July is coming, schoolyear is over and my belly dancing course as well. I will miss this weekly meeting, but fortunately I planned to attend several workshops during the two months of holidays, plus I won't stop practising at my place, that's obvious! I am not the girl who will pretend that she 'learned everything thanks to dvd's': nothing could replace a real teacher, able to correct you and to make you focuse on personal weaknesses. Anyway instructional dvd's can be useful as well: I like them to learn new techniques, to broaden my sphere of action, to have an approach on something I didn't know, etc. For keeping July and August busy (or rather even more busy that they already are), I purchased "Flawless Floorwork" by Ruby.
I have always loved floorwork and I thought that it was a good opportunity to discover more about this pure art. As the cover says, it seems that floorwork tends to be considered 'inappropriate' by... wow, more dancers than I expected! I even read some accounts telling how this way of dancing was 'disgusting'. Why? I have no idea. Especially when we realize that floorwork is used in many fields, as the raks al shemodan -dance with a candelabrum which traditionally appears during weddings- or the zaar, this religious custom practiced in Ethiopia, Iran and all around the Middle East. See: floorwork is an integral part of (belly) dance, and nevertheless underestimated. For instance, knowing about its ban in Egypt (among other restrictions) sounds both sad and interesting to me. Here comes my main criticism about Ruby's dvd: I would have loved to hear more about the traditional aspect, when using floorwork is particularly beneficial and, on the contrary, when avoiding it is better or even required, etc. Ruby decided not to linger on this part. That's fine: I do not worry, I will find :)
This small lack of information appart, I must confess that I love this "Flawless Floorwork"! First of all, Ruby really is a great instructor: her explanations are simple and clear. She is conscious of the common mistakes and tries to tell us how to avoid them. We begin with a strengthening routine absolutely necessary before thinking about beginning the exercises themselves (but maybe a little bit too short: I don't think that every muscle required is trained. But well, we all know that a dvd won't work for you and is far from being self-sufficient).
The technical part with its descends and ascends is particularly well done! Once again, Ruby takes her time to explain the different moves properly, talking about the precautions, giving you safety tips (, avoiding the incredible -but dangerous!- Turkish drop, thanks heaven!),... I also appreciated a lot the fact that Ruby doesn't hesitate to give alternatives when a movement can be to difficult. Definitely, 'security' is the main word! Take your time to discover this chapter: sure it will give you new ideas to include to your performances!
After a traditional combinations' part (accessible to various levels), we benefit from a nice extras section where Ruby offers us a nice full body warm up, designed to be done with your stage outfit, with the precautions involved. We also have a costume tutorial to avoid wardrobe malfunctions. Nothing is worst than a dancer doing floorwork with an inappropriate costume, I think that everybody is aware of that! Now we know how to prevent this kind of problems!
Finally we watch Ruby in a lovely performance, where she includes a great floorwork part, of course!
I am not disappointed by my purchase: sure that it will complete my holidays with even more belly dance and challenges, happy news! So if you do not know how to begin with floorwork, this dvd is for you too: there you will have good advice enough to practice without harming you!
Lot of work to do today, and once again, I've been too talkative! Do not hesitate to share your opinion on floorwork, your good / bad experiences with dvd's, whatever you want: I am always interested in widenning my knowledges and experience :))
And, oh yes, sorry about the last picture: I don't use to put pics of myself on my blog, but I love this one (despite the crappy background), me practising and happy to do so! :))
Wish you a bright day!!
