Product Details

• Actors: Ancient Art of Belly Dance
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: United American Video
• VHS Release Date: August 23, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000009RWA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,659 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars clinical--not for advanced learning-very beginner, December 8, 1999

By	"archangelz001" (USA) - See all my reviews

This is a beginners tape of instruction,, Alexandra starts with 1 actual belly dance in costume, then shows you the neccessary warm up exercizes,,which you do need to do-and they are good for you, (Alexandra appears tight,,nervous in her verbal presentation, but most of us in 1985 weren't all that up on being video taped, now were we? so thats no default really,,but you do wish she would relax and smile a little)) ---then the asstd steps to move correctly, like 1,2,3..do these --your done.. then the 'how to dance with a veil' and thats the end. the tape is 60 minutes..but seems to be shorter-the quality is what you would expect from the production date. If you have never done any belly dance..then this might be an okay starter/intro--however if your experienced,,you need much more than this tape. ..I think she is a good dancer, a competent teacher,,but my requirements are professional,, but she will give you the steps,,to make your body move correctly-and all that she shows is exactly what I learned in my belly dance classes..."the first day." Alexandra uses the finger symbols, but does not explain the rhythms..how to of the beat..and that can be difficult to a person, new to the art of belly dancing.the finger beats are specific to the music--the counts are not explained. I will have to find a much more advanced tape--with actual performances of a variety of dancers for the rest of the learning.. so, in review, the teacher Alexandra, on this tape is a well seasoned dancer,,but you may consider this tape your first lesson-one hr--that would be what you would get in a real class..

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bad production but sound instruction, September 7, 2000

By	Shantell Powell "The ShanMonster" (Kitchener, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ancient Art of Oriental Belly Dance Volume I was probably filmed in one afternoon without retakes. The background noise is sometimes distracting, and music stops and starts are harsh. Regrettably, the lessons are conducted immediately in front of a rather tacky belly dance wall tapestry. Since Alexandria King has dark hair, sometimes her head kind of blends into the background.

Despite these flaws, Alexandra King does have some interesting moves to teach. She is very good at explaining just how something is done. Some of the moves are geared towards absolute beginners, and some towards intermediate level dancers. In either case, Alexandria breaks down the moves, demonstrating them slowly before picking up to a faster beat.

She is a lovely dancer, and the video starts out with a full-length performance. Unfortunately, the background mural is very distracting. Although a nice dancer technically, it's a shame she doesn't smile more.

All in all, I would recommend this video for a beginning or intermediate level dancer.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange but interesting, December 6, 2000

By	"lelehuna" (Orem, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

I've been dancing for over half my life, and teaching for the last four years. In that time I've seen many instruction videos. I have never seen anyone teach a beginning moves video the way Ms. King does. She teaches classic 7-part American cabaret, going through moves that can be done to each section of a performance. Her performance is good, and not too poorly shot, but the instruction segments on the video are poorly edited, with bad sound quality, and distracting background noises (the cat meowing was my particular favorite). Overall, she teaches a few interesting moves for beginning and intermediate dancers, although they may need to rewind a few times to figure out what's going on. For us professionals, it has a bit of entertainment value and a different perspective on what order to teach in. Fresh beginners should go with a different instruction video, such as Atea's Magical Motion. If you do want to buy Ms. King's video, buy the second one as well. It's the second half of the lesson. All in all, they're worth the very cheap price just to add to your library. Just don't use them as your only view of the dance.