Bellydance with Blanca [2007]

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Product Description ------------------- Starring Blanca. Review ------ I just got this the other day, bought it more or less on a whim, but what a great deal. It's actually 2 hours of dance/instruction. Blanca is very pretty, very serene, with a soft accent, which sounds very soothing. She's not perky with a huge grin splitting her face in two and she's not all bouncy and bubbly, none of that instant best friend vibe, just pleasant and serene. It's a dance instruction and she wears her part very well. The settings are very nice, not distracting, and she wears great costumes for teaching (you can see her legs when she does the moves). You can also see her perform the dances in full costume and she's very lovely to watch. My husband really liked the music and the dance style for its ity and slow, languid movements. I watched one of the dances first and thought, 'wow, I'd like to move like her.' She moves like liquid, like silk, whatever elegant, graceful, flowing metaphor you want. Instructionwise, she breaks everything down very well, from snake arms, using a lot of descriptive terms (like your arms are moving through honey, is one example), hip circles, figure 8's, and so on. Then she builds on these initial, isolated movements, and you learn more layers, combinations, steps, and build on and on. She even explains alignment, how to align your head, for example, to look more graceful. It's a bit like the Jillina dance instruction dvds, in how she gives you the basics and you build on and on until you are doing a choreographed dance. And of course you can skip and just do the basics or dance along with her, or just watch Blanca, which is what I want to do in addition to learning to dance like her. The music is very nice too and the dances are slow and languid, nothing super fast, but your muscles will feel it nonetheless. It would be fine for beginner dancers or for intermediates. She doesn't spend a huge a of time on each move, so you do get a lot for 2 hours, but you can always rewind 15 or 30 seconds and review. I've got 20 to 30 bellydance dvds and vhs tapes at home and while I've seen and worked out to a lot: Mara, Jillina, Bellytwins, Kathy Smith (just that one), Bellyqueen, Bellydance Superstars, Suhaila, East Coast Tribal, American Tribal and more, I still am very happy with the dvd. It's a good angles (not distracting or only focused on the abs), the production is very good, and it's a nice focus on flowing dance. It's not something you pop in to learn a couple moves for the club, but a lovely routine to stretch and dance to. Venus is the right name because it is very and elegant and beautiful. --.com (US) P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); About the Actor --------------- Blanca has devoted her life to the pursuit of unveiling her own language as a dancer and artist. Against all odds, she followed the career of a belly dancer from her childhood in Mexico where the profession did not yet exist. Since i was a teen there has been nothing as important to me as becoming a good dancer. The dance has taught me compassion, made me grow in infinite ways and continues to allow me to tap into my deepest artistic expression. I became a belly dancer against my conservative beginnings... against the notion that to be a dancer one has to be a size zero, and start ballet at age 3. After years of painful work, I realized that it was all for nothing--until i connected with my spiritual side and began to dance from there. Blanca has performed onstage with Alabina and the surrealist gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Her television credits include the Bollywood Music Awards, which aired worldwide, as well as multiple appearances on Spanish television networks Univision and Telemundo, Fox and BBC. She has performed at venues as diverse as Trump's Taj Mahal, the Brooklyn Museum of art and Lincoln Center. Other credits include: Rolling Stone, Universal Pictures, MTV, and Disney See more ( javascript:void(0) )