Product Details

• Actors: Lawrence Ewing, Karin Cochran
• Directors: Carol Teten
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: Dancetime Publications
• DVD Release Date: October 21, 2003
• Run Time: 35 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000U0GQ8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,497 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

"This well-produced and entertaining video is highly recommended."

Product Description

The first volume of How To Dance Through Time leads beginners through the five ballroom dances that were the touchstones of mid-1800s society. Learn couple dances like the Waltz, Galop, Polka, Schottische, and Polka Mazurka; each segment is entertaining and straightforward. Follow along with the instructions, and you ll quickly learn the steps and positions of these basic romantic dances. How to Dance Through Time, Volume I gives clear and repeated how-to instructions to teach viewers the five dances that were essential for anyone attending a mid-19th century ball. These dances drew couples closer together as they spun through Waltzes or chassed down the room in a Galop or Gallop. For the first time, dance partners held each other in a face-to-face embrace as they turned and swirled around the ballroom.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As entertaining as it is instructive, November 19, 2003

By 

F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HOW TO DANCE THROUGH TIME Vol. 1. - The Romance of Mid-19th Century Couple Dances (DVD)

Back inOctober,I reviewed 2 DVDs put out by a dance company called Dance Through Time and gave them the highest praise. Now I am delighted to report that their 6-volume set "How to Dance Through Time" is now available on DVDs.

First the bare facts about the contents of each volume:

Vol 1: The Romance of Mid-19th Century Couple Dances (35 minutes)--Waltz, Galop, Polka, Schottische, Polka Mazurka
Vol 2: Dances of the Ragtime Era: 1910-1920 (50 minutes)--Animal Dances, Castle Walk, Tango, Maxixe, Hesitation Waltz
Vol 3: The Majesty of the Renaissance Dance (42 minutes)--Nido d'Amore
Vol 4: The Elegance of Baroque Social Dance (42 minutes)-Minuet, Allemande, Contredance
Vol 5: Victorian Era Couple Dances (54 minutes)--Waltz, Polka, Galop, Mazurka
Vol 6: A 19th Century Ball: the Charm of Group Dances (48 minutes)--Grande March, Quadrille, Cotillon.
The order in which these should be viewed would be Vol. 3, 4, 1, 5, 6, 2, since that will keep them in chronological order. As it turns out, Vol. 4 takes the dances in Vol. 1 and gives several variations on each.

The organization of the material in each of these sets is first to go over each step of a dance several times in different tempos, from different angles, and with full explanations by the creator and head of the company, Carol Teten. You can watch, then skip back and try the steps yourself as you watch a second time, and over and over until you have it down pat.

Or like myself, who can barely stand upright on a dance floor, you can view it for the pure enjoyment of watching these personable young dancers do their thing. As is rare in videos such as these, the enjoyment level is equal to the instructional content.

At the end of each lesson, in which the dancers are in modified period costumes, the entire sequence is danced again in full costume without any narration. You might want to note down which tracks these sequences occur so you can skip right to them should you wish to show them to friends or replay them for yourself. Or you can use the menu feature to do the same. Except in the first volume, which Ms. Teten admits was pretty experimental, she explains the social structure of the society as it is reflected in each dance and now and then gives us the "sub-text" of the steps-what the dancers are acting out either consciously or subliminally. It is all fascinating stuff.

That this is a low-budget effort is obvious but here less is more, since elaborate scenery would have distracted from the dancing itself. There is a little video distortion for the first minute of Vol. 1 and for a moment in Vol. 3, but these are negligible.

Who MUST have all six volumes? Public libraries, Music and Dance departments in all high schools and colleges, local theatre groups who do "period" plays, any one who loves dance, any one interested in social history, even any one interested in psychology! That does not leave many who would not want copies of this set. Want to try only one for openers? I recommend the most fun filled one, "Dances of the Ragtime Era."

These sets are available on tapes, but that precludes the flexibility you will want to replay specific dances

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How to Dance through Time Vol I, December 18, 2003

By 

Marcus R. Evans (Cartersville, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Dance Through Time 1: The Romance of Mid-19th Century Couple Dances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am very disappointed with this tape. It was obviously a very low budget effort. To me, the tape appears to have been shot with a home camera with the microphone mounted on the camera. During the initial introduction, the sound quality was VERY BAD. One could barely hear the lady giving the introduction. Then, during the instructional portion of the tape, someone was playing a piano in the background. Good idea but, the already bad audio plus the piano was too much. (I could not hear a work she was saying).