Belly Dance Party: Bellydance combinations you can learn tonight! [Import]

This DVD goes with the two other Neon DVDs from her "Instant Belly Dancer" set, "Curves" and "Hipwork Plus". It uses the same teaching method and visuals, the geometric shapes that follow "trajectories" of bellydance movements. Unlike the "Instant Belly Dancer" DVDs, geometric illustrations are given only for more difficult movements. What I like most about this DVD is that the cute "Belly Dance Party" routine consists of 10 separate mini-dances that are particularly easy to learn and show to others. The whole idea of the DVD is not only teach you the dances, but to enable you to teach your friends how to do these dances too, instantly. To test out this idea I actually took the two easiest (for me) combinations (they all look really sexy and impressive), learned them the best I could on a Sunday morning, and just went out and started dancing them at my girlfriend's wedding reception that same afternoon. You can dance them to any music. It absolutely worked: I ended up teaching the same moves to all the women at the reception including grandmothers. The "instant gratification" aspect is real. Neon teaches real dancing, real fast. If you are a fan of the Instant Belly Dancer DVDs, this one is for you.

What is different and wonderful about this DVD is the way it is set up. Most DVDs take you through a main choreography, or a series of movements without drilling the way that the movements connect. I was happy to see the building block system, since that is how I teach beginning classes.

The DVD is divided into ten different mini-routines, which can be quickly learned by beginners (there are some intermediate movements, but they can be easily substituted). There is also a practice section, where you get to dance along with Neon as she goes through each mini-routine, at three different paces. This is a DVD that won't get dusty on your shelf!

Neon's teaching style is also very explicit and easy to follow. She mentions both the way to properly execute the move, and also which muscles to focus for maximum effect. The production is wonderful here! The lighting is clear and bright, and handy diagrams are placed over each move to show direction! Fabulous!

Neon is also one of the most fluid dancers I have seen in some time, and there is a lovely section where you can sit back watch her dance with a balanced tray of flowers. I didn't even mind the swirly background, it seemed to work somehow--I'm sure this is a credit to the editing.

This DVD is very effective as a belly dancing jumpstart for beginners. Twice I gave it as a gift to friends who were new to belly dance, and in no time they were doing the "arabic hip walk" and all the other 3/4 bellydance hip isolations and travel steps Neon teaches in this video, things I used to think were difficult for beginners. Neon's unique teaching method is the key. She takes challenging moves, breaks them down into simple linear "trajectories" and shows them in diagrams overlaid on her body . Another key is that each and every move is taught in some kind of a combination with another move. As in learning a language, it's the way you connect the words that really creates the meaning. I think the comparison to language learning is real: Neon has a masters degree in linguistics. So, very uniquely for a dance instructor, she teaches dance like a foreign language immersion course. You speak it and think in it - right from the start.