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PHOTO CREDIT: Above photo by John Rickman Photography, San Jose, California.
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A Review of
A-Z Bellydance
by Keti Sharif
Summary
Overall Rating:  (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars)
| On this video, Keti Sharif teaches 26 different choreography fragments for use in dancing to Egyptian music. Each piece is based on the "rule of fours", meaning it uses four repetitions of four each, for a total of sixteen "parts". The video begins with several simple combinations suitable for beginning dancers, and proceeds to increasingly difficult ones as it progresses. |
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What Shira.net Users Think
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The above poll includes responses submitted since December 18, 2002.
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Fact Sheet
| Subject Matter |
Step combinations for Egyptian-style dancers |
| Recommended Dance Skill Level |
Experienced beginner or higher |
| Overall Rating |
|
| Production Quality |
|
| Content Value |
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| Total Video Length |
61:42 minutes |
| Time Devoted to Instruction |
60:50 minutes (99%) |
| Time Devoted to "Other" |
0:52 minutes (1%) |
| Choreography? |
No |
Description
The video comes with 32-page companion booklet at no additional
cost. When buying it, verify that you'll be
receiving both the book and video. If you're being offered
the video only (which should happen only when you're buying
a used copy, because new copies should always come with
the book), you're receiving only part of the package Keti intended
for you to have and I'd encourage you to either shop elsewhere
or negotiate a lower price accordingly. For each of the 26 combinations,
the book provides a written description of how to do it, including
suggestions for the arms. In the very back, the book offers some excellent
tips that don't appear on the video itself on how to choreograph
a dance.
Although Keti's promotional material describes the content
as 26 "routines", it's more accurate to refer to them
as choreography building blocks - each a 16-count step combination.
These are designed to be used either as combinations you can
tap into when doing your own improvised dance or as elements
of a finished choreography that you are creating. For the most
part, the style of the moves is designed for the type of dance
that arose during the 20th century in Egyptian nightclubs.
I like this video very much. It is filmed with professional
lighting and sound quality, and the camera work almost always
makes it easy to see what I want to see. I noticed only a couple
of instances where I found myself grumbling about the camera
showing me Keti's face when I wanted to see what her body was
doing. Keti's step combinations capture the flavor of Egyptian
dance quite well.
For each step combination, Keti first teaches the very basic
footwork. Next she adds more complex footwork and hip movements.
After demonstrating this, she adds arm movements that harmonize
with the feet/hips and enhance the overall effect. When introducing
the move, Keti works without background music and demonstrates
it slowly. She demonstrates both how it looks from the front
(as if you were the audience), and also from the back (so you
can follow her). Once she has finished describing and demonstrating
the combination, she dances it to suitable music to show how
it looks at full speed.
- Routines A-E (Basic). The video begins with five combinations
designed for beginning-level dancers. Someone using video to
study belly dancing could progress to this group of combinations
after mastering a "basic moves" video or two for assistance
in learning how to combine steps, hip lifts, figure 8's, and
arm movements into dance.
- Routines F-J (Folkloric). Although borrowed from traditional
folkloric dances such as hagallah, these combinations
can also be incorporated into a nightclub-style performance.
Keti doesn't teach enough about any one particular folkloric
form to construct a full-length dance in that form based on her
moves, but her folkloric moves can enrich your understanding
of Egypt's dance heritage.
- Routines K-O (Taqsim/Slow and Emotive). As the title
for this section says, these combinations are designed for slow,
fluid music. They could be used with slow chiftetelli, rhumba/bolero,
or even adapted for free-form instrumental solos. Although more
complex than earlier combinations taught, the ones in this group
are still based on reasonably simple moves such as hip circles
and figure 8's, and would still probably be within reach of beginners
who have mastered the earlier combinations on this video.
- Routines P-T (Intermediate). Two of the combinations
in this section have names like "Pharaonic" and "Queen"
which suggest that they might be related to the dances of ancient
Egypt, but they're really modern-day raqs sharqi. I expected
another combination in this group, "Tanoura", to be
based on the folkloric whirling dervishes because of its name,
but this too is modern-day Oriental style. As the word "Intermediate"
implies in the title of this section, these combinations are
more complex than the ones at the beginning of the video, and a beginner working with this video would want
to thoroughly master the earlier combinations before attempting
the ones in this group.
- Routines U-Z (Advanced). As the word "Advanced"
in the title of this section implies, these are the most complex
combinations on this video. They contain far less repetition
than earlier combinations, and they employ a more advanced dance
technique known as layering.
