Instructional Bellydance With Jillina

Each DVD begins with a short series of stretches, although she cautions you do an aerobic warm-up for about 20 minutes before you begin to stretch.

On each DVD, different moves are taught, from the most basic hip circles on Vol. 1 to the more complicated Arabic Twist and spins on Vol. 3. Beginners or people with no previous dance training will have no trouble following these movements. Jillina demonstrates each move slowly and in exaggerated fashion, so itÕs easy for you to see the shape, gradually bringing it down so itÕs smaller and more subtle, while speeding it up to its full time tempo. She repeats the movements several times so you donÕt have to keep rewinding. Unlike some ÒinstructionalÓ videos, Jillina actually describes and explains each move and the muscles driving it, so you donÕt just have to watch her and play follow the leader.

The next section is combinations, where she puts together the moves you just learned into short (on the beginning DVD) or longer (on the Advanced) combinations which you can incorporate into your own dances. The combinations you learn in this section will be put together in the next section, where she teaches a different choreography on each DVD. She is a thorough teacher, and explains and demonstrates each move and combination a number of times, so it is very easy to learn the choreography.

Each DVD ends with a performance by Jillina, in full costume, of the choreography you just learned, with a few additions and modifications.

I donÕt know that advanced dancers would learn any ÒnewÓ moves from her, but they will definitely benefit from seeing the different combinations, and her choreographies are fun and easily modified to fit different music. JillinaÕs style is very energetic, and she interprets the music in a way that is different than most dancers of ÒclassicalÓ Egyptian dance. The price is so reasonable that if you only invest in this DVD to check out JillinaÕs personal dancing style, you still wonÕt be disappointed.

Production Quality: Excellent
Jillina teaches with her back to the camera, in front of a large angled mirror, so you can see both her front and back at all times. The set is pleasantly decorated and the music is loud enough to dance to, but not loud enough to overpower her voice. There is no bizarre camera work. The camera angle will change depending on the focus of the movement, but for the most part her entire is body is shown, and the angle changes are not jarring or distracting.

Jillina is dressed in a matching hip scarf and choli-type blouse, and you can clearly see her stomach and legs. Since she teaches in front of a mirror, you can see just about all of the angles of her body. She stands out well against the backdrop, and the set itself is well-lit, unlike many videos, where you end up with eyestrain after watching!

Another nice addition is in the credits, which list the music used in each section. Also a plus is that there is no extraneous advertising at the beginning of the DVD, so you donÕt have to sit through five minutes of ads before the instructional part.

Price: Better than Excellent
Typical good-quality bellydance instructional videos are priced at around $45-$55 EACH. This set gives you 3 well-produced DVDs for that price. This boxed set is less than the price of a standard workshop, and you get about the same amount of instruction and choreography time. I hope to see more productions of this quality from the Bellydance Superstars team in the future.

The price is excellent - three dvd's for the usual cost of one. The set has three dvds: Levels One, Two and Three. Beginners can easily follow and intermediate and advanced students won't be disappointed either.

Jillina teaches you movements - she does not play "monkey see - monkey do." Her clear, concise instruction includes the movements, which muscles are being used, and proper posture starting with a slow, exaggerated example moving up to tempo. There are sufficient repetitions that allow you to repeat and practice instead of rewinding.

The music, modern Egyptian pop, is current, loud enough to hear, but not too overwhelming and does not prevent you from hearing the instruction. The song titles are also listed in the credits with the artists' names - very helpful.

Jillina wears a matching choli, exercise pants, and short hip scarf so you can see her body move. The ability to see her is aided by the excellent camera angles and the full-wall mirror. There is no guess-work here. Finally, seeing Jillina's superlative preformance of the dance you've just learned is the best.

If you're not a beginner, this is still the set to buy. At all levels of this dvd, Jillina give excellent instruction of basic technique and then she proceeds to teach combinations using that technique. The combinations are then used in the choreogrphy section. I find these sections of the dvds most helpful; as you see how she combines movements and then uses the combination to choreograph a dance, it allows you to use that knowledge to create your own choreography - most helpful.

I highly recommend this dvd set to belly dancers of all levels - it is my best ever purchase for home practice.

If you're a beginner, don't get caught up in the endless argument over what is or isn't REAL bellydance, because it doesn't matter. You should dance to please yourself, to have fun, to be spiritual or sexy- whatever you want from it. That being said, this is a great set of DVDs to learn lots of different moves and combinations.

You don't need previous dance classes to do bellydance, and these 3 DVDs will teach you all you need to know to get out there and express your soul.

Please, if you're new to bellydance, please please please don't be put off by people who say Jillina isn't "authentic." Dance because you love it, not because you're trying to recreate a dance done in egypt in the 50s or whatever. You're going to have way way way more fun doing these DVDs than trying to chase down some illusion of "authenticity."

Bellydance is for everybody: big people, thin people, jazz dancers, uncoordinated people who've never had a dance class in their life! And if you just want to watch a great dancer, Jillina performs on each DVD.

So my advice is, buy these DVDs, relax, don't worry about what other people think, and dance your heart out!