Happy Drunk Review: Improvisational Toolkit Vol:2 Structure

Ya'll ready for another Happy Drunk Review?  I bought about nine different dance DVD's two weeks ago and they sat, lonely, on a shelf out of the reach of my little ones until "Freedom day" AKA the first day of school which was last week. After throwing a drunken party for myself and sitting around all day in my bunny slippers and bathrobe, eating frozen Snickers bars for the first few days of freedom, I figured it was time to get down to work.
So I broke out Nadira Jamal's Improvisational Toolkit Volume 2: Structure. I had really anticipated this one since I LOVED her first one Improvisational Toolkit Volume 1: Movement Recall.

     I can break this review down into two categories: "Stuff that Matters", and "Petty Shit".

Stuff That Matters: ( about this DVD):

The thing that I like about her DVD's is that it isn't stuff that you see regularly. It isn't stuff that you are even really taught, it is stuff that you have to find out the hard way, through trial and error, or through your teacher saying after a show" not enough repetition, you looked like a tasmanian devil out there!" ( which I am entirely making up, what kind of evil teacher says stuff like that to a student after a show?)...but you get the point.
This DVD was about structure, repetition, and form in your dance performances. The whole thrust of this series is to help you learn to improvise, which yes, is something that can be learned. She very slowly takes you through the idea of repetition, then how to do it naturally. Frankly I already knew all this stuff, but it doesn't mean that it is not very very helpful to a dancer. Even if I think I already know something I will watch it several times anyway to see what I can get out of it.
    This DVD is for the beginner intermediate or intermediate, a beginner might find the information helpful, but they also might find it overwhelming dependant on where they are personally. This is wonderful material for teachers to pass on( with her permission, of course), and the methods she uses to teach remind me of  broken down classroom exercises. "Watch me, here's how you do it, o.k. do it with me, now it is your turn." To someone learning to develop structure this is a comforting, right brained way to learn. You WILL learn structure with this DVD, so in my Happy-Drunk-Not-So-Humble-Opinion, this DVD is worth the money. I will do it every now