Thread: Instructional DVDs for Randa/Leila/Diana Tarkan

I noticed that Natasha's website now has information on these DVDs that she filmed/produced. It has been a long time coming!!! There are trailers that you can watch too.

NS Enterprises ::Belly Dance Instructional DVDS and Interviews with the Stars::

oh, they are so mine! Thanks for posting this.

this is soooo on my wishlist!

Diana does floorwork! Huh. Leila's version of Esmaooni is quite inspiring. :)

Omg!! I Need These!

I know what I'm doing this summer!
Studying these, together with my new Orit dvds.......yippee

Awesome! I loved her footage for the "Dancers of Cairo"! Thanks for sharing Catherine!

I signed up to get these but have not heard word from Natasha about payment for them. I also contacted her/them through the contacts website page and got nadda. Anyone get any more info on these dvds?

Hi,
This is Natasha and I appreciate the interest in my new dvd's! I just read that Jasani tried to contact me thru my website and did not get a response. That shouldn't be happening...maybe there are kinks that need to be worked out with the new site...but I do respond to every query - sometimes it takes me 24 hrs, but no longer. If anyone has any trouble contacting me thru the site, please feel free to email me directly at bellydancetasha@yahoo.com.
I will be happy to get your questions/comments!
Natasha Senkovich
ps. Thank you Catherine!!

I got the set, and have been watching the Randa video. I've only gotten through a little of the choeography, but here are my first impressions for anyone who is interested:

The DVD starts out with nice chaptering, with the titles on a papyrus background and a picture of Randa, and Egyptian music playing in the background. Some people don’t care, but I like little details like that. The main menu has Technique, Choreography Instruction, Performance of Choreography, and Bonus Features. For the technique and the choreography parts, she teaches in a large room with a mirror, so you can see front and back views. There’s a disclaimer on the video that it was shot in less than perfect conditions in Egypt, but really, it’s fine. She’s in focus, she’s not dancing in the dark, the camera holds still, and you can hear every word.

The technique section has a break-down of some of Randa’s favorite moves, and she points out a lot of little stylistic things, like how she holds her hands or her head. She does break the moves down by explaining whether her hips are going up or down, where she places her hands, etc. She doesn’t go into the anatomical detail that so many American instructional videos do now, like pull from your obliques, contract your psoas, etc. The moves in this section are actually pretty basic, but it’s nice to see her style and hear her dance philosophy. Then there’s a section in which she demonstrates her favorite dance combinations to different dance rhythms played by a live drummer. This part isn’t really broken down, so you just have to watch a few times and follow along. Finally, there’s a rhythm section with no dancing. The drummer just names each rhythm and plays a few measures.

Then there’s the Choreography instruction. It seems pretty long. There are 8 sections, and I’ve only gotten through two. Once again, she demonstrates the steps slowly with the sort of general explanation she used in the technique section. So far, the hip work is pretty simple, but the foot work and spins seem fairly intricate to me, so this choreography will probably keep me busy for a while.

In the bonus section, there is an interview with her. I haven’t watched the whole thing, but I like her no nonsense attitude. At one point, Natasha asks her if she thought it was her destiny to dance. Randa said something along the lines of, “Yes, because I love to dance, I made it my destiny. If I didn’t like to dance, I wouldn’t do it.”

One warning – the website states that the DVDs are dual layer format and might not play on older DVD players. My DVD player is only a couple years old, but it’s pretty cheap and couldn’t play them. I’m watching them on my computer, which isn’t perfect, but it’s still worth it.

I bought the Leila one at MECDA's festival the day before I was performing that song (Esmaooni) and it was really helpful to have an section where Leila interprets/translates sections of the song. There is also an interview with her and a huge bonus section of her dancing on the boat!! I thought the DVD was well-made with lots of extras.

rosemarie, may I ask you what dvds there are by Orit??? i cannot find any online.. thanks!!!

There was a posting on the Bellydance video forum a while ago whereby it was possible to order Orit's (Hebrew language) instructional dvds whilst she was in Canada. I think it was a "one time - be quick" action.

Originally Posted by nasila

I bought the Leila one at MECDA's festival the day before I was performing that song (Esmaooni) and it was really helpful to have an section where Leila interprets/translates sections of the song. There is also an interview with her and a huge bonus section of her dancing on the boat!! I thought the DVD was well-made with lots of extras.

I was wondering about how good these will be . . . I really like Leila and Randa, but don't know much about Diana . . . so I guess I better count some pennies out of the bank!

I finally finished the Randa Kamel DVD. Here's the rest of the description/review:

The whole choreography IS long and fast. There are eight sections, but there is one part that repeats like a chorus between each new section, so it's not an impossible amount of material to learn. There are a few combos and moves I feel like I picked up pretty easily, and a few I'll need to watch carefully a lot more times, which is exactly how I like a video to be - with stuff I can put to use right away and a reason to go back to it after the first couple times. Be aware that Randa's style is very forceful and sharp. There were a lot of shimmies, a lot of prancing steps, and even a couple jumps. There was nothing in this this choreography that I hear people describe as "ooey gooey." Just to give you an idea of her style, when she's explaining how to do one type of shimmy (the one that I've heard Americans call a running shimmy or a choo-choo shimmy), she says something like "Don't just move your feet. You really want to pound the floor hard."

