is 4 and has taken ballet for over a year now. She is very girlie and loves to dress up. This is what she "brings" to the experience. I think the product is cute and the plastic ballet barre is sturdy enough and usuable for a ballerina of her age and experience - meaning she is not doing leg stretches on it; it is for light support while doing pointing. She enjoys the two DVDs that come with it - I find them to be just the right length for a 4 year old's attention (I haven't timed it myself to confirm, but both DVDs say they are each 30 minutes long.) She has enough ballet background to go along with the stretching/positions; the lesson would move too quickly for a child who is using it to learn the positions for the first time. For a child new to ballet, an adult would need to be there to stop the DVD and review each position. The set comes with two DVDs: one (Let's Dance) has Australian actors/puppets with strong accents, especially the puppet monkey. I can barely understand the monkey however I can understand enough to know the monkey is rudely making fun of two giant bears who want to learn ballet - but the overall message is anyone can do ballet and have fun. I don't really like that version b/c of the monkey and its attitude. The second DVD is the Swan Lake one and it includes a short lesson on translating expressions (happy, sad, anger) through dance (which my daughter loves) in addition to covering the positions and creating and performing a simple dance. The DVDs both include warming up via stretching which is great. I think its a good product and she certainly loves it. Don't expect it to be a ballet lesson substitute unless an adult is willing to step in and help, as it moves along quite quickly and obviously cannot correct technique.

My daughter received this for Christmas and it is not worth it. The ballet barre and mat are fine but the DVD is a joke. There is only about 10 minutes of combined stretching and instructed ballet using the mat and barre. The rest is of the cast of the DVD performing ballet (swan lake) in front of an audience. There's no way for the children to follow along when they are performing. The 30 minutes of instructed ballet as advertised is actually only 10 minutes. I'm looking for another instructed ballet DVD to use instead of this one. My daughter loves the mat and barre and I'm sure she'll continue to use them but the DVD that comes with this set is not useful. Also, the mat is not double sided as stated in the description unless they consider one side completely white and one side decorated as double sided.

I bought this used for my 2 1/2 year old daughter since she loves ballet, and even the couple dollars I paid for this was a waste. I was very disappointed with the video - it seems like it's more of a commercial for the Bella Dancerella products than a fun video for young girls. The dancers in the video go way too fast for a non-experienced dancer to follow the moves and by the time a young girl would get the move they have already moved on to the next one. Also the music and "teacher" are very annoying. The dancers and teachers are constantly nodding their heads up and down - I'm not sure why. The video constantly refers to the "Bella way" and even refer to Bella Dancerella in the music.