Customer Reviews

Gumboots: Various

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

DVDs range in quality (not of the material on the DVD, but the quality of the DVD itself) from a low of Kurosawa's wonderful movie Ran, with its' unwatchable color smears and ghosting, to this DVD which has the sharpest images and best production values I've ever seen. The extra material on the DVD is wonderful and the Gumboots show itself are awesome. Think a South African Stomp. If you love dance and harmonizing music, you really owe it to yourself to check this out.

I bought this DVD sometime ago, but forgot about it until I discovered it just sitting there among my DVD collection. I watched it and bwoy! was I taken away or what? Being originally from Southern Africa brought back many memories as we used to grow up listening and mimicking Gumboot dancing. This is a must-see DVD and the dancing, choreography and music has been excently put together to bring this explosion of energy and power! Makes you feel like you are actually there....

Words simply cannot describe what is contained on this DVD! We bought the VHS version and played it every night for a week and just ordered the DVD tonight. If you have ever seen a Black Greek stepshow, this is like the championship level with gospel harmonies mixed in. It is awesome! A must see, over and over and over.....

I just saw Gumboots live last night. It was fantastic. What Riverdance is to Ireland, Gumboots is to South Africa. If you enjoy dancing and singing you will enjoy this DVD. There is even a little light humor. Very energetic.

Though Portugal being a colonial country untill the coup d'état in 1974, very little of the african culture was available to the commmon Portuguese. The Gumboots are a strong doccument with an important impact, knowing that among the black workers on the gold mines, were many citizens of Mozambique. It is music, dance, traditions and History.

The performances are simply amazing. The music is wonderful. The dancing energetic and perfectly in rhythm. Highly recommended for anyone who loves the variety our world cultures can offer!

They tell you the story of the gold miners in South Africa with a beautifull smile and fantastic combination of voices.

I like the fact that there was the background story with the performance. Great. Educational and entertaining at the same time.

I bought this vidoe out of curiosity, and needless to say it wasn't what I expected. I purchased the video based on the reviews that I read. I guess what is considered good to some people might not be considered good to the next.
If you are a college student or a former college student and you like stomp copetitions or greek shows, then this video might be the video for you. That's basically what it is, stomp dancing.
The singing and dancing to me was really boring, but that is just my opinion.
The best part about the tape is the commontary at the end, when dancers are interviewed, and they tell thier life story and how they got involved in stomp dancing....It's really interesting how they explain how stomping was developed in the gold mines in Africa as a way of communicating. Miners wasn't allowed to talk, so stomping patterns was developed as a way of talking. Rubber boots stomping in water. And some of the old footage of stomping in the video is pretty good too.
Well, I voiced my opinion of what I think about the tape, now it's up to the buyer to decide if he or she wants to purchase the tape or DVD.