Then, under the bonus section, there are two live performances, one from the Cairo Mariott and one from the Nile Maxim cruise boat. These aren't little three minute teasers. These are full 25 and 30 minute performances. The one on the boat does sometimes have tables in the way, or waiters walking in front of the camera, but the one at the hotel shows Randa on an open stage and is cleaner camera work than I've seen on most of the straight performance videos of Egyptian dancers.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this video to anyone interested in Egyptian style dance. Considering the contents - technique, a full length choreography broken down in detail, almost an hour of live performance footage, and a 10 minute interview, it's an excellent value. If you pay attention during the teaching sections, you can even learn to count from 1 - 8 in Arabic. :)

The only caveat I'd put is that it's not a good overview of general Egyptian style dance if that's what you're looking for. It's a presentation of one Egyptian dancer's very distinctive style. Fortunately, there are 2 other DVDs in the series that present two other very different choreographies. Once I get time to watch them all the way through, I can review those too.

Thanks for your reviews Zamira!

Damn! neither my dvd player nor my computer dvd player will work with these dvds. Very sad.

really? what region are the dvds?

Originally Posted by jasani

Damn! neither my dvd player nor my computer dvd player will work with these dvds. Very sad.

It doesn't say but I assume it's region 1 because it states on the back of the dvd case that it's made in the U.S.A.

Delete, delete, delete -

I cleaned my dvd player with a disc cleaner and they work now!

Woo HOO!

Just watched all 3 DVDs. They are definately worth buying and I really enjoyed the video content and dvd quality. I especially enjoyed the Diane Tarkan DVD. It was jammed pack with instructional material on it. It is longer then the Leila and Randa DVD.

The Diane Tarkan dvd has 2 choreographys, instructional to each choreography (broken down in sections /DVD chapters), plus she performs each choreography in a costume. In the beginning of the DVD, she has a technique section. Plus the DVD has show videos of Diana dancing in Alexandria, Egypt. I have always admired Diane's dancing, since watching her on the Raqia Hassan technique videos. Someday I would love to take workshops by her, but in the mean time I'll study & enjoy this instructional video.

Each DVD teaches a choreography on it (except Diane's, she teaches 2 choreographys). The choreography is broken down in sections (dvd chapters). Then the entire choreography is performed, then the dancer performs the choreography in costume. Each DVD has a interview with the dancer and show videos of the dancer performing in Egypt (this part is like having a whole show video of the dancer).

The Randa DVD covers technique exercises (she breaks down her style of shimmy) and drum solo technique by a drummer.

PS: My DVD player is less then a year old and they played perfectly on my dvd player.

I finally took a look at mine. I have 3 dvd players/burners and they wouldn't play on ANY of them (the oldest is from Christmas) so I don't know what that's about. BUT, they played fine on the computer.

Surprisingly enough (to me), the Diane one is my fave. A lot of good, solid information. Well worth the money.

I really didn't know anything about these dvds before I bought them. Are they part of an ongoing series? Will we see more of them?

Originally Posted by aziyade

I finally took a look at mine. I have 3 dvd players/burners and they wouldn't play on ANY of them (the oldest is from Christmas) so I don't know what that's about. BUT, they played fine on the computer.

Surprisingly enough (to me), the Diane one is my fave. A lot of good, solid information. Well worth the money.

I really didn't know anything about these dvds before I bought them. Are they part of an ongoing series? Will we see more of them?

That's a good question for Natasha . . . regarding whether they are an on-going series. I've been trying to pick her brain about that very thing because I think she has produced some good DVDs . . . but these aren't cheap to produce this way either.

I think she mentioned something about the "less than stellar quality" of filming or something on the cover, but I thought the filming was pretty darn good-- and way better than I expected. A few bits of slight blur here and there, but nothing that obfuscated the instruction.

(can't believe I managed to get "obfuscate" into an online conversation...)

Hi Catherine & Aziyade,
I'm also interested in knowing, if she plans to produce more DVDs in the near future..g.:!
Tammy

These are really great DVD's, and the production quality is very good. A lot of work and care went into them and they are a very good value for the dollar. .The best thing about them, in my opinion is that they feature Egyptian Trained dancers currently performing on stage in Egypt, but they are taught American style- with breakdowns and repetitions instead of "follow the bouncing butt" style of teaching typical of Egptian teachers.
The DVD menu's make it easy to select which section you would like to work on or review. I certainly hope we will see more of these in the future.

I just got them and I already feel it's worth it for the performance footage alone - the two sets of Randa are really long!

Hi, it's Natasha again...just wanted to let everyone know that I ordered new disc replications which are set to region 0 (should play perfectly anywhere in the world) and since they are made from a glass master and are not burned dvd-r's, they should also play perfectly in any dvd player. After hearing some of the feedback from you about the trouble you had playing the dvd's, I decided to invest in ordering the replicated discs (and they are expensive!!). I couldn't afford to do this earlier... I appreciate your feedback and your patience with me as I am slowly learning and building my business:)

I love them Natasha, but they stick in my player. Maybe the new ones would work better.

I was just thinking about buying Randa's DVD - so I am happy that I stumbled across this thread. Sounds like everyone enjoyed it so I will definitely place an order very soon. I am a new fan of Randa Kamel!!!! Wow, her shimmies are AMAZING!!!