Bellydance Superstars

I had read some of the negative reviews of this dvd beforehand, but ordered it anyway. I am an avid fan of bellydance so I figured I would get something out of it. I ended up loving it. As a student of bellydance myself I was both humbled and inspired by these dancers. My personal favorites were Ansuya, Jillina, Sonia and Rania. After seeing Ansuya's first dance to "Chicky" all I could say was WOW! If I could ever dance and use finger cymbals half as well I would die happy. Just joking. I also loved Jillina's dynamic drum solo. She interacts nicely with the drummers. My husband even enjoyed this one and he is not a huge bellydance fan. Sonia is very beautiful and has a graceful, classic cabaret style. Rania has a passionate, earthy style to her dance. All of the dancers are masters of their craft and deserve appreciation. As for the visual effects, I do not understand the criticisms. This is a performance video not an instructional video. It is fun to watch but you can also see enough of the dancers to learn from their moves. The smoke effects,when present do not bother me. The set is suitably exotic but not obtrusive. Overall, I think this is a well-made dvd and a great value for the money.

well, since bellydance is a middle eastern dance, there has been a lot of bashing from the arab side against american bellydancers, but i think they're just being ridiculous. so i as an arab, will give my review on this dvd.i liked the overall setting, it was nice with all the persian carpets and arab decor but at some point, it seemed too much like a museum, but it was better than bellydance divas dvd setting. it looked like a talk show. hehe. i thought the lighting was very well done. it gave me the feeling of intimacy and romance, it was perfect, and the smoke didn't affect me too much, it seemed pretty moderate. sound and angles... thats another story i will get to after i review the dancers...AMAR GAMAL: the girl looks like a supermodel and the way she dances really shows you how dedicated she is to her craft. she was great in every way! it was the first time for me to watch a bellydance on techno (oojami song). and i liked it quite a lot, it was really innovative. and when she performed to talakik, i was happy to see that she looked like she was having a good time and she showed a lot of comfort with herself while dancing. good job amar!ANSUYA: a next beauty! but aside from her looks, she is also a terrific dancer as well! i think she is by far the most agile and swift dancers out of this dvd! her performances are energetic and very uplifitng. they were excellent, and her costumes are interesting as well.RACHEL BRICE: like most arabs, i wasnt a big fan of the "tribal" movement. but rachel brice shut me up really good! though i thought her costume was freaky, i was soooooo incredibly mesmerized by her fluency of the music. and the control she has over her abdominals is absolutely astonishing! i thought both of her performances were superb, and the simon shaheen song she danced to could have brought anyone to tears.JILLINA: who doesnt love jillina? just because she is on this dvd, you know you have to get it! her drum solo was sooo entertaining to watch, i can watch it over and over. and her interactions with issam and elian are very professional of her i must add. her dancing is very well done. but... what is up with her costumes?? a pink snake and animal print? wtf? does dina design her costumes? hehe. but anyhow, jillina was great nonetheless.SONIA: superstar? what? who the hell let her in? i am soooo sorry to say. but she looks like she only learned to bellydance a month prior to the filming of this dvd. she has the basic idea of the dance, but i felt no energy from her. her performance lead me to believe her experience was very young and now beginning. they should have had veena and neena instead of her. i mean... Nawal Al Zoughbi? Nawal al Zoughbi?! who bellydances to her music? i grew up listening to nawal, and i love her music, but nobody i know ever got the urge to bellydance to her songs! especially a song like elli tmanetoh, which is supposed to be an upbeat pop song.SUHAILA SALIMPOUR: i love suhaila a lot. ive seen her perform before and i am always captivated by her style. but this dvd honestly didn't show suhaila at her best. the abdel halim song she danced to was an okay performance, i felt her energy pretty well and it wasn't so bad. the violin taqaseem could have been better if it wasn't for the bad sound production and camera work. grrrr. but like i said.... i'll get to that later. but to get suhaila in her best action, go to her website and buy some of her solo dvds. you will think again after watching them.TAMALYN DALLAL: i enjoy her a lot. though she wasn't anything special on my list, she was not in bad eye. she was quite good. she shows that with age and experience you become better at your craft. good dancer!RANIA: rania, i love her but there is this flaw about her that i cant quite put my finger on. as a greek girl i can tell she understands the whole mediterannean/middle eastern vibe. but though she has everything needed: good body, good music etc. she kind of lacks a type of grace. i think she should learn the kind of grace im talking about from ansuya and rachel brice. like, rania has all the moves and she knows what shes doing, but she seems to technical and it doesnt look to me like she always feels the music right. but she is still worth looking at.SOUND & ANGLES: this pissed me off. this is why i took off one star. firstly, i have no need to hear the beads on the dancers costumes hitting each other and making jingly sounds, it makes everything sound drowned out. why couldn't they dub the music? it would make the viewing experience sound so much better. it sounded too much like a stupid stereo was playing in the back (which it probably was) and i could understand not dubbing the performances with the zills like ansuya and tamalyn, but jeesh. and i think suhaila's violin taqaseem was screwed up because of the sound. fathi's violin was honestly not loud enough for me to enjoy the performance, they could have at least given him a microphone for his violin. and the camera angles were screwed up as many reviewers will agree. patrick stewart did the cameras, and i know his name is big in cinematography. but he obviously doesnt have a clue on taping bellydance. i know that cinematography is an art. but i have noo honest need to see close ups of rachel brice's face every four seconds, i have no need to see fathi and his violin while only one quarter of suhaila is shown, i have no need to get an ant's eye view of ansuya dancing, i have no need to feel like a child hiding behind some room object trying to see jillina doing a drum solo. when filming a bellydancer, the camera should capture her body for the most part because thats where the magic takes place. grrrrrrr.anyhow, all in all, this dvd is worth it! i do recommend it to anyone who enjoys bellydance performances!

