Customer Reviews

Bellydance Performance Ensemble with Suhaila

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

You either love Suhaila or you hate her. I love the excess drama she puts into her performances, and her quirky take on a traditional dance. Also her little girl is sooooooo adorable!!! i would have added an extra star for her if i could.
If you have bad eyesight, the setting might be a bit cluttered & if you detest fusion then this DVD is not for you. For bellydance performance in general, if close ups bother you or you don't like skant outfits, my advice is to be mature and watch it for the fab dancing =-)

This DVD is a treasure for anybody looking for the pleasure of just watching the dance. I love belly dancing but am not educated about it, so I'm not competent to critique the performances. But I know that magic belly dance moment when the performance just grabs you and you sit there entranced. And that is the rare accomplishment of this DVD.

For one thing, the sets are clear of distractions and you can focus on the dancers. Most important, the camera doesn't move around as though the cameraman was jacked up on caffeine. The magic of belly dancing is in the small, subtle movements, and you can't appreciate them if you're not sitting still. Nothing is more annoying than to be engrossed in the performance of your hands-down favorite dancer when suddenly the cameraman decides to take a walk and the next thing you know a candle is in the way or maybe some guy is standing there playing a violin.

Most of the dancing in this DVD has that genuine belly dance mysteriousness and not the modern look - that "thin girls hopping around doing jazzercise" look. I don't know enough about belly dance to know what the moves are called, but whatever they are, these dancers do them. There is a bit of the modern look to some of the performances, but fortunately not very much. That mysterious kind of belly dance has you thinking, "How can any human being do that?" Belly dancers don't walk, they float. They can even sit on their heals and float around in circles across the floor. The things they do with their bellies and hips you can't even describe to somebody who has never seen it. They're like magicians who have power to do impossible things, but power over you as well. And when you're captured in that magic moment and you're completely entranced, you're thinking, "She's not human. She's a genie somebody let out of a bottle."

The sword dance alone is worth the price of this DVD. The dancers are beautiful, the ensembles are so smooth and effortless, and then there is one overpowering performance after another by Suhaila Salimpour. There is no point even trying to describe with words what her dancing is like. I'm willing to concede that the other dancers might be human after all, but Suhaila is a genie. You can't fool me.

I have just received my copy of Bellydance performance and must say that i am very impressed.

I will touch on three topics, environment, quality and the dances themselves.

First the video is set in a large space decorated with different platforms, large curtains, arched doorways candles plants and flowers. The space is very clean, the hard wood floor looks newly finished. Not only a very professional looking environment but also very beautiful. They have also had some fun with the lighting which is overall soft and dim (but not to dark). They have a light on the ceiling which casts beautiful patterns of light and shadow on the dance floor and dancers. The tones are very warm and sensual.

The quality of the video is excellent. The camera is stable and the focus is sharp and clean. The camera man changes his view point occasionally which can make it difficult if you are trying to follow along, but from a visual and video point of view it is well done and focuses on certain features of the dances beautifully.

The music its self is not always standard bellydance music which i found "weird" to begin with but warmed to afterward. Parts of the music seem much more modern while other pieces are the songs we all know and love. In one dance the dancer create the music with finger symbols only. The quality of the sound is very clean you can turn the volume very high without noticing any real distortion.

The Choreographys themselves are delightful to watch. I have seen many amateur bellydance performances and was tired of the same old act but this has renewed by interest in bellydancing as a true art form. The dances mix more traditional moves with more modern jazz moves. I find some of the moves to be less "pretty" or "feminine" than the traditional moves but can see the interest in them the same. One of the dances is comprised almost entirely of acrobatics which seems a little off topic but interesting to watch anyway.

If you are an intermediate dancer and want something challenging to follow this video could definitely hold your interest. Just be sure that you can follow fast changes in movements, if not you will definitely become frustrated. If you can however there are many new moves to learn and you will have a good work out. It all seems fast and overwhelming at first but you begin to recognize the new moves after the second time watching. You won't become bored after the first time you play the video for sure.

I don't perform or practice belly dancing therefore this review is not for girls who wanna learn from the dancers or practice belly dancing. I enjoy observing it in many ways (depending on the mood and performance). What's perfect in any belly dance dvd is that the buyer can watch it mulituple times without being bored (unlike movies and shows). This dvd is by far the best performance DVD up till now I don't think there will be a better DVD.Unless if Suhaila or some one with similar creativity was behind it.
What's special:
1)it displays group performances (most belly dance DVDs contain solos) u watch almost 10 different beautiful dancers at the same time performing planned systematic choreagrophies. What could be better than that?
2)Suhaila's innovation: It's simple,suhaila basically combined the beauty of belly dance with other styles (I think it's jazz,etc) and came up with new creative dances. Specially in the dance where she wears a unique brown outfit I have never watched any belly dance performance like it (even though I am an arab!!!). It's ahead of our time!!
3)Typical cabare egyption style at its best by a performer who truly understands that style (many egyption dancers nowadays suck when they perform it) yet this non-egyption artist excelled.
4)non-traditional performances (pots,swords,jeans,etc).
5)the music is purely arabc in fact it's chosen from our best classics ex: um kolthoom's alf leela wa leela. I wish they included the lyrics of that song, well u might not understand it but for me i would have enjoyed the beauty of the dancers' physique and perfomance combined with the best feminine singing voice of all time plus the astonishing lyrics of alf leela wa leela.
6)the solo performance performed by the last belly dancer who -in my opnion- has the strongest stamina and flexbility amongst all nowadays' belly dancers including the past dancers (taheya kareyoka fefe abdo nadia jamal and nelly and sherehan samara,etc)
7)a dancer combined belly dancing with gymnastics and came up with some thing new and interesting I liked the desgin of her outfit (it was smart) I mean enables her to do the flexible moves of gymnastics and at the same time has an arabic or oriental theme.
8) I was exposed to a new style I mean it has roots from the past but i never watched that style performed but I can tell from the moves that it's original three belly dancers performed with veils (yet those viels where attached to the outfit the dancers didn't hold them I find that very smart) and of course the background was um kolthoom's alf leela wa leela. I am guessing that that style was perfomed in the andalus (part of the islamic empire in spain's land in the past) to entertain princes and kings. I am sure that style was the dominant dance style in the islamic palaces in the past when the islamic union was weak and was about to collapse (islam has nothing to do with belly dance and it's against it if it was performed in public or NOT performed by a female to her husband or NOT to an audience of females and i agree but i watch it for fun and i know that what i'm doing is wrong but it's not a catastrophy) . It's a one of a kind and the second best performance in the dvd (in my opinion) and I am positive about the origin of that performance...I can tell.

