The Heartbeat of Bellydance, with Jenna: Belly dance classes, Belly dance instruction with drum solo, Drum solo dance how-to

I'm a beginner and I've never received face-to-face instruction even though I attend bellydancing-style workouts for beginners. This is why I was taken a little aback when I first watched the DVD, especially Jenna's performances.If you've never ever bellydanced before, you'll need another set of instructions to start with first. I saw that Jenna is making a new DVD (basics and beyond) and I suppose that she will give more detailed explanation in it. I'd say this very DVD is at intermidiate level even though beginners will find it useful just like advanced dancers.I've read the reviews for almost all DVDs available on amazon and I noticed that usually beginners give high ratings and more advanced dancers are very critical. It seems to me that everyone agrees it's a wonderful DVD and I find very indicative of its quality.I have to point that in order to learn the moves well, it's necessary to use a mirror especially if you're not experienced/well familiar with these moves. It's easy enough to follow Jenna along but when I cast a glance at the mirror, more often than not I realize they look very little like Jenna's. This is especially true about the hip accents.PROS of this DVD:1. It's long and inclusive. It has a warmup, drills to improve technique/ train muscles, a section divided into three groups - at beginning, intermidiate and advanced level. The rhythm workshop is great for learning drum solo rhythms and their interpretations. There are several seperate performances. It's 85 mins. It's great value for your money.2. JENNA is an example of what a dancer should look like. Her dancing is very refined, she movements - very delicate. She's an example of what it is like to blend mastery with grace. Most of the dancers I'm watched tend to do exaggerated and jerky movements which is very much unlike her and yet her dancing looks just as good, if not better.3. What I love about it is that it suggests three full choreographies and I got the sense of completion with that.4. I'm very happy with the shimmy drills. They are a wonderful workout and they also gave me the chance to watch Jenna shimmy for a long time. It made me think "oh maybe I'll be able to do it like that some day".5. Jenna is dancing in front of a mirror. Even though I have a few remarks about that, it's a fairly good idea.6. Jenna has a good attitude as an instruction. I dislike the fake smiles that so many professional dancers have like *plastered* on their faces (like Neena and Veena). Her dancing is inspiring in the way that it makes you feeling bellydancing is fun and enjoyable.7. The DVD is organized in nice short segments that you can watch and rewind as many times as you want to fit your needs. You can do it again and again and again. Probably at least 6 months worth of practice is packed up in this DVD.8. Her performances in the seperate section are quite inspiring. I'm sure advanced, maybe even professional dancers would find them interesting and useful.9. What I love about this DVD is the traditional dancing. I also got Neon's Crash Course DVD and I was disappointed to hear music you could listen to in nightclubs. There are ONLY typical mid-easterns rhythms included, no fusion.CONS of the DVD:1. As a beginner, I was taken aback the first time I saw this DVD. It's very hard at first and Jenna does not give very detailed instructions (what a person who's never bellydanced before would need). However, I think more advanced dancers would enjoy this approach and find too much explanation boring.2. I saw that someone else complained about not being able to see her feet (if she's on tiptoe or not). I had the same problem. My bigger problem was that Jenna is facing the mirror, not the camera and it's much harder for me to learn watching the back. If I need to watch what she does with her belly I have to stop dancing and stare (I have a small screen). I'm happy that when she performs it's the other way round, so I can get a better idea of how she does things.To sum everything up, I would recommend this DVD to everybody. It's a great value for many many hours of excercise, combinations, choreography, everything. I have to warn beginners (especially those who've never bellydanced before) that they're likely to find this DVD uphill at first, so I would recommend to them to get another something else as well (Neena and Veena or Neon, etc). I'm sure that if you wait until September for Jenna's other DVD, it would make an awesome first step to mastering the wonderful choreography in this DVD.

this was interesting, but I found myself drifting off, it's odd, hard to understand. Just not a great buy.

