13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Intro to Country Dancing - Incredible Value, January 9, 2007
This review is from: Partner Dancing (DVD)
We're new to dancing instruction. After sitting out most dances over the years, we recently decided to take lessons, mainly ballroom but also a few country sessions. We've rented and bought a bunch of dance instruction videos, most of which were laughable - enough so, that we've now started previewing them on Netflix before bothering to buy them. That was the case with Wiley Hicks' "Partner Dancing" DVD. We tried it on Netflix, loved it, and bought it from Amazon. It is the best country dance video we've seen and right up there with the best ballroom videos. Hicks is an excellent instructor. Easy to understand, easy to follow. We've learned more from his video than from our professional live courses. Give it a try!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
not what it promises to be, January 3, 2009
This review is from: Partner Dancing (DVD)
Pro: if learning dance steps from Mr Macho-Texas-Tough-Guy is your idea of a good time, then you're gonna love this dvd.
Cons: the description says "...shows you the real moves and the style and grace necessary for great country partner dancing..." and "You will also get valuable tips on looking great and going beyond just "survival" on the country dance floor...". Based on this I was expecting more than just a cursory presentation of basic dance steps. But that's really all you're going to get from this, and he doesn't do a particularly good job even at that.
Example of how Wiley will teach you to lead: "...it ain't nothin' but makin' a decision." This is a direct quote from Waltz lesson. He comes across as rough-n-tough and I get the impression that's probably how he leads.
Maybe country women are different and they like this stuff, but on ballroom dance floors this is not the path to winning friends and influencing people.
Note that this is heavily oriented towards country dancing, as it says in the description. The Waltz done in this dvd is some country style I've never seen done anywhere, the "basic" step is done straight forward rather than a stand box. I've been to country dance clubs and they've always done somewhat modified ballroom steps, but this isn't even close to American standard ballroom dance. So be aware of that going in.
I have at least 20 different dance instruction dvds, mostly ballroom but also some country line dance. The teaching on this one easily wins the "Worst Instruction" award. I expected it to be country oriented, but this just doesn't deliver on what the description promises it to be, i.e. it's supposed to actually teach you something about partner dancing beyond "...just makin' a decision..." when leading a dance.
If you're hard core country and you know absolutely zero about dancing, you might still get something out of this. But while he covers lots of dances, he doesn't give you more than two or three steps for each and that's not enough to do much with. If you want to learn enough to dance for more than 20 seconds without getting bored from repetition, there are far better choices available (see for example Trautman's dvds which I have many of and they're far better).
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