the only downfall:
It wasn't mentioned that a young girl would perform. I think she's suhaila's daughter well it's cute to see a little kid dance but the child's performance is in the wrong place. I mean I wish if this performance was replaced by another style combination by suhaila however it's not considered a downfall rather than a segment that was out of context.

If you purchased Belly dance divas and/or belly dance superstars buy this dvd without hesitation it's a zillion times better.

I just finished watching this DVD for the first time and thought it had something to offer for both viewing enjoyment and also for dance move planning for beginning dancers to very advanced dancers. I have been Belly Dancing for a short while and found moves in the dance the three women in Blue and Lavender were doing that I could incorporate myself should I so chose. I enjoyed the music as I love the Tabla. Suhaila is very creative and innovative with her incorporation of the more modern Jazz and the very Traditional Belly Dance moves in the same dance. She dances with much feeling and joy. She is very seductive herself and is in great shape. She is not a real young woman as someone mentioned in another review that all of the dancers were. She has just kept herself in wonderful shape! She should be admired as creative person and a woman to look up to as a goddess image. Also, if you look closely, her troupe had small differences of personal choice in costume, so whomever made the remark of all the outfits were exactly the same and were dull, just was not very observant. Anyway, I thought the DVD was both entertaining and informational. It was nice listening too.
Badra

... there seems to be something "off" about the sound on two performances. One is the jazz fusion number Suhaila does with her troupe. On the Bellydance Fitness Fusion Jazz DVD, this performance is shown with just the percussion as background. On this DVD, there is a melody overlaid that does not quite seem to fit in several places. On the other hand, there is a solo number Suhaila does in an orange and red outfit that has only percussion, but on the Fitness Fusion set (I forget which specific DVD), it has a melody that fills it out much more nicely.

Other than that, it is a really great compilation of performances, and definitely worth purchasing even if you already have the Fitness Fusion series, and therefore have 8 of the performances already.

Suhaila's dancing is very different, and always interesting. Some of it I like, some I don't, but never boring to watch.
The one thing I did not like about this DVD was the lighting, during group numbers there was some partial lighting, and when the dancers were in the shadows you could barely see what they were doing! The solos were much better lit and I loved the little girl's solo. The dance setting was very professional and interesting, too bad I couldn't see all of the dancing because of the shadows.

Returning to bellydance after a number of years, I was thrilled to discover a number of DVDs available, and the most thrilling of the group was 2004's Bellydance Superstars. While there were a number of performers who captured my imagination, Suhaila was by far my favorite on the video - I have watched the violin solo piece over and over.

"Bellydance Performance Ensemble with Suhaila" is extremely disappointing. Tedious dancers - I actually fast forwarded through a number of the routines, including one of Suhaila's. Although I only paid $5.99 on Amazon, I feel it was a waste of money as this DVD is simply not watchable again.

I'm really glad Natural Journeys was distributing bellydance videos - when I first returned to dance they were some of the select few dance technique videos available at Barnes & Noble/Borders (other than Dolphina - don't get me started). However, I doubt I will ever watch Rania, the Belly Twins, or Suhaila (on this label anyway)ever again. I certainly won't buy anything Bellydance from Natural Journeys, the videos are shallow and common, very little art or emotion.

I'm more of a technique video collector, but my performance recommendations are:

for "real" performance try By Dancers For Dancers Vol 4: Belly Dance Performances or some of the pricey videos from The International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance

for fantasy, or studio performance: any of the Bellydance Superstar performance videos, although none are quite as good as the first, or try something from World Dance New York, for example The Golden Apple: Bellydance Stars of New York (belly dance performances) or Gothic Bellydance - Revelations

This video was extremely disappointing, because it is merely a video of pretty girls dressed very pretty and acting pretty! There is no good authentic music, and no genuine realistic bellydancing that should include a lot of the bellydancing movements with variations. This is just the same music and movements over and over again, awful!!!

I agree with the good and bad that has been written abou this dvd so far:

GREAT professional non-annoying, almost instinctual camera work.

Lighting is at times dark, but not by accident, but for mood, obviously. Dancers do have shadows falling across their bodies but it creates the atmosphere of a club setting and intimacy to me, personally. I don`t mind a shadow here and there. Very sexy. More like theatre than like an aerobic video lighting.

The diversity is questionable. And the music does get slightly redundent tho the songs do change.

But if you`re a dance lover, you will like this dvd. I do like mine very much. I like it to watch to get ideas for my own dancing. Very cozy. Would be great on a big screen plasma during an eastern-themed cocktail party.. its like that. Very atmospheric.

All in all more than I hoped for. Does have a lot of what I would term modern influence in dance as well as the music at times, tho I would catagorize it absolutely as bellydance and so would the average layperson.

If you are a purist and sensual edge annoys you.. pass this one by. But if you love a little mystery at the price of absolute athenticity.. this dvd is for you.