Product Description
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Starring Blanca.
Review
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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)
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About the Actor
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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
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