Thread: Lulu Sabongi available to download

Can i get some reviews of her videos? i just looked and i see her great performance stuff---but who has any of her training DVDs? how is her English? then i might want to download something.

Or are there previews we can see?

I am very interested too, if anyone has reviews on these!

Re: How her English is--it says it's in Portuguese, but subtitled.

I checked youtube but found no trailers.

If you watch/have watched her DVDs, please let us know!

Lulu? Download? Where?

Originally Posted by david

Lulu? Download? Where?

The Bhuz store!

Oh my God... I just visited Bhuz.tv and my eyes are drooling and my mouth is wide open...! How awesome!

I have a few of the DVDs that are available for download... I have the Hip Technique DVD and the Traveling steps DVD. I also have another DVD by her on the basics (called Essential Isolations) but it's not available for download on Bhuz.
These DVDs are old (late 90's or early 2000's?) but the material in them is still quite relevant.

Lulu Sabongi is a very thorough teacher and one of my favorite dancers. She has trained most of my favorite dancers, so I always look to her instruction and her way of doing things for inspiration.

In the hip techniques DVD, she breaks down a few different traveling shimmies. What I like about this DVD is that she only goes over a few moves, but goes over each one very thoroughly, explaining the posture, weight transfers, going over correct demi-pointe technique, showing the move step by step and then at regular speed, flat-footed and on demi-pointe, different variations, etc. I like this format much more than DVDs that try to fit as much material as possible without going over each move thoroughly.

She goes over the "lateral hit" (what they call a 3/4 shimmy in Brazil), a move she calls "Soheir Zaki shimmy" which is another type of 3/4 shimmy, a "Mona Said shimmy" which is that traveling shimmy with a pelvic tuck accent and is most often done in a circle floor pattern, another 3/4 shimmy but with a weight transfer from front to back with emphasis on the front, another 3/4 shimmy with a weight transfer from front to back with emphasis to the back, then another shimmy based on Soheir Zaki (a 3/4 shimmy with a twist).

Between different sections of the DVD there are solo performances by dancers who were her students at the time (many of these dancers grew to become stars of belly dance in Brazil) and demonstrations by Lulu or Lulu together with the girls. At the beginning and in the end there are performances by Lulu.

The duration is 1 hour and 25 minutes.

I worked on this DVD a few times a few years ago. It really helped me get a grasp on different traveling shimmies. Now as I watch this DVD again to write the review, I see how much I can still get out of working with it again, so I am planning on doing so in the near future.

If you don't pay attention to detail, don't like to split hairs, and don't have patience for thorough explanations, this isn't the DVD for you. If you want a grasp on Lulu's technique and enjoy going over the finer points of belly dance technique then it is.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and regarding the language issue, of course I didn't have that problem since I'm Brazilian. My copy isn't subtitled. I'm not sure what it would be like working with those DVDs while having to read subtitles... but I know if I didn't speak Portuguese I would at least try, because Lulu Sabongi is worth that effort to me.

The DVD I reviewed above, I would imagine shouldn't be a problem with the subtitles since everything is so broken down and so the whole thing is fairly slow-paced.

Now, when I talk about moves being thoroughly broken down and the DVD being slow-paced, please do not mistake me for saying this is a beginner DVD. This is not a beginner DVD by any means. It would be very hard for a baby beginner, and I think even very advanced dancers can get a lot out of it, unless you've been studying with Lulu for years and already know all this stuff.

The "Traveling Steps" DVD is formatted differently... she goes over a lot more steps in less time. I've never gotten through the whole thing because, for some reason, I have no patience for traveling steps DVDs or DVDs with too much material on them

"Eights, Undulations, and Circles" is a more beginner-friendly DVD that goes over the basic moves listed in the title. I don't have this DVD, but I've run into a lot of clips from it on youtube, enough to get the general impression that it is formatted like the DVD I reviewed in the posts above ("Hip Techniques"), meaning she goes over only a few moves but breaks them down in detail, shows variations, talks about where the move comes from and why she calls it that or why people call it that... etc. Lots of valuable information.

Here is a clip from that DVD on youtube:
You can see how the video quality isn't the best (as I've said before, these DVDs are around a decade old) but you can also see how much time she takes to explain everything.

All the other DVDs I know nothing about, but in the future (once I am done working on all the DVD's I've recently purchased and going back to my old Lulu DVDs) I plan on getting "Posture and Corrections" and "Veil" from Bhuz.tv, because I am sure Lulu Sabongi has some valuable insight on these topics, plus I love her veilwork.

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

You can see how the video quality isn't the best (as I've said before, these DVDs are around a decade old) but you can also see how much time she takes to explain everything. .

Freshly made full previews of each of the DVDs are coming very soon!


Thanks for posting that trailer! The picture quality is actually better than what youtube shows.
These are GREAT programs! Anyone who loves Lulu Sabongi will really enjoy getting her perspective!

Portugese is a facinating lanugage!

Lulu is definitely worth it! I love her. She's not only a generous instructor and dancer, but a beautiful and generous person as well. She's very inspiring and supportive - and insightful - and humble. OK. Must. Get. Bhuz. DVD. Downloads. Now.

Thank you for the insight to the structure of the DVDs, yameyameyame.

:D

Originally Posted by david

Portugese is a facinating lanugage!

Lulu is definitely worth it! I love her. She's not only a generous instructor and dancer, but a beautiful and generous person as well. She's very inspiring and supportive - and insightful - and humble. OK. Must. Get. Bhuz. DVD. Downloads. Now.

Thank you for the insight to the structure of the DVDs, yameyameyame.

:D

Yes, she is indeed all that... a great dancer, a great teacher, and a great person to be around. I have taken just one private with her, and it opened so many doors for me in terms of the way I look at my dance and what I should focus on next and how... it was amazing. I hope I can schedule another private with her next time I go to Brazil :)

Yay! Lulu!!

I will definitely purchase her DVD:s, I love her style!
Going to Brazil next year so hopefully I'll take classes with her!

Originally Posted by taji-dancer

Can i get some reviews of her videos? i just looked and i see her great performance stuff---but who has any of her training DVDs? how is her English? then i might want to download something.

Please, share more details so can get proper information about this thing. I would like to read more on it. I like your question at here.