Thread: working with videos

what is your method for working with videos? Do you study each one, methodically, one at a time, or jump around depending on your mood that day? Do you study each video until you learn everything on it then move on?

I have dozens of videos, and I tend to jump around...but I wonder if I'd be better off committing to one at a time, especially during the 12 step program. Just curious how others do it.

I've been working with videos for about 6 years now (?) and I've tried a bunch of different approaches.

What worked best for me was directed and concentrated study. I'd take one video a month and really pull it apart and go over and over and over it. If the video was dense (like Shareen el Safy's) then I'd go over just one section a month. I'd practice with it, but then also WATCH it, just sitting on the couch. You miss a lot sometimes when you dance along with the video.

Something that I think really helped me was getting performance videos along with an instructional video, and intensely watching those performance videos in addition to practicing. There isn't much video of Shareen, so instead I bought Mona Said and Fifi Abdo videos, so when Shareen was talking about a Fifi move, I could see Fifi doing it too.

There are some videos now I have "retired" because I feel like I've gotten everything out of them I possibly can, and I've incorporated everything they teach into my dancing. But others -- like Shareen's and Hadia's and all those Dina workshop videos from Little Egypt -- I keep out and "refresh" with every few months or years.

Another thing that helped me was learning choreographies from videos. Although most of them I would never perform, it REALLY helped me to see how different dancers interpreted the music, gave me exposure to different VERSIONS of great songs, and sometimes gave me cute combinations to steal :) Then, just for fun, I would make my own little choreography "in the style of" the video instructor -- using mostly movements or combinations she taught in the video. Helps reinforce what you learned, and it's kind of fun :)

Someone on a forum said she was concentrating on a different topic everyday, so I tried her approach and it ended up working for me, and I do a better rotation in my dvds, instead of concentrating on just one.
a schedule really helps
mine looks like this:

Monday: mostly watch combo dvds to get some new ideas for students.
go over choreographies I teach on Monday nights.
stretching dvd late at night when return

Tuesday: watch begginers dvds, bd drills or ballet workout, go over choreographies i teach on Tuesday nights.

Wednesday: finger cymbals dvd, african dance class that night so stretching dvd before i go to bed is a must.

Thursday: Egyptian style dvd .work on new Egyptian moves, do a choreography on dvd just to practice ( i dont learn the actual choreography so i can change dvd everyweek, otherwise I would just concentrate on one dvd until i know the choreography).

Friday: Folklore dvd day. I change dvd depending on what i want to work on.

Saturday : hip hop dvd + pilates dvd , or go over music finding music for my performance.

Sunday : Veil dvd or Rhythm-finger cymbals dvd .
go over students choreography for private class or whatever choreography i need to work on with a group.
pilates dvd

performance dvd I watch when i feel like it, helps to sit back and enjoy. sometime I have to rely on those because of the lack of instructional in folklore and Turkish style. I often watch concentrating on a style for a couple of weeks.


For exercise videos I tend to always use the same over and over for the last 4 years . but they have different 12 different routines in total , so I alternate and usually do 2 routines per day depending if I want more stretching or cardio ,upper /lower body strenght, core or a dance workout etc.

I was wondering the same thing!

I've decided for now that I'm going to do better studying one video in depth for a while. But since I really can't devote more than an hour a day to my practice, I think I'll work with my chosen video for a few days in a row, then spend a day doing a crosstraining activity (ballet workout is my fave).

In fact, I think I'll spend 3 or 4 days going over a section of video, really working on those moves (or bit of choreo), then spend one day with the TV *off* drilling those moves on my own, improvising with them, making them my own -- then give myself a day of ballet workout instead. (with maybe 15-30 minutes of improv time with the new moves on top of the ballet workout).

I'd rather have two hours a day, one for crosstraining and one for dance. But I'm also trying to lose weight, and this level of exercise doesn't cut it for me, I have to do more intense cardio and weights. I can't possibly do it all every day!!!!

Thanks for bringing this up, Sonja! For the 12-step 90-Day program, I've decided (& I emailed my plan w/some questions to Michelle about this) to do a video on a non-class day but on a week-to-week basis the videos would be part of a series, i.e. the Cheeky Girls/MJ dvds one week, then the Suhaila dvds + Jamila VHS, then another week of Meera DVD + Veena/Neena/Bellytwins Indian Fusion dvds, and so on and so forth. Oh, and during the Holiday break when we have no classes, I'll also do a week or so of NYC Ballet VHS tapes volumes 1&2 + 1 Carmine Guida (doumbek) + 2 Karim Nagi (doumbek) + IAMED Tamra-Henna Rhythms dvd + Momo Kadous zils vhs + Ansuya combos/zils dvd set--just to change things up a bit and study the rhythms/zils a bit more in depth...Does this sound like a good idea, or too "spazzy" and not in-depth enough???

Sounds good to me, as long as you don't put pressure on yourself to stay on schedule or complete a certain number of videos.

At the end of a week, if you feel like you need to delve deeper into that particular material, you can let yourself do that.

or if you get two days into some material and find it doesn't move you, you could still switch gears.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Sounds good to me, as long as you don't put pressure on yourself to stay on schedule or complete a certain number of videos.

At the end of a week, if you feel like you need to delve deeper into that particular material, you can let yourself do that.

or if you get two days into some material and find it doesn't move you, you could still switch gears.

Thanks, Lauren!!!..g.: I was hoping I was organizing my studies in some kind of practical way--just needed reassurance!

I have a hard time incorporating practicing "must-do" things with my video time. I have, really, only 1 hour a day to practice. So I'm thinking I'll do 1/2 hour warm-up reviewing troupe choreos that I have to perform, and personal choreos or improv to songs I'll be dancing to at the restaurant, then 1/2 hour concentrating on a video. Means I don't have much time to really get my teeth into the video, but maybe over the holidays when I'm not working I can up my time to 2 hours a day. Then I've determined that my stretch time just has to occur while I'm spending "TV time" with the hubby or else I get complaints. :-)

I like to move around. I get board of doing the same one again and again. I like to switch it out. One day I do one that is more drill focused, the next day one that has a more dance feel, arms, then abs, shimmies, the hips. This way I can really work on a lot of stuff and not have to do day after day.

I own I think more than 25 vids at this point tho so it is easy for me to switch it up.

i have dozens and mostly dont study them at all. decided i'm going to try and shop for a second cheap smaller TV to put in my study/dance room. i cant practice in the living room with boyfriend around, tried a few times but it annoys both of us. i can watch performance DVS with the headphones on, but i really cant do them properly.

also, i get bored with them, even the good ones, quite quickly. i copuldnt do dvds every day...

Originally Posted by Sonja2

what is your method for working with videos? Do you study each one, methodically, one at a time, or jump around depending on your mood that day? Do you study each video until you learn everything on it then move on?

I have dozens of videos, and I tend to jump around...but I wonder if I'd be better off committing to one at a time, especially during the 12 step program. Just curious how others do it.