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Gilded
Serpent presents...
Jillina
Redoux
Bellydance
with Jillina DVDs
by
Yasmela
WOW! 4
DVDS of Jillina! Apparently I have mellowed out since my last
review of her work and Jillina has definitely matured. Once
again, these DVDs are top of the line in production quality. Each
DVD has two performance segments at the end. These performance
segments are the only aspects of this new collection I can
fault.
Damn! This is our chance to see it all put together
and there is Jillina in great costumes, lovely smile, impeccable
technique, and we can’t see her! Who was this cameraperson?
At
what non-dance friendly school did he/she learn their craft? Fred
Astaire had it right. When you film a dance, the ENTIRE
dancer should be in the frame at all times. I can think
of few things as frustrating, especially on an instructional
DVD, than settling
back to focus on the culmination of all the hard work of
learning a dance and watching close-ups of the dancer’s
face, feet,
and audience. And it was filmed in the dark! GOD help
me, please! The time to see her feet is when she is teaching
the step. And while her face is lovely, she is dancing,
not selling toothpaste! The artsy-angled shots do nothing
for me. These
performances either show her as a tiny indistinguishable
dot on a large dark stage, or up close, first head and
then feet. Please,
I will not be bored if you just follow her ENTIRE BODY
with the camera. What a disappointment to an otherwise
perfectly wonderful DVDs. Jillina….fire that person!
Entrance
Choreography
The
teaching technique employed in her previous DVDS has been improved
in these new offerings. Jillina appears in the beginning chapter
to explain a little about the dancer’s entrance, why it is important
and some guidelines for making it dramatic and memorable. There
follows the new format…warm up, technique, combinations, choreography,
cool down and two short performances. Technique teaches the
steps used in this choreography and then has a short section
of practice time. Combinations take a couple of steps, put them
together and then adds musical practice time. The choreography
section takes these combinations and places them into a choreography. As
with her last DVDs, she builds your knowledge of the choreography
by adding a new section at the end of each run through, each
time starting from the beginning of the song.
Drum
Solo Choreography
Following
the same format set up in the Entrance Choreography, Jillina
appears briefly in the opening chapter to explain the drum solo
and offer the viewer some suggestions and options for using and
changing the choreography to suit the personality of the dancer.
This
is a great drum solo and Jillina’s maturity shows in the way
she expertly breaks it down as only someone with years of experience
in both performance and choreography can. She also includes
tips about posture and positioning…not included in her older
instructional
DVDs.
Excellent! While
this choreography is appropriate for intermediate to advanced
dancers, almost anyone with an interest and some experience
can benefit from the warm up, technique and choreographic sections. What
do I especially loved in this particular volume? Break down
and practice of the belly flutter. This is an old and long
neglected part of basic belly dance and has been a long time
gone. It was nice to see someone give detailed explanations
of how to practice this and what it should look like. Here
is a cautionary tale….star dancers with strong personalities
have signatures moves that are easily
recognizable. Be careful of this as well as doing a move that
an accomplished dancer executes expertly and is beyond your
own level of expertise. A little self-awareness is always
good to cultivate and can save many newer dancers from embarrassment.
Lebanese
Pop Choreography
In
her opening statement about the song and what it means, Jillina
offers her viewers some suggestions about adapting choreography
to suit yourself. It would be a shame to see dozens of cookie-cutter
Jillina’s dancing around the country, so I think her advice should
be heeded. This is a sweet, slower paced love song and offers
the dancer a chance to explore some of the movements Jillina
teaches in depth. Once again, the format set up in the first
DVD is followed and it works well. I will say that the full
choreography section was another example of frustrating camera
work. They almost had it. I wanted to see the entire choreography
put together and the camera suddenly focused in on her mid section,
thus loosing the picture of the dancer as a whole. It was much
more pronounced in this DVD than in the other ones.
Shape
Up n’ Hip Out!
I
really like this DVD. It contains 3 18-minute workouts that
use Jillina’s core moves and techniques. “Slow and Smooth” is
perfect for beginners and I mean real beginners. It’s
a nicely filmed routine that gently introduces viewers to bellydance
moves in an exercise format. The next two, “Rhythm Hips” and
“Turbo Hips”, escalate the action and give a good core workout
to dancers at any level. These workouts are perfect for drilling
technique for any level dancer. There is a warm up section at
the beginning and a cool down at the end. The disc also includes
five live performances at the end as a bonus. I appreciate its
straightforward approach and high production quality. No muss,
no fuss, no politics. It is a nice addition to a dancers collection
and lots of good ideas for warming up a teacher’s class.
