| | |  | DANCE PERFORMANCES | Home » » Seven Veils - Romantic Bellydance | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Sarah Skinner | | Director:
| Sarah Skinner | | Format:
| Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen | | Language:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| StratoStream - World Dance New York | | Run Time:
| 60 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| July 29, 2008 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 7 reviews |
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| New | |
| $7.39 | New | | | $7.39 | New | | | $8.20 | New | | | $8.52 | New | | | $8.58 | New | | | $8.72 | New | | | $8.74 | New | | | $8.76 | New | | | $8.78 | New | | | $8.80 | New | | | $8.81 | New | | | $8.93 | New | | | $9.34 | New | | | $9.53 | New | | | $9.68 | New | | | $9.77 | New | | | $9.78 | New | | | $10.22 | New | | | $11.63 | New | | | $12.13 | New | | | $12.55 | New | | | $13.47 | New | | | $13.49 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | New | | | $14.10 | New | | | $40.90 | New | | | $42.00 | New | |
| Used | |
| $8.63 | Used
- Mint | | | $8.64 | Used
- Mint | | | $8.73 | Used
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- Mint | | | $8.93 | Used
- Mint | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 very sensualJun 21, 2009
In this dvd Sarah Skinner teaches a very sensual and simple choreography you can dance for your "special someone". She also explains how to create a nice and simple costume. Recommended for bellydancers of all levels!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Classy strippingMar 04, 2009
I like Sarah Skinner. She has a very engaging personality, humour, and finesse; she's lovely, pale and long-limbed, like an elf princess. None of that Neon - plastic aerobic style.
And she's an excellent teacher. Patient, soothing, thorough, not too perky (except those "Isn't this fun?" at the end of each move). Her explanations are very clear and even a beginner can understand them - although doing some of the moves might be another pair of shoes altogether! Well, undestanding something is the first step. And of course, if you can't execute all the moves in the choreography, you can always substitute something simpler or leave something out (like the belly rolls in the floorwork part).
So, yes, it's a good DVD as for the instructional part. And you can see how she's having a wonderful time when she talks about costuming - this section was indeed very good.
This said, I find her a cold and uninteresting dancer. She's much better at teaching and explaining than when actually dancing. This was even more painfully evident in her "I love Turkish bellydance" DVD where she had to be much more of a fire-ball. Here almost she gets away with it because of the 'hieratic" theme.
And, because she's so classy and sweet and elf-like, the viewer doesn't immediately realize that what she's doing in the choreography amounts more or less to stripping. The choreography starts with the dancer wrapped up in seven pieces of fabric, which she discards gradually while dancing, the last one while laying down on the floor on her back, with a simultaneous flirty leg kick. Now veils are gone, the underneath revealed, we're ready for the sultan, or .... whatever! How is this different than stripping?
OK, she is left with enough clothes to be considered decent, and the whole packaging is very slick and classy, her (gorgeous) costumes and veils are pure white with red accents... but this does not change the fact.
Concepts like this surely do not help the bellydance community which is striving to distanciate itself from stripping, "exotic dancing", lap dancing, pole dancing, sex workers and the like. I would be more careful.
She has done very tastefully a very tasteless thing. What a gaffe!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the awful play-drama, where King Herod was played by a bellydancer and other bellydancers in modern hairdos looked like embarrassed dilettantes. Yuk! Fortunately, it's almost only at the end, and you can easily skip it.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
3.5 stars - good as a 3 or 4th DVDJan 09, 2009
This is a Very well produced DVD that has lots of information while not being too advanced for those who are just moving up from say, a Dolphina DVD. This is not a long or involved veil choreography and there are only a few different dance movements used.
The dance and veil movements are explained quickly in the technique section- if you are a brand new dancer this would not be enough instruction, but she does give good tips on different moves. (I would reccomend this to someone who has done a couple of bellydance videos for fun and already know how to do some moves already.)
Then she does a performance of the routine, then step by step choreography.
I give it 4 stars because the veil work does not match the level of the bellydancing- she uses very basic veil work with sort of medium bellydance. for instance, she uses floor work, one-hip figure-8's, and chest figure-8's that most baby dancers won't know, but if they were at that dance level already, they probably would have already learned harder veil moves, so it doesn't quite fit together for me. I am a bit disapointed in the veil work used - i expected more from a DVD called 7 veils, I guess. I also found it distracting that she taught in full costume- it didn't really make it harder to see what she was doing, my eyes just kept getting caught by sparkles coming off her cleavage. :)
That said, its not a bad little video. There are extra sections on how to slap together a home-made costume, how to put on your veils for the choreography, a little bit about different kinds of veil fabric and what you'll need for this DVD, and a little section called "audience interaction" that is basically how to turn this into a playful almost-lap-dance for your Man(or Lady). I found that section pretty cheesy and a little too stripper-y for me, but I'm sure some people are buying this just for that purpose, so that's just my opinion.
There is also a performance piece by Sarah and her troupe of a longer Salome story. I found this a rather strange mix as well in that their costumes looked home-made and Sarah has a very 80's look going on with her lace and headbands (ick!) and she rolls around on the floor during her floor work section i a way that i found a little too much, but parts of it were very avant-garde too- khaleegi in Kimonos? That turn out to have 6 of the 7 deadly sins written on the back? gosh! But overall, i thought it to be performed in the "30yr old cheerleader" style- you know, cute and perky and theatrical, but not much depth beyond their new tummy-tuck.
Yeah, that pretty much sums up this DVD for me. it's not bad, it just wasn't enough.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Seven VeilsOct 13, 2008
Sarah Skinner does a good job of explaining veil placement, and how to put them on so they don't fall off. The choreography isn't particularly complex. This is a good starter video for belly dance with the addition of fun veil technique.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Fun, beautiful, good for beginners.Sep 13, 2008
Sarah starts this with a history lesson about the origin of the dance of the seven veils. (This dance has its origins in the marriage of Harrod to his brother's wife. His stepdaughter Salome is actually doing the dance. There is also some discussion of the origin of the veils; they may be symbolic of the seven deadly sins, and their removal symbolizes showing one's true self.)
After the biblical storytelling, Sarah shows you what kinds of veils that you will need and how they should be held or placed in your costume. The instruction progresses to how to dance with the veils.
The instruction is very clear, and Sarah has a good sense of humour that helps the instruction along. The dance itself is inventive, impressive, and doesn't actually take that much bellydance skill.
This would be a good purchase for a dancer who wants to be able to perform something impressive without a lot of prior experience. If you can count, you can probably do this dance. It's really imaginative, and looks a lot more difficult than it really is.
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