Customer Reviews

Instant Bellydancer: A Crash Course in Belly Dance 2-DVD Set

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I highly recommend this to all of my students. Neon teaches what a friend called "generic bellydance." It translates well into Egyptian, Cabaret, and Turkish in terms of teaching the basics needed to progress in dance. The moves are chaptered nicely, and the trajectories drawn on the side of the screen clearly illustrate the direction the hips are moving-if it is a lift to the front, if it is a drop, if it is a slide, etc.

Neon's personality and accent are pleasant, the graphics are non-interruptive, and she is a beautiful dancer (although I wish there had been a performance section).

What I really like are the practice sessions, where combinations of the taught moves are put together into a series. The practice sessions alone are a good workout and a great review. The length of the instructional session is also very good--good enough where you have to stop it and digest it in bites. There are a variety of ribcage slides and isolations, hip slides, bumps, and circles, hip lifts, hip lifts with directions (i.e. front side back), traveling steps using hip lifts and bumps, etc. Her traveling step combinations are innovative yet classic, and not what one sees in every performance. Most moves can also be done to a 4/4 count, so it makes it ideal for practicing to both classical and modern BD music.

It's a great value for the money, and for those of us who teach, truly enforces a good foundation in our students.

I found this DVD to be very good at idenitfying each movement within a dance step. I would not consider this a typical "workout" type DVD. Neon goes systematically through each body part isolation and then compiles them into a dance workout. The dance performance piece is very sultry and shows how creative a belly dancer can be while dancing.

Neon is fabulous!!! Mesmerizing to watch and has much to offer in her
teaching. Noone can learn everything all at once but the great thing about
this set is that you can view it as many times over as you like. Just keep
watching Neon and practicing!! Im a beginner and it takes years to learn
these skills but Neon has been very enlightening.

In the course of 4 years I have bought several beginner bellydance videos. Of them this is the best one yet for truly teaching from the ground up clearly and concisely. This dvd was recommended to me by my bellydance teacher and I just love it. The title is a little misleading, like any dance there is no "instant result", you have to practice and work at it. However if you stick with it and learn the lessons on this dvd you will have the basics needed for just about any style of bellydance. Moreover the section reviews provided for practice give you practical application of the dance moves, how they can be put together when dancing including options for framing the moves with your arms.

Wow!!! Get this one for sure! Here are over three hours of instruction that will prepare you and place you well on your way! This instructional program has previously released separately; today it is offered in a two part set.

Part one of "Instant Belly Dancer"
The program begins delightfully; add water to a beautiful demi- tasse, and stir, voila! Neon appears to guide you into the enchanting world of belly dance.

If you are new to belly dance, this program is a great way to begin. If you have been here awhile you will consider this program a priceless guide which organizes movement, body placement and terminology.
Those of us who have trained extensively and moved from varied instruction have experienced much of the dance jargon, dance theory, etc. that goes with each teacher's different approach to the same trajectory. A universal belly dance terminology illustrated in geometric patterns can simplify teaching and help the student make the transition from "hand me down" terms which vary from instructor to instructor, and will keep integrity in the dance terminology as well as create a visual tool.

The first program is divided into the following:

Upper and lower body
Horizontal and vertical circles,
Horizontal and vertical semi circles,
Horizontal and vertical infinity loops,
Head movements

Two practice sessions to allow you try out your newly acquired dance moves. There are 6 reviews to guide you through each segment with traveling steps, arm and hand embellishments, and numerous combinations which allow you to create your dance. Precision and fluidity are a sure gain as Neon perfectly illustrates each move, with the neatest backdrop of cityscapes as she pops out of a third dimensional animated creation of a mock dance floor

The second set continues with these and more:

Upper and lower body slides
Isolating the hips) lifts and drops
Pelvic drops and locks
Hip twists
Chest lift and drop
Arcs
Upward front to back
Downward Back to front

Learn Arabic hip walk, up and down hip shimmy, twist shimmy, much more!
Review sections are also included in the second dvd

*Points to consider, this is a fast paced learning program which contains endless detail and priceless information along with great practice sections. Great detailed instruction!

The DVD is definitely going to assists me in my goals. Would have gave a 5 but I just wish she would spend a coupla' more minutes with the step by step before moving on....just a weee bit but...

I love Neon and the way she moves. The instruction is extensive (3 hours)and I now know that Belly Dancing is not going to be as easy as I thought.

Yet I am very pleased with the DVD. I will have to keep at it though.

You will find the layout of the instruction easy to follow and if you think you are just going to breeze thru the instruction...WRONG!! At least for the majority of us.

I stayed on the first phase (STEP 1) for 2 hours because I don't want to half step with the positioning of the body and moves. I'm still not satisfied with my practice...so I will not move on until I get that down packed.

Definitely works your muscles though. I think I would fair better with live instruction (say a class perhaps)...but unfortunately we don't have any this way. I just have to take my time with Neon.

Girl can move though. Check out her dance where she performs with the candles on her head with no strap.

Damn---I wanna be just like her when I grow up!!!

I have seen at least one review of this DVD set that claims it's not beginner level and was too difficult. If you are totally new to belly dance, if you are NOT taking lessons, then, that might indeed be the case.

If you ARE already taking lessons, and having a hard time getting your isolations "down", then this DVD set may be helpful. If your ARE already taking lessons, and not having a hard time with anything much, then this DVD set may NOT for you.

The good points of this DVD set are the "animations", little drawings of what should be moving, and in what direction, and on what "plane" (horizontal, vertical, forward, back.... etc.) These can be VERY helpful if you are having a hard time with this kind of circle, or that kind of figure 8 (which Neon calls "infinity loops".)

I bought this set when I first started taking lessons. I have a VERY good teacher, so, there were no surprises from the DVDs, or really anything that I could not already do, or that we were not already working on in class. I used it to help me make some things "better", but got really quite bored with it very quickly. That's the down side of this set, from my perspective.

Bottom line: If you are already taking lessons this may not be a DVD set for you. If you are having a hard time with the basic moves, this DVD set might help. If you are trying to learn to belly dance on your own, you SHOULD get this DVD set.

I'm a beginner and I have to say that Instant Belly dancer 1 and 2 are wonderful!!!! Neon, is an excellent teacher. She reviews the moves slowly before speeding up so that you can get a feel for the movement. The first dvd is an extensive review of the basics, while the second dvd is more complex. I will warn you that this dvd is not like Neon's other dvd Luscious, instead it has more of a tutorial feel. There are reviews however after every four chapters, which puts all the steps together, but there isn't a combined dance performance. Both dvds are long and cover a lot of different steps, so it should take you some time to learn the moves. At least it takes me time. :)

A few extra bonuses
Neon is very talented! She has great muscle control and you can actually see her stomach muscles moving which is helpful because it lets you know what you should be doing. Another plus is that she wears pants in both dvds so you can see her leg movements. The beat in the music is clear. I definitely recommend it. Another thing is that Neon has posted a three minute introduction on youtube to the dvd. Watching that helped me choose it.

i also bought the bellydance dvd by Kathy Smith, but by far i loved this one by Neon (i really thought this was going to be more of a silly 'gimick', basing on her unusual name 'Neon', but it turns out she really knows her stuff!)

she takes you thru many basic moves, w/an overlying grid to show you precisely how to do it, and is taught an easy but not TOO slow of a pace either lol. i have both her 1 and 2 dvd, and i'm now ordering her "Dance Today! Bellydance - Active Lifestyle Makeover" dvd (for fun and to test out my newest skills).

this one's a real bargin for the price! :)

I am a beginning belly dance student. This DVD is a little difficult for beginners, but is an excellent source once you become a better dancer. I give it a A+ for the graphics of each move!