Customer Reviews

Egyptian Belly Dancing with Hilary Thacker

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

 

 

This video is not worth the money. Maybe for 1/3 the price it would be. Yes, she does teach you some moves, which she does spend a good amount of time on, but they are VERY basic. However, it is very difficult to understand her! The sound is atrocious, you can barely hear her, and if you can hear her, you sometimes have to struggle to understand because of her british accent. On top of this who would choose a black costume, with a (very) dark gray background? It makes it more difficult to see her moves very well.

For someone like myself who is a complete beginner when it comes to belly dancing, I found Hilary's video both instructive and informative. Having her introduce the different movements one by one enabled me to get a feel for the whole dance form, and gradually, through practice, to be able to put the movements together and begin to improvise.

Although the sound quality was slightly muffled, this was no problem when the volume was turned up. I had no trouble in picking up what she was trying to convey.

She goes to a lot of trouble to introduce quite a number of basic moves that could be likened to the ABC of belly dancing. Once these are mastered, it is then easier to join them together into whole sequences of movement. Teaching in this way seems to be a very sensible approach to the whole subject. I would recommend this video to anyone who is also a complete beginner and wishes to start from scratch.

I'm a teacher of belly dance, and I do recommend this video to my students. The beginner to improver level students who have bought it have all been appreciative. It is much better than many other belly dance instruction videos.

The previous reviewer is right, of course: the movements she teachers are basic. But what does she expect from a BEGINNERS video? This is volume one in a series of three: 1. Beginners, 2. Intermediate, 3. Advanced. Is it possible that the reviewer missed that basic point?

Hilary gives solid tuition on basic movements. My only criticism is that she should have spent more time on each move, allowing the viewers to practice with her, without having to rewind every few seconds.

I agree that a black costume against a dark backdrop is not ideal.

But why the complaint about her British accept? Hilary is British (she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland), so why should she speak like am American?

Of course, if you specifically want an 'American Belly Dance' video with an authentic Los Angeles accent, then I wouldn't recommend Hilary's series either. And if you want an intermediate or advanced video, then go and buy Volume 2 or 3.

Almeh Amira (Christine Hall), England.

The problem for many of us around the world is that there aren't enough dance instruction videos available in PAL format. Many of the videos featured on this and other websites sound absolutely wonderful but unless they are in PAL format they are no use to us. Of those that are available in PAL, this is one of the best I've seen, I would recommend it to beginners and have heard many beginners in the UK and Australia praise it highly. This isn't to say that some of the criticisms are not justified. I don't think the colour of Hilary's skirt is so much a problem as the fact that she is wearing a skirt at all making it impossible to see what her legs are doing. The sound quality is poor and the background music too loud making it difficult sometimes to hear what she is saying though ultimately I don't think I missed anything. As for her accent, I can appreciate that anyone who is not used to hearing English spoken as clearly and concisely as Hilary does may have trouble understanding her just as I sometimes have trouble understanding Americans (so maybe all those great sounding videos wouldn't be much use to me after all).

I am not going to say much about Mrs Thacker tuition in this video. Unfortunately, the poor quality of this video makes it very hard to appreciate it at all. It is not a matter of accents, but a matter of the sound being absolute awful. I've worked in a tv station for several years and a tape like this one would never be broadcast. You can tell there was absolutely no audio posproduction, so any important information just gets lost, which is right against the idea of a tuition video. The video is also not very well lit and it's hard to follow the moves. As I said, I am not complaining about Mrs Thacker exercises or accent, just about the huge flaws that make this tape a bad buy. I hope she can find someone to produce a better video for her in the future.

I found that this video was an excellent introduction to the basic moves in belly dance and is ideal for a beginner. The steps are clearly explained and all it covers all the building blocks to allow you to start making up your own dances or improvising. I enjoyed the music and found the setting very evocative. I have spoken to quite a few beginners and they all recommended this video. I certainly didn't have any problems with the sound quality, but then I've just got a new TV and video so maybe that's way. I think that comments about this video being too basic and about the instructor's accent are unfair, it is aimed at those who have never belly danced before and it is refreshing to have commentary without an American accent, as it highlights to true international nature of belly dancing today. I would thoroughly recommend this video to those who want to something to get them started on the basics of belly dance.

I found this tape to be of very poor quality. It was dark, the quality of this Belly Dancing Tape is bad and has nothing to do with American or other accent. At least if it were the accent you could turn down the volume. As it is, you'd have to turn the TV off! The instruction is lacking. Its a lousy vhs, save your money.

I don't recommend.