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bethlakshmiI certainly woke up on the right side of the bed. Despite being grumpily shooed out of bed by the other occupant, I was approaching chipper shortly after the morning ablutions. A solid 40-minute workout to the Rachel Brice Tribal Fusion CD cemented my good mood. Of course - that much yoga would probably put a grizzly bear in a good mood... providing you can get a grizzly bear to do yoga.
I'm inclined to see things on the good side today. Perhaps it was having a lovely evening last night, perhaps it was the yoga, hell, maybe it was having the dehumidifier turned on!? Anyhow. It's nice to have a day where the day is "just a day" but clearly a good one. A good reminder that there doesn't have to be anything astonishing to a day for it to be a good one. It's wet and slightly dank here in Boston, so it certainly isn't the weather that has me in a good mood.
So... I bought this back in December, with the pile of books spawned by renewed Gnostic reading. But I didn't get out of my funk to try it until today. In general, it's a good balance to the spunky Neena and Veena of earlier this week. While the Indie-Hop DVD is very aerobic, and not so much focused on form - the Rachel Brice DVD is very controlled, and much more about perfecting moves than raising heart rate. I had a thin sheen of sweat when done - for me, that's hardly sweating at all. I do feel worked out - but more like lifting weights than aerobics.
I'm mixed on this tape. I think Rachel Brice is phenomenal - she does a little performance bit in the DVD where she does some truly astonishing drops and floor work that are so very controlled. But this DVD doesn't seem to get you there - at least on the 45-minute workout track. She does about 10 minutes of yoga - a nice, transitioning sequence repeated three times. It's basic yoga, but repeated and held long enough to be very intense. Then she focuses on several core moves, doing a nice set of slow, faster, full speed. These are moves that the average belly dancer probably learns in the first 10-week term, although they range from stuff I'd do day 1 to stuff that I'd teach on the last day of class and not expect people to fully understand until a few months of pracitce later. But I'd think a end-of-year 1 dancer would be conversant with these moves.
That said, 7 years after year 1, there is never shame in reviewing the basics. Instead of re-learning "my" way of doing these basics, I focused in on what *she's* doing. Her moves are VERY controlled - she's fully aware of which muscles she's using and she does a good job of telling you which ones they are. It's a little daunting that Rachel has a perfect body of the human subtype of "rubber band athletic" while I will always have a subtype of "lush, chesty, hippy" - no matter how toned I am, I will always have a frame that supports boobs and booty. Many see that as a win, but for this style, it is not the archetype. When she does a hip circle, for example, you can see her abdomen doing a roll, as well - I think because she is just that toned - you can see every single abdominal muscle doing it's thing, and the camera nicely zooms in for a good view.
It gives me space to be very aware of HOW she does those moves. I do almost every move somewhat differently - using slightly different muscles, positioning my shoulders differently. I was taught in a caberet/SCA style while she was on the tribal end of the spectrum - so not so surprising. It's always good get more exposure - whether or not I use her moves, I'm now aware of the variation. And if I can learn it well enough, I'll be able to make a conscious choice in my own movements.
My major gripe - this is supposed to be using yoga to improve your dance. I'm not sure how. Her yoga warm up and post-workout stretches and meditation cool down are certainly good yoga. But they don't integrate well with the dance moves she's doing. Rachel has phenomenal posture and I suspect that yoga plays into that - yoga body-awareness makes good posture easier - but she doesn't reference the relationship between the two in teaching the belly dance portion. It could be a "do it enough and you'll get it by instinct" - but I do yoga and belly dance now... if I was gonna get it by instinct, I would have. I also wish she'd do more in warm up to stretch and warm the core body. She does a little, but I could wish for more with all the abdominal stuff she's doing.
I'm inclined to see things on the good side today. Perhaps it was having a lovely evening last night, perhaps it was the yoga, hell, maybe it was having the dehumidifier turned on!? Anyhow. It's nice to have a day where the day is "just a day" but clearly a good one. A good reminder that there doesn't have to be anything astonishing to a day for it to be a good one. It's wet and slightly dank here in Boston, so it certainly isn't the weather that has me in a good mood.
So... I bought this back in December, with the pile of books spawned by renewed Gnostic reading. But I didn't get out of my funk to try it until today. In general, it's a good balance to the spunky Neena and Veena of earlier this week. While the Indie-Hop DVD is very aerobic, and not so much focused on form - the Rachel Brice DVD is very controlled, and much more about perfecting moves than raising heart rate. I had a thin sheen of sweat when done - for me, that's hardly sweating at all. I do feel worked out - but more like lifting weights than aerobics.
I'm mixed on this tape. I think Rachel Brice is phenomenal - she does a little performance bit in the DVD where she does some truly astonishing drops and floor work that are so very controlled. But this DVD doesn't seem to get you there - at least on the 45-minute workout track. She does about 10 minutes of yoga - a nice, transitioning sequence repeated three times. It's basic yoga, but repeated and held long enough to be very intense. Then she focuses on several core moves, doing a nice set of slow, faster, full speed. These are moves that the average belly dancer probably learns in the first 10-week term, although they range from stuff I'd do day 1 to stuff that I'd teach on the last day of class and not expect people to fully understand until a few months of pracitce later. But I'd think a end-of-year 1 dancer would be conversant with these moves.
That said, 7 years after year 1, there is never shame in reviewing the basics. Instead of re-learning "my" way of doing these basics, I focused in on what *she's* doing. Her moves are VERY controlled - she's fully aware of which muscles she's using and she does a good job of telling you which ones they are. It's a little daunting that Rachel has a perfect body of the human subtype of "rubber band athletic" while I will always have a subtype of "lush, chesty, hippy" - no matter how toned I am, I will always have a frame that supports boobs and booty. Many see that as a win, but for this style, it is not the archetype. When she does a hip circle, for example, you can see her abdomen doing a roll, as well - I think because she is just that toned - you can see every single abdominal muscle doing it's thing, and the camera nicely zooms in for a good view.
It gives me space to be very aware of HOW she does those moves. I do almost every move somewhat differently - using slightly different muscles, positioning my shoulders differently. I was taught in a caberet/SCA style while she was on the tribal end of the spectrum - so not so surprising. It's always good get more exposure - whether or not I use her moves, I'm now aware of the variation. And if I can learn it well enough, I'll be able to make a conscious choice in my own movements.
My major gripe - this is supposed to be using yoga to improve your dance. I'm not sure how. Her yoga warm up and post-workout stretches and meditation cool down are certainly good yoga. But they don't integrate well with the dance moves she's doing. Rachel has phenomenal posture and I suspect that yoga plays into that - yoga body-awareness makes good posture easier - but she doesn't reference the relationship between the two in teaching the belly dance portion. It could be a "do it enough and you'll get it by instinct" - but I do yoga and belly dance now... if I was gonna get it by instinct, I would have. I also wish she'd do more in warm up to stretch and warm the core body. She does a little, but I could wish for more with all the abdominal stuff she's doing.
