Customer Reviews

Bellydance: Magical Motion

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This was one of the first belly dance videos that I bought. I still love it (even after two years of serious study). I now recommend it to anyone who wants to begin bellydance! Atea's choice of dancers and costumes; her clear instructions; the repetition of each move so that you can follow along (dance with her - as if you were at a lesson) are all excellent. The quality of everything -lighting, sound, music, introductory material - are all high. This is an inspirational as well as practical video.

Yes, she's a bit stiff, but it's easy to follow if you are a beginner. You'll be beyond this tape before long, but you can follow the basic moves easily. Once you have that you can add your own pazazz. And it's pretty.

Reasons not to buy this video:
1. She reads from cue cards the entire time.
2. She's extremely stiff and boring.

I have only watched this video once in the two years that I have owned it.

I was thinking of puchasing this video when I came accross this web site with clips from the video on it!

http://www.magicalmotion.com/videomagicalmotion.html

I'm going to buy it just for the fabulous explination of the belly roll.

I'm sorry, but these are horrible for teaching belly dance. Atea is very stiff & stilted & her chorus dancers CANNOT dance! It is absolutely Scary!
I have never seen anyone (in person or in a video) dance the way that they do in this video. If you are interested in learning to dance, please, choose another instructor!

This video has been made years ago, the scenary, the efects, the make up and other things tells you that this is an old tape. there you're gonna find only extremly basic movements.
I didnt like that the tape has many cuts to introduce each part of the video, that i find really a waste of time that could be use in teaching. But in the other hand is quite simple and easy to follow.

Atea is quite cold as a trainer, doesnt transmit the energy and strenght that belly dance carries itself. And you can see her reading the lines she's telling in front of the camera.
But still is a good choise for a first learning Belly Dance video.

This is the best by far of all the instructional tapes on learning to belly dance. The series is done very professionally and the teaching is clear and is well demostrated. Top Notch!

Just so everyone knows, Atea is NOT that stiff in real life! She must be camera-shy (a lot of us are). She is an excellent dancer, although she could use a bit of meat on her. Still, for basic moves and correct technique, it's a good starter video.

If you're looking for a video to workout along with, this is probably not going to be what you're looking for. If you're looking to learn a few moves, you might pick up a few. Atea is extremely stiff through the entire video, and sometimes looks unbalanced. You can't see hers or the dancers' legs much of the time sometimes due to camera angles, mostly due to costuming, so you're not always sure you're executing the move correctly if you don't already know what you're doing. At the end of every section Atea and the other 2 dancers behind her simply "improv" a little dance using the moves taught. You can't see what everyone is doing through the "improv" sections so it's not like you could pick one dancer and imitate her, so you will have to do your own thing, fast forward through it, or improv yourself. I don't think most beginners want to make things up as they go along after only 5 minutes of being shown 3 moves. The section on veil work doesn't tell you much of anything at all, it just shows you different women dancing and spinning. For a beginner who doesn't know how to execute a turn without making herself dizzy, following what the dancers do could wind up with a really nice concussion, but not much learning.

Out of 10 videos in my bellydance library, this one is the absolute worst. I recommend anyone else's over this.

If you are looking for a tape to dance "with", this isn't it.
It's more like a documentary on dance.