Product Details

• Actors: Hilary Thacker
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Quantum Leap
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2006
• Run Time: 53 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009P9KQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #659,110 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 40 Minute Beginner Belydance workout w/fluid dancer not for EXTREME newbies, January 13, 2008

By 

Touch Remedy "TouchRemedy" (Nassau, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Egyptian Bellydancing for Beginners (DVD)

Hilary Thacker is from the UK & has of course, a UK accent. This dvd was produced in a tent at a restaurant w/tapestries against the wall & floor & simple urns on either side. Hilary is dressed in a jet black beaded top & skirt & which is a bad choice, you cannot see her knees. She calls shimmies wobbles mostly. The production is low, I agree I have to put the volume up to hear her over the music & still have to strain to make her out. The music is always playing & it is wonderful Middle Eastern choices. This helps make the dvd more fun, at one oint, you can hardly hear it & I got bored REAL fast. Each section show a nice b&w photo of a belly dancer. There are no chapter choices. Extras are trailers of her performances (some are very fluid, some stiff), text origions of belly dancing, vintage belly dancing photos,
Hilary's style of teaching is to the point, she does it slow a few times & builds it up & then you practice with her a good amount of time, about the same as any other dance fitness workout dvd. I commend her on doing that, although her delivery & choice of words are lacking & extreme newbies might get lost with her. Those, like me, who think going 1/2 speed is the most important, will be able to follow pretty easily. The lack of warnings about poor muscle use, etc. like the Neena & Veena - bellytwins, Suhaila, Neon, Jillina, Jenna, etc. do is wrong.
Moves she goes over: hip circle, horizontal figure 8s, hip drops, Egyptian walk, hip bumps, hip & shoulder shimmies, hip twist, fluid hands/arms, snake arms, hands & camel walk. The last 10 min is a lot of veil work. Dancing around it, behind the head, in front, butterfly arms, everything most other teach & then some.
I'd say having the music playing throughout was a huge help, her patience & doing everything many times is great, but the sound was off, her teaching could be better.

Her website is hilarysbazaar com says: Her intermediate has a number of exciting variations of the beautiful Baladi folk style and how to dance with a stick & includes class scenes. The advanced has Hilary explores four rhythms, first with as a drum solo & then set to music & there is also some beginners finger cymbal instruction.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth buying!!!!, August 30, 2007

By 

D. Williams (St. Louis, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Egyptian Bellydancing for Beginners (DVD)

This DVD is not worth the money. First, the release date on amazon is 2006 but on the actual DVD it says 2003, you can see that it is not up to date. The sound quality is not good at all, I turned up my TV almost full blast and still has a hard time understanding what she was saying. Also, the instructor is not very clear and she only does the moves once, so it is very hard to catch on. It actually gets alittle boring after about 4 moves are done. I was expecting something alitle more upbeat and fun but this is not. I paid 12 dollars for mine and i don't think it was even worth that amount of money.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So many things wrong..., January 18, 2011

By 

E. L. White "member of the 3AM Zill Brigade" (New England, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Egyptian Bellydancing for Beginners (DVD)

I usually list all the positives first, but I can't think of anything positive to say about this video except that you can view it as a watch it now on Netflix. If you don't believe me, go see it yourself. The video quality is very poor. Looks like it was filmed in someone's dark basement with a cheap camera and a boom box. I could forgive that a little if the content was good. It's not. The dancer has poor technique, poor posture, a weird face, bad arms and hands, and cheep costumes. Her performance pieces looked like a student dancing. This person should not be teaching.