Bellydance: Beautiful Technique from Step One, with Autumn Ward: Beginner belly dancing classes, Belly dance how-to, Beginner bellydance instruction [ALL REGIONS]

This dvd is proberly not good for people that have never belly danced. But if you have learnt the very basics, but don't feel ready for intermediate level, Sort of lost in belly dance limbo as i was, then this is the dvd for you The teacher is lovely explans what she is doing, what muscle group is being used and how to breathe through the moves. I only got this dvd last night Had a go this morning and already i feel more confident, with just doing the arm movements and the first hip section. GET THIS IF YOU WANT TO GET GOOD AT BELLY DANCE.

I was thrilled to see that Autumn Ward had released an instructional DVD. She is one of my favourite dancers.I could divide this DVD into three sections.1. A long speech that Autumn delivers sitting down.2. An extremely long and detailed section in which she breaks down and explains minutely anything from proper posture, arms positions and transitions, building blocks and five blocks of hip isolations from beginner to advanced moves.3. A practice section comprised of seven drills (`loosely choreographed dances') and a short choreography.Now my opinions:1. The speech is actually very interesting. I am a total sucker for speeches. First Autumn presents her DVD and the concept behind it. Explains (yay!) how to approach it and even hints at the amount of time it will take you to master all the material presented. Then she goes on about the love for dancing and how we should clarify with ourselves what we want from our dancing experience, what kind of dancers we want to be. She gives advice about choreography, training, style and many other things I can't recall. If you're into this sort of things you'll be happy, if not this part may have little to no value for you.2. This section is not (IMHO) intended for a follow-along approach. I would think of it more as reference material, something to go back to when I want a lecture with visual aid on a particular movement or variation. I watched this section once from beginning to end, and went back to individual segments more than once (bear in mind that I'm not a beginner and already knew most of the movements). I particularly enjoy lengthy explanations. After three years of dancing only with the help of DVDs, I found myself craving details, names, descriptions. Autumn gives you all this. Also, her arms technique is perhaps the best around from a teaching point of view. Her way of classifying arm placements and variations through four positions and five styles (plus variations) is probably the only one that manages to comprise every possible arm placement (or at least the greatest number of them). I LOVE arms and hands and use them a lot when I dance. Some people don't like that she's wearing a bikini in this part, but I think it's good that we can see exactly what her legs and feet are doing. This part is also filmed in a studio in front of a mirror, so you get two angles to look at.3. I watched the flows and reckoned I could have done up to the 6th already. However, I decided to follow Autumn's instructions and am working my way up to the drills, one by one, until I can do each exercise in my sleep. It's working and VERY rewarding. The flows are very well constructed and the music is quite nice. I liked that Autumn opted for Middle-eastern music for this part, instead of the more `fantasy' music she usually prefers. I explain: I usually favour a different kind of music myself. But I think it's better for a learner to practice with more `traditional' bellydance music, with a recognisable beat. Here she is dressed in a cute Bellydance costume, but once again her legs are perfectly visible and you can see everything. This time her image is superimposed on a pretty digital background. This is definitely the section you'll be using the most. It's not usual for a DVD to provide both detailed explanations AND excellent drills, but this one does it. Bravo Autumn. As for the choreo, I haven't done it yet but it's beautiful and comprises only movements she teaches in the DVD. There are also two performances, one of the choreography with a lovely red costume, and a quite long fantasy choreo in pure Autumn style.Now, a few points of criticism.Having clarified that I loved this DVD to bits and I use it often, I have to take exception to a couple of things.First of all: seriously, where is the cool-down? There is a great warm-up and arms warm-up, but there's no suggested way to properly stretch at the end of the practice. I found it almost shocking, given Autumn's thoroughness in everything else.Then. The DVD is already awfully long, so I totally get that she had to sort through the movements and couldn't include everything, not at the level of detail she gives. But. She chose to completely exclude two families of isolations: vertical hip slides (that she only mentions in the section on side to side tilts), and with them movements such as the maya and the omi (that happen to be my favourite movements), and ribcage isolations. Yes, folks, there are NO upper-body isolations whatsoever. No chest slides, no chest lifts, pops, pushes, whatever you call them, no chest circles, no shoulder shimmy. Zero, zip, nada. The only chest movement included in the DVD is what she calls `spiralling', covered as an arm variation (a tilt-and-twist movement of the ribcage that gives a different look to the arms especially when turning). Her undulation is `worked below a floating ribcage'. Oh, and by the way she doesn't cover the reversed undulation.To sum up. This DVD is awesome. You will learn an awful lot from it and not only in terms of movements. Some of the movements are characteristic of Autumn's signature style and thus maybe new to you if you're not a seasoned dancer. She is a terrific teacher and the practice flows are excellent. However, it is not comprehensive of all the isolations we use in bellydance, and you may want to integrate it with something else, especially if (like me) you're a fan of chest movements. Maybe Autumn will release another DVD in the future with the missing movements and new material (longer choreography? Maybe more than one?). Also, do not buy it if you're an absolute beginner unless you are really serious about dancing as you may feel a bit overwhelmed and maybe bored by the wealth of details.

Well structured DVD - easy to see what you should be doing and follow along. Suitable for a beginner but I think if you practice it regularly you will gain the graceful belly dancing skills you want. The DVD lessons are in sections and I started on the wrong bit at first and thought it was way too hard - once I was in the beginners bit I was fine.

Rubbish don't bother!! Never been so bored in my life!!! firstly she is to stiff to be a belly dancer.... he moves are neither airy nor sexy. Don't waste your money and find a better DVD

I have been dancing for sometime. I Think it is always good to go back to the root steps, to remind yourself of the basics. If you are a beginner. I think this is one of the best DVD you could get. Autumn Ward, talks to you about the techniques. Braking it down into a easy to under stand format.

Very good broken down instructions.

Good

This DvD is fantastic. I am a bit more than a beginner now but I started using this DvD as one with no classes available. I have been working with the DvD for a few months now but working though it I never felt I needed another DvD or any more explanation that was already given. I think I will always go back to it to cover basics again. It is also good because it is almost style-less and the moves can be morphed into any style with further study. The only thing I have to complain about this DvD is the moves are a bit limited, there are no chest isolations but in an interview about the DvD Ms Ward said that she wanted to put them in however she would have had to sacrifice some detail in other places which she didn't want to do and I am glad she didn't! There has been mention about another DvD, though I have no idea how true this is, that focus on the things she couldn't add in.Overall though; BUY THIS DVD!! =]