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Bellydance Divas

Bellydance Divas

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $17.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally!!!!!!!!
Review: I've been buying boring bellydance workout videos just to see the performances. Now there is finally a well-produced dvd with REAL BELLYDANCERS doing REAL BELLYDANCING! I am very happy with this DVD, it is a lot for the money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why is the worst?
Review: It's not about the dancers, the dancers are great! They dance very beautiful. It's about the camera man/women, who dindn't know that bellydance is about HIPS, and not about the face.

For the ladyes that danced i give them 5 Stars, but not for the DVD!

Thank you

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Important Notice to Owners of Other Bellydance Videos!
Review: Read other reviews to find out what people think of this video but if you own any of the "Bellydance for Fitness and Weight loss" videos by the bellydancer Rania or anything from the bellydance twins Veena and Neena, it's good to know one VERY important fact. . . there is absolutely NO NEW or ORIGINAL material on this DVD. Every single one of the dance numbers on this disc is already in the "bonus" section of one of the above mentioned DVDs.

Had I known this in advance, I would have passed on this purchase. As an owner of other bellydance videos, I was VERY disappointed to discover that the long awaited and much hyped DVD I'd just purchased was merely a recycling of material I already owned in bonus sections of previously released DVDs. If you don't own other bellydance videos this fact may not matter to you at all. I just thought I'd post this note as a "public service" to keep anyone else who collects bellydance videos from wasting their money like I did.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's okay...
Review: This DVD is okay. I personally don't think it's too spectacular. They use the same dull set for every performance. Frankly to be honest, I think the only dancer really worth seeing is Rania. Sohaila puts on a pretty good performance as well, but the other two dancers just don't appeal to me at all. That's probably why they don't perform as often as Sohaila or Rania.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Another producer smitten with Rania...
Review: This is a decent DVD, nothing too great or get excited about. The dancers are talented, some more than others, the production has good quality so that was a bonus. Overall this is a good dvd to get if you are a fan of one of the dancers featured.

Louchia: One of my favorites, unfortunately she only performs twice in this dvd which is a shame because she's such a wonderful dancer. Her interpretation of the Persian dances are very beautiful and full of life, I really enjoyed them.

Rania: Well, I think she's very beautiful, an amazing fitness instructor and businesswoman, but her dancing technique is just... in my personal opinion, not there. She just doesn't flow with the music, her music interpretation is just not strong at all. But I guess beauty and knowing the right people is something she seems to have on her side. This dvd features several of her performances.

Sohaila: Amazing dancer, my favorite!. She can flow with the music like if they were one, she doesn't overdo the movements but she doesn't minimizes them either, classic Egyptian style at its best, excellent music interpretation combined with her beauty and gorgeous costumes led her to amazing perfomances. It is a shame she doesn't get the recognition she deserves.

Marina: Very flexible and talented, good music interpretation, but sometimes bit too dramatic. I think sometimes she over-emphasizes the dance movements to the point they just don't look natural, she also spends too much time playing with her hair, distracting if you ask me. Her drum solo was fun to watch, but she seems to lose a bit of control here and there. All in all, she's a decent dancer.

I'm glad to see that we at least get a break from Jillina (a highly skilled dancer), and Ansuya (an overhyped dancer with no rhythm/talent whatsoever) and got Sohaila, Louchia and Marina instead. I personally think this could have been a better dvd if the amazing and talented Aziza (from Portland, OR) was also featured in it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Some very sexy bellydancing
Review: This is an excellent collection showing a wide range of bellydance styles. The cover features four dancers, although two of them (Rania and Marina) have been allocated rather more time than the others. Rania performs a very slinky and sexy sword dance, whilst Marina performs the wildest drum solo I have ever seen! This DVD should be bought by all afficionados of the belly dance.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Meh.
Review: This is not the best performance video/DVD out there, but it's certainly not a waste of money (especially at this price).

What I liked:
- Sohaila - She has an elegant, mature style, sweet facial expressions, and a classical "ear" for the music. I'm going to steal some of her combinations. However, I watched the entire DVD in one sitting (and it's LONG), and I found myself getting tired of her. There's just wasn't a lot of variety in her performances. If I watched one at a time, or saw her perform a single routine in person, I would have been much more impressed.
- Louchia - It was really neat to see Persian dancing. I, myself, wouldn't consider it belly dance (although I'm sure some will disagree with me), but it's good to be exposed to other dance styles from the region.
- The variety of costumes. There was huge variation in styles, and I got lots of ideas.
- The variety of dance styles. While I didn't like every performance (I'll go into why later), few videos try to give an overview like this one does.
- the DVD options were nice: you can watch all the performances in order, or all of one dancer's pieces. It would have been nice to be able to choose each piece individually, but it's not that difficult to scroll forward by chapter within each dancer's section.

What I didn't like:
- the constant sucking up to the Egyptian style. Yes, Egyptian style is very elegant and nice, but the commentary left me feeling like I shouldn't consider all other styles as lesser, as if they're not "real" belly dance. I also didn't like that they referred to American style or American cabaret style as "the traditional style".
- Rania - her technique is good, but I just can't stand her style. I found myself getting offended by her nearly-constant "sultry face". The only exception was her 9/8 (which I didn't think was that great, but she did smile in that number).
- Marina - I liked her energy, but she seemed way to frantic. She just seemed to throw herself and her props around. I got tired watching her. I've seen other performances in the Turkish style that had just as much energy but much more control.
- the camera work - others have complained, so I won't reiterate.
- while I liked that the commentary tried to be educational, I found some of what they said to be highly suspect.
- the music in the menus is MUCH louder than during the performances. I had to adjust the volume constantly, which was a pain.

This DVD is worth buying for Sohaila and Louchia, for the costumes and to pick up some new combinations. If you're a fan of Rania or Marina, you may also like it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good....B-
Review: This performance video was ok. Some of the performances were boring and no creative. The faces of some of the dancers were scary sometime (Rania and Marina). I am not a professional dancer, but I was looking for something difficult to learn. So I bought this video because I was looking for ideas to make a coreography piece, but I was upset after I watched the whole thing. By the way, the costumes were nice. I would suggest to buy another video instead!!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good....B-
Review: This performance video was ok. Some of the performances were boring and no creative. The faces of some of the dancers were scary sometime (Rania and Marina). I am not a professional dancer, but I was looking for something difficult to learn. So I bought this video because I was looking for ideas to make a coreography piece, but I was upset after I watched the whole thing. By the way, the costumes were nice. I would suggest to buy another video instead!!!!


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