I bought this DVD for 2 reasons 1) the support Rachel Brice who is not only a fantastic dancer but beautiful outside AND inside...a great person and 2) to hopefully get some good footage of her style. The previous review about poor camera footage of her was accurate. She's the only dancer where the cameraman had diarrhea of the camera crane. <start rant> The camera is constantly moving around. Here are a multitude of great shots of her arm and hand when the viewer has the glimpse that she's doing some rockin or sultry belly/hip moves...like I *want* to see her *arm* (it's nice too...but you get my point). A message to the guys with the camera -- hold it still for goddess sakes...geez man. I saw minutes of Suhaila (albeit a fantastic dancer) with full body shots, her flipping her hair and in contrast Rachel's ... <sigh> ...arm. <end rant> Anyway, I'm still glad that I got it. What I saw of Rachel was great...I'm tibal/fusion style dancer, and I really did appreciate all of the other dancers. Picked up some moves too (from *all* of the dancers).

A very enjoyable product and very talented performers fun to watch. I love Rachel Bryce I am A Rachel Bryce fan but there were others who were very good performers also.

Having seen the Bellydance Superstars in performance, I had high hopes for this dvd. Sadly, my hopes were dashed by a manic cameraman and idiotic editors who apparently failed to realize that their target audience (bellydancers) enjoys seeing nice, stable, full body shots of each performance. What we get in this dvd is a nausea-generating ride from a cameraman who clearly wanted to be on MTV.Some of the more annoying things: 1) Smoke from incense burners clouded the air during most numbers. As a dancer, I hate getting smoke in my costume, but I now reserve a special level of hatred for the genius who decided that a smokey room was the best place to showcase the talents of some of the best dancers in the US. 2) The set is too crowded. Overlapping oriental rugs? With standing vases (in the middle of the dance floor) and knickknacks that belong in the british museum? And a spotlighted sarcophagus? Next time save some production costs and use a very, very plain sound stage. And give the cameraman some valium. 3) The most frustrating part of the whole DVD is that the camera focuses on one body part while the action is CLEARLY happening in another area. I don't mind the occasional closeup of shimmying hips, but it makes no sense to do a closeup of a dancer's face while she's shimmying her hips.In all - ARGH! There is not one thing in this DVD that could make me recommend it to another buyer. This says a lot, as I normally hang off of Ansuya's every movement.

This is by far the best performance dvd I've seen. My favorite before this was "Live in Paris", but this surpasses it. This is strictly for entertainment however and is not for people who want all wide shots to watch technique etc. Every aspect of this dvd is amazing: the set, the music, the performances and the costumes are all fantastic. The opening number by Amar Gamal is worth the price all by itself. For pure entertainment you can't beat this. My only negative is that the dvd is 4:3 letterbox so that there are black bars all around, but on my 42 inch screen that was fine too.

Suhaila Salimpourにノックアウト！ベリーダンサーは程よい肉付きで大柄な人が映えることが良くわかります。このダンサーの絶妙な腰の動きにやられました。バイオリニストの絡みも最高です。一見の価値あります。

This is a great dvd, just what you would expect from the bellydance superstars, there are no instructions on how to perform routines etc, but watching the solos are fab (except the dondi one!)

Jillina、Ansuya、 Rachel、Amar、Soniaなど８人のスーパースターのソロパフォーマンスがそれぞれ２つずつ入ったＤＶＤ。これからベリーダンスをはじめる、またはベリーダンスってどんなもの？観てみたいという人には衝撃の一本かもしれません。ただ、スーパースターのパフォーマンスを見たことがある人は、細かいテクニックや高度な振り付けを学ぶ参考にはあまりならないので、ベリーを習い始めてしばらく経つ人には物足りないかも知れません。Jillinaのパフォーマンス１は良かったですよ。このＤＶＤで使われている音楽は全てではないですが同じタイトルのＣＤにもなっていますよ。

ベリーダンスは映画のなかの1場面に登場することよくありますね。購入前は予備知識もなく、楽しめれば十分という認識でした。パッケージの裏表は全て英語。海外版ですが本作はインタビュー等はなく、無駄のない編集。英語に堪能である必要はありません。8人のダンサーが1人につき、2演目ずつ踊ります。凝視しました。それぞれに衣装、表情、振り付け、音楽、動きに独自性があります。容姿も美しく、セクシーです。なかには樽化が目立つ女性もいました。ラストのマリリン・モンローもどきはジョークですね。アメリカ制作だとわかります。個人的には腰にタトゥーのあるRachl Briceさんが気に入りました。本作はベリーダンスを目で見て楽しめる作品。ベリーダンサー達の肉体表現を通じた娯楽作です。特典映像では彼女達の舞台での活動もちらっと見られます。