This is a great DVD for Belly Dance beginners or slightly more advanced. The steps are really easy to follow and are presented several different ways. You can "Learn and Practice" or you can watch the Demonstration of three different pieces with varying difficulty. It makes it easy to break down one step until you learn it, or just plow right through and have fun with it. A few of the moves are a little tricky, so don't think its all easy-peasy and boring. Also, there is a segment that introduces the various rhythms. Drum Solos are the most fun to watch, so I was anxious to learn to dance to one. The viewer can see Jenna from the back, but you can also view her movements from the front since she faces a mirror for each demonstration. She breaks down the 3/4 shimmy drill and you learn a lot about belly dance itself as well as some cool choreography! The only reason I wouldn't give it that 5th star is because the DVD quality is a little grainy and that's the way its shot. Other than that, this is a great introduction to Belly Dancing and especially to Belly Dancing for drum solos.

It's been a while since I've been really delighted with a belly dance DVD. This DVD is something special, though! I've been listening to a great Arabic radio station (thank heaven for TiVo!) and was looking for something that would explain Arabic rhythms. The information Raquy presents is enough to justify the cost of this DVD alone!But there's more to love. Jenna is an excellent instructor *for the late beginner-early intermediate* student. She assumes knowledge of many belly dance steps. As an intermediate student myself, I found this DVD just right. The first two choreos were easy and gave me an opportunity to get accustomed to dancing while paying attention to the rhythms. The third was a bit more challenging -- but fun! As a side note, I loved how Jenna carefully broke down transition steps.Jenna herself is marvelous. Her stage presence is amazing, and her dancing is naturally sensuous. I adore Veena and Neena, but they should take a lesson from Jenna, and put on a few pounds! Jenna's belly jiggles a bit when she shimmies, and she has *hips*! Woo-hoo! For those of us with a *real* woman's body, Jenna is a welcome respite from skinny-mini belly dancers.I have just one itty-bitty critique -- I'd have preferred if Jenna did the choreo breakdown in pants that weren't so long. It was hard to see at times if she was on tiptoe or flat-footed.Otherwise, this is an absolute must-have DVD. I really wish I'd found this DVD much, much sooner. I wouldn't have been able to follow Jenna until I'd been dancing for a while (I'm a painfully slow learner), but I wish I'd known more about Arabic rhythms when I first began studying belly dance. Thank you, Jenna and Raquy!

Tut mir Leid. Die bisher schlechteste DVD, die ich gekauft habe. Die Schritte werden schlecht erklärt. Die Kameraführung ist miserabel. Man muss Bauchtanz beherrschen, um überhaupt einigermaßen klar zu kommen. Bei dieser DVD verliert man eher die Lust am Tanzen.2 Sterne, da Jenna im Grunde genommen eine gute Tänzerin ist. Kamera, Erklärung der Tanzschritte und Tanzspaß beim Üben jeweils 0 Sterne.

Love this DVD. I bought this solely to understand the rhythm patterns and this did that for me. There is also three choreographed routines to learn which she breaks down in very clear instruction. She also has shimmy drills. I got more out of this than just the rhythms...so it was worth the purchase. This particular "style" is not my favorite, but need a good foundation to build on. A great practice DVD.

I've been taking belly dancing lessons and wanted something to supplement what I was learning in class. We were moving on to drum solos and I've always been fascinated by how belly dancers are able to make those sharp hits in time to the drum beat, so wanted something that would help me practice at home so even if I looked a total numpty only me and the living room mirror would know. This DVD proved extremely useful. It shows choreography and then it's broken down into the various steps. After each step is taught the choreography is repeated up to that point so as you go along and learn the steps you also learn the choreography. Through this DVD I was able to improve some of my hip drops into sharper moves and I also learned quite a lot. The instruction on the various drum beats was interesting, but too much to take in. I would need to watch that section several times before I would be able to recognise the different beats. All in all well worth the money and it's a good workout practising the short, medium and longer routines on the DVD.

シミーが上手くできないので、シミーのレッスンのところが好きです。今は「もうダメ〜。きつい〜。クタクタだ〜。」と思いますが、このうちのめされる感じが好きです。ＤＶＤの中の先生のように、正確にオシリを動かせるようになりたい。コツコツ続けていきます。

シミーの練習になるし、英語は全くわからなくてもわかりやすいです！