Thread: Autumn Ward DVD - review; length of flows?

"Beautiful Technique from Step One" from Autumn Lee Ward & World Dance New York sounds great - does anyone know the length of the flows? I like to get at least 20 minutes of dance without having to mess with the equipment....

Any one care to comment on how they like it?

Thanks!

I love this DVD, it is definitely one of my favourites. Autumn's technique is very strong. Her ballet background gives beautiful posture and flow to her movements, and I find her teaching style very thorough. The choreography she teaches is an original fusion style. She performs two dances in costume at the end of the DVD, - one from the choreography she teaches earlier, and another with folk and Indian influences. Do not purchase this DVD if you want traditional Egyptian style, her style is modern, flowing fusion (not Rachel Brice style) rooted in excellent oriental dance technique. I find her dancing very unique and I adore her musical interpretation. It is excellent value for money too.

Hello HDY and Anita and thank you for the kind words.

“Beautiful Technique” contains about 40 minutes of dance-along material (and another two hours of explanations and breakdowns). It’s a great DVD for anyone who is interested in details, and I recommend it across genres. (My performance and costuming reflect a classical style of contemporary American belly dance, but a huge amount of the instructional content addresses foundation skills that are useful in any bellydance idiom; I also break down a wide variety of movements, many of which are used in all styles of bellydance, and a few of which are used in Modern Egyptian.) I might not immediately recommend BT, however, for someone who just wants to check out and follow along. The materials that became BT were originally designed as a style guide and reference manual, some portions of which were named “flows” later in the production process to match the language used throughout the WDNY family of products. I would suggest that the dance-along content may be most useful when regarded as a collection of practical exercises that show the dance vocabulary I teach used in context.

Best wishes,
Autumn