Customer Reviews

The Art of Belly Dancing Kit (DVD, CD, Book, Belly Jewel, Finger Cymbals)

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

 

 

When I dropped into the Fat Chance Belly Dance studio the other day to purchase the tribal basics vol. one DVD I ran into Carolena (the author, and founder of FCBD) who recommended something else for a beginning student and I'm really glad she did. "The Art of Belly Dancing Kit" is a great resource as it is a combo of instruction from the tribal basics, zilling and advanced technique (I believe) DVD's by Fat Chance at a fraction of the cost!

My favorite part of the kit is wonderful music CD to practice with which included sections of fast, slow and varying tempo music. (about 13-15 tracks if memory serves). It's raw drum and instrumental music- the real deal. The CD alone is worth 15 bucks in my opinion, and seems to be a lot of the music we have used in class at FCBD.

The DVD quality is ok as it is taken from instructional DVD's recorded previously but the lessons are good and cover a lot.

The Book is well written and inspirational. The glossy color photos are helpful to break down the steps and the descriptions (full of helpful visualizations) are concise. The spiral binding is nice so it lays flat to practice with.

Don't let the cheesy zils (use them as decoration on a costume and buy some real ones) and belly jewels peeking out from the cover fool you. The cd, dvd and book and AMAZING and a great review/introduction into Fat Chance ATS at a small price.

I agree 4.5 stars if it would let me!

This is a very neat little kit: glossy, colorful book with detailed text that lays flat (spiral bound, like a notebook); instructional DVD; CD; stick-on jewel; and cymbals.

I never tried the cymbals because I have my own and I couldn't care less about a stick-on jewel, but the CD!! The music is absolutely fantastic. It's organic, earthy, real and so powerful.

The book is clear and the DVD is fine. My only complaint with it is that it seems overly long. I guess if you were to look at it as a class, where you learn something new and linear over time, it wouldn't be so bad. Frankly, it's hard to make a good belly dance instruction DVD, and this one definitely tries. It ends with a performance by FatChanceBellyDance which is very interesting (although I thought that it, too, was a bit long).

This comes in a complete package which you could keep or give as a gift. It's really not expensive, and really worth the money.

(I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could, but the menu won't let me).

I'm not a natural dancer, so I need clear instructions. I thought this DVD would provide them, but it does not. Merely seeing the dancers execute perfect muscle movements with vague verbal descriptions is insufficient, since the muscle movements in belly dancing are so subtle.

This DVD could use some basic special effects. For example, the basic belly dance move ("the taxeem"), according to the DVD, involves "a lateral figure-8 traveling through the hips." I can't visualize how this works, nor see it on the dancers. If the DVD could overlay a computer-drawn figure 8 over the dancer's body so you could see what the hips are doing, that would be helpful.

I do not recommend this DVD if you need clear instructions.

Pros:
+ Good demonstration of steps and movements on DVD
+ Excellent verbal explanation
+ Beautiful music on the CD
+ Really positive commentary about women and bellydance in the book
+ Nice step-by-step pictures in the book
+ Excellent explanation of how to use the cymbals

Cons:
- You do not learn a dance, just individual steps

The con is what knocked this down to 3 stars. As a demonstration of bellydance, it is fabulous. As a workout, just doing the steps one after another gets boring. You are left on your own to bridge the gap between steps and the dance and basically must come up with the choreography on your own. As a beginner, I don't feel confident enough to be able to do that.

Certainly they demonstrate beautiful entire dances; but with the turns, long skirts, and more advanced movements that weren't taught, it is just about impossible to follow along.

Still, this is a well-packaged fun little kit and the educational aspect of it made me really interested in learning more about the art of bellydance.

I am extremely disappointed with the package that I received. It was not the entire kit at all, but only 2 portions of it. (A book, and a music CD.) I was MISSING the instructional DVD (which was the purpose of buying the item) and the Finger Cymbals and Belly Jewel.
When I figure out exactly where I ordered it from, I'll be sure to write a bad review there as well as it was very disappointing to order something that I was so keen to receive, only for it to be incomplete. Used or not, it turned out to be false advertising.

If you want to see what Tribal style Bellydance is all about- buy this book! The wonderful lady that created this style wrote it, dances in the DVD and put together music for you to practice with. I use it to supplement the class i take that only meets once a week. It's an excellent way to get extra practice in and refine movements that are basic to this form of dance. It's out of print, so you have to find it for re-sale. It's worth snatching up when you come across it, especially if the CD and DVD are availble with the book. Happy Dancing!

DVD is organized well for studying Ms. Nericcio's "organic" style of teaching. Students should expect to replay sections often, sometimes just observing the subtlety of the movement before practicing.

I received exactly what I ordered in the condition that the sellar stated the product would be in. Can't say that I am overly happy with the shipping process. But the sellar has not control over that.