On
the whole, this is a great set of instructional DVDs. They are top-notch
quality and well worth the price. Even the minor annoyances
of the camera work on the performance sections is very small
compared with the wretched production quality of many comparably
priced instructional DVDs. These are definitely top of
the line.
With diligence
it would be easy to copy these choreographies exactly. I think
that misses the point. Live instruction is a must for anyone
serious about this dance. I think these DVDs work best for
dancers with a little experience under their belts (no pun
intended). They can, with their best intentions, provide some
spark and vitality to a dancer who might be stuck in the same
old routine. I too hope dancers use these DVDs as a starting
point for learning some very sound technique and from there
develop their own style. The performances by the other dancers
on the workout DVD certainly contain Jillina’s recognizable
stamp. There is only ever one “star” that does her or his
style the best. I don’t really enjoy seeing Jillina clones,
but they were very competent dancers and will no doubt evolve
in the future. Without attending one of Jillina’s workshops
in person, these DVDs are the next best thing. Her charming
personality comes across well on film and her expertise and
professionalism make her one of the most sought after and admired
dancers and instructors of our modern era. Let’s face it;
she’s got it all. Not every wonderful dancer has the ability
to teach what she knows, and Jillina is certainly is one of
the best in all areas.
Have
a comment? Send us a
letter!
Check the "Letters to the Editor"
for other possible viewpoints!
Ready
for more?
12-5-03 Jillina’s
DVD or All Jillina, All the Time Video reviewed by Yasmela/
Shelley Muzzy
In fact, the production quality is exemplary.
6-13-07 Le
Serpent Rouge Reviewed by Yasmela
The
blending of theater and dance was really outstanding with broad
comedy moving seamlessly into dance.
5-8-07 The
Bou-Saada Bus by Yasmela
Every
single one of us could play an instrument, sing, dance, run a
sound board, set a stage with backdrop, lights, monitors and
microphones, plug them in, and put them away. We made our own
costumes and our own drums and used duct tape in a thousand creative
ways. While we never made a living from it, it was our way of
life. Our experiences will bond us forever.
6-25-04 Romancing
the Road (The Bousada Troupe Tours) by Yasmela
We
carved our own niche, created our own style, scandalized, delighted,
educated and entertained everyone around us, including ourselves.
We were “Bou-Saada”.
5-28-04 Dance
Contests by Yasmela
People
being who they are, and dance and art and America being what
they are, there will always be the competitive urge, the attitude
that success is defined by the amount of your income, the number
of your trophies.
6-3-08 The
Egyptian Dance Code:
Technique to the Perfect Dance by Sausan
Twenty-eight
years after my first class in Belly dance, I looked at all the dancers
once again and realized what they were doing to look Egyptian. I
had discovered
the Egyptian Dance Code. That was back in 2000.
5-26-08 Betty
Th’Builder: a Little Something Extra to Shake Co-written
by Najia Marlyz and Salima
This
year's "Grand Dancer" tells of her transformation from
body builder to Bellydancer
5-21-08 Saturday
Gala Peformance Part 1 of the International Bellydance
Conference of Canada video and photo report by GS
staff
Performers
include: Lopa Sarkar, Sacred Dance Company of Victoria, Nath Keo,
Roshana Nofret & Maria Zapetis of Bozenka's BD Academy, Ensemble
El Saharat of Germany-
Mayyadah & Amir of Germany, Ferda Bayazit of Turkey, Arabesque Dance Company & Orchestra
of Toronto
5-16-08 Visiting
Cairo: You live a whole lifetime in one week! by
Paola
Laughter
builds bridges, and in today’s world, bridges –between
individuals and between cultures, are becoming more and more of
an imperative.
5-13-08 The
Ancient Art of Keeping Your Mouth Shut by Neon
Even
one’s casual presence in the forums infested with negative-spirited
discussions can instantly strip a successful artist of her magical
charisma. |