Following the above instruction in combinations, the video ends
with a 3-minute "jam" section in which Keti leads a
practice session using the combinations taught. As she dances,
titles on the screen identify which combination she's doing so
you can follow along. Before attempting this section, you would
want to be careful to master the combinations and memorize exactly
which name applies to each. Assuming you have done that, it should
be reasonably easy to follow along.
Is It Right for You?
You Will Probably Enjoy This Video If
- You're a beginner who has been using "basic moves"
videos to learn fundamentals such as how to do hip drops and
circles, and now you'd like a "continuing education"
video to help you experiment with ways to assemble these building
blocks into a finished dance. This one begins with simple combinations,
then progresses to more difficult ones later in the video, so
you won't outgrow it right away.
- You're a teacher, troupe director, or professional dancer
who is looking for fresh step combinations to add new flavors
to your own choreography.
- You are seeking instruction in the Egyptian style of dancing,
including moves that fit well with the different Egyptian variations
such as baladi, raqs shaabi, nightclub, and others.
- You would like assistance in learning how to combine arm
movements with hip motions and steps.
This Video Probably Isn't Right for You If
- You're not interested in learning step combinations.
- You prefer for your instructional videos to include a section
showing performance in full costume.
- You're looking for a video that emphasizes folkloric instruction.
(Although this one includes some folkloric combinations, they're
not the primary focus.)
What I Liked, What I Didn't
What I Liked:
- This video is set in a studio with mirrors on two
sides of Keti. Unfortunately, the camera is so far away from
the mirrors that the mirror image of her is very tiny and not
as easy to see as I might have preferred.
- The video is grouped into several categories of combinations
that fit logically together; for example, it includes a section
of five combinations suitable for slow, undulating taqsim music.
This makes it possible for someone using the video to study a
group of combinations which work well together and can
then be combined into her own dance.
- The video opens with simple combinations suitable for beginners,
then gradually builds to more difficult ones. It's not something
that would be outgrown right away.
- Keti demonstrates each move from both front and back.
- Each move is introduced with an on-screen title identifying
it, so that when fast-forwarding through the video looking for
a particular move it's easy to find the right place.
- Both the companion book and the back cover of the video list
the combinations in order, making it easy to identify how far
into the video you need to look in order to find the group of moves that you want
to study.
- Keti wears exercise clothes throughout the video. Her leggings
and bare feet make it easy to see what her legs and feet are
doing. At times, she switches to different clothing, which pleasantly
varies the visual impact.
- A choreographer who employs Keti's combinations will find
it easy to create choreography notes identifying what to do. Instead
of writing many lines of text on what to do with hips, feet,
and arms, a choreographer can merely state, "Do the Delta
[or whatever] combination".
What I Didn't Like:
- I would have preferred that the camera zoom in a little closer
to Keti when she is teaching the combinations. It tends to
maintain an angle where the top 1/3 of the screen is just empty
space, leaving it difficult at times to discern subtle details
of what Keti is teaching.
- At times, Keti wears black exercise clothing, which blends
too much into some dark items on the set behind her. This makes
it difficult at times to distinguish her movement from the background.
- During the "Jam" session, the camera zooms in
for close-ups of Keti's face more often than I would prefer.
I had not yet memorized each of the combinations when working with this section, so seeing the
title on the screen wasn't sufficient - I needed to see what
her body and arms were doing, too.
In Conclusion
I enjoyed this video very much. As a continuing education video, it can help beginning dancers learn how to assemble individual moves into groups that can be used as the building blocks for dancing, and it progresses gradually from easiest moves to more complex ones. It's a video that a beginner wouldn't outgrow right away. For more experienced dancers, it can offer new sources of inspiration for creating choreography or injecting new step combinations into improvisational dancing.
Reviews of Other Videos By This Instructor
If you'd like to read my
reviews of other videos by Keti Sharif, choose from the lists
below.
Instructional Videos:
Workout Videos:
Opinion Polls
Disclosure
Keti has sent me several of her products to review here on my web site, including this video. We also had an opportunity to meet in person on one of my trips to Egypt.
To Buy It
Phone: (+61) 412747447
Web Site: www.ketisharif.com
E-Mail: keti@iinet.net.au
Or, purchase from Keti's U.S. distributor at:
International Dance Discovery
PO Box 893
Bloomington, IN 47402-0893
Phone: (+1) 812-330-1831
Web Site: www.allaboutbellydance.com
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