Belly Dance Your Way to Your Soul Mate

This is a good DVD divded into segments to teach technique. In the video, Amira teaches how to do moves such as wrist circles, snake arms, head tosses, veil unwrapping, and bicycle hips. She also teaches how to do hip circles and figure eight's with floorwork, and how to do a kneeling back bend, which I thought was the most valuable move to learn. The veil work is very basic, but it would be more helpful to the viewer to have some experience with basic standing bellydance moves before purchasing this video. There is also a final section where Amira performs an improvisational dance, and the viewer can follow along with her while she performs.

Amira Mor is a dancer with a great deal of class and skill, which is evident, for example, when she performs the kneeling back bend without directly facing the audience (common sense). An excellent bellydance website, Shira.net, rated this DVD as "tastefully done", and I agree. This video is definitely geared towards those who would like to dance exclusively for their significant other. It is difficult than I thought to apply the moves to any other situation. One example would be the "Cleopatra Roll". This move in the video is just a simple roll on the carpet lying down. It would look strange performing a move like that in a professional setting, like a seminar performance. Amira Mor also has a very pleasant personality, which is fun to see. I favored the veilwork most of all, and Amira Mor is a positive teacher. The video can't really be compared to other instructional videos on the market because it is geared toward learning how to belly dance for a romantic setting. But, Amira Mor is a talented instructor.

This video is Cabaret or Turkish style bellydance. She teaches you how to "unveil" with a veil and then dance with it for awhile. This DVD does have backbends in the choreography, so please do not attempt if you do not have strong core muscles in your stomach and back. Build them up before you get this one. I recommend you purchase Neon DVD for abs, Neena and Veena's DVD for Abs and Arms, or Jillina, you could even start with Amira Mor's secound DVD Belly Dance your way to energy. Neon, Neena and Veena, and Jillian, are not cabaret, they are more egyptian and a fusion mix of bellydance, but they will work you out just the same, and get you ready for Amira.

Amira Mor's personal style in "Soul Mate" seems to mesh very well with standing and floor taqsim. I agree with the review by Ms Peel, however I really enjoyed this DVD, but *only* for belly dancers with training and experience, because of the issues with posture and presentation.

There are three ways to compare "Soul Mate" with other DVDs -- (1) with Mor's other releases, (2) with other off-the-shelf belly dance instruction DVDs, and (3) with other serious belly dance instruction DVD/videos (an "apples and oranges kind of comparison").

In comparing "Soul Mate" with Mor's other releases, her personal style for standing and floor taqsim is fluid. Her technique is solid, and she emphasizes line and form, which can be lacking in other "off-the-shelf" instructional DVDs. Her style in this DVD flows more than in her other DVDs. It's not geared towards club dancing and at least she's not wearing spandex bell-bottom slacks.

The caveat is probably also due to the approach of her series--it's geared towards selling to a general market. It also reminded me of the '60s and '70s approach. However, "Soul Mate" is more than just "a wiggle and a shake," becuse she approaches the subject professionally. Also, her fluidity and personal approach fits with "Soul Mate" more strongly than the other DVDs she has released, which is nice.

However, if you compare "Soul Mate" to other more serious instructional Belly Dance DVD/vidoes, then it does come up short. For example, if you view "Soul Mate" in comparison with Veda Sereem's excellent series, all of which are very, very solid in thorough dance instruction, the differences are quite apparent. Watching Sereem's DVDs is like attending a solid class with a solid teacher, where there is actual teaching in actually doing the steps, movements, and choreography. Or in another example, the Katia Presents Oriental Arms DVD/video is a realistic and solid teaching of arm and hand movements that "Soul Mate" doesn't have.

There's just not a comparison, between these DVDs and serious instructional DVDs, but that's OK, if you keep this in mind. It's as if these off-the-shelf DVD/video productions are a "demonstration," rather than a "class." If you've taken a class in something artistic, it's immediately obvious that there's a difference between a demonstration and a classroom experience.

Amira Mor is beautiful and a talented belly dancer. I enjoyed "Soul Mate" more than her other DVDs; it's "lite" and fluffy, but with a respect for authenticity, line and form, and the taqsim is fluid, but it's less than solid for serious instruction, and really best as an add-on for an advanced dancer.

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