Customer Reviews

Let's Dance Swing

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

 

 

Simply one of the best dance instruction DVDs I have. John Hill explains things clearly, from different angles, and with a good deal of easy-going all-American charisma befitting Swing.

This DVD has added a lot of nice flourishes to my current repertoire of Swing moves, and I even recently used many of John Hill's techniques that I learned from this DVD at a national ballroom DanceSport competition. These included the Alternating Rock Turns (aka Stop Turns) and Flare kicks. (I did quite well with my dance partner in the competition, most of the time earning first place finishes on our heats.)

I also got a lot out of the chapter on Multiple Turns, including the cool Double Inside Turn. In fact I still have quite a bit to go through on this DVD and it has provided me with hours of learning pleasure.

The bottom line: This DVD is worth the money, not only for the priceless info on it--but its ability to make you smile every time you play it! :)

I'm a beginner in swing. I've only had a single one-on-one lesson with a friend of mine. I did learn a lot more from this DVD. John Hill is very thorough, maybe a little redundant, even. Each "lesson" comes across as a short episode from TV that were slapped onto the DVD in juxtaposition. What I mean by that is, there were a couple times that dance moves they were teaching a more advanced version of were explained in detail on "another episode". But those episodes are NOT on the DVD. Which made it a little difficult to mimic what they were doing -- since the basic version was never explained. It would be nice if the episodes were in order so that right after they taught a simple move, they could elaborate on that one in the next episode. Or if they even released his other episodes onto DVD (I can't find them)

The redundancy I mentioned is that over several episodes he will say the same thing (such as: explaining how to do the basic 4-step... which btw is in every lesson except the last one). That's great for TV episodes where someone may not have seen the previous lessons, but on a DVD, in every lesson, just a few minutes apart, it became annoying -- and there are several things he repeats.

As far as how well he taught the dance moves; they were very easy to understand. He did an excellent job of making sure to cover each move in detail (with the exception of the mention of previous lessons that aren't on this DVD). I already feel, after watching this DVD, that I'm a much more experienced Swing Dancer and would recommend this DVD to someone wanting to learn.... as long as they don't mind the 2-3 dance steps that are never explained on this DVD.

I thought this video was easy to follow but my husband had a bit more difficulty following all the steps and had a hard time picking up the beat in the music. Sometimes they added some "flourishes" that may be a little confusing for the beginner. With practice, I think this video will help us to add to our current steps.

I have been swing dancing for 2 years. I am by no means an excellent dancer but I can tell that he's doing IT WRONG!!! This is absolutely junk especially if you are new to swing. He's not even close to a professional swing dancer and he looks like a greaser. Searching youtube for "lindy hop" or "swing dancing" and you will learn so much more for free rather than waste your money.

After watching several horrible swing dance instructional videos, I was very happy to see this one was decent. The instructor was clear and even went tru some detail like lean forward to keep from looking stiff, with out overwhelming the student. I wish parts would have been shot looking at their backs. Overall a decent instructional.

Extremely amateurish production. The guy set up a camera on a tripod in his livingroom, hung up a backdrop, and got a girl whom I suspect he picked up in a bar as a partner. Visually, he is a decent dancer, but he can't keep time with the music. And he's a lousy teacher. But despite the woeful deficiencies, you can learn the basics of this 3/4 dance step if you are a deturmined observer and turn down the sound. Check it out at the library, don't buy it.

The video is a collection of television dance lessons performed by John Hill and partners (Stephanie is the best). Although some of the television shows are omitted, the 90 minutes of instruction is good. Each session begins with a review which keeps you from having to jump back and forth in the video. This is the single step (as opposed to triple step) east coast swing. There are plenty of moves to learn and you will be comfortable on the dance floor using them.

Nothing about this DVD works. The demonstrations, explanations, camera angles...it's all a jumbled mess. Someone with a background in aerobics videos or something should have helmed this steamer. Not only do my wife and I still not know how to swing dance, this video has found itself buried on a dusty shelf.

the humor is really corny and if you are anything more than a casual learner, you will get bored fast, plus, the footwork isnt very clear. its like, if you want to feel like you are learning, but will end up not really knowing what you are doing.

I didnt like this dvd at all. The instructors are boring and dont look like they are having any fun and half the time you cant even see thier feet ???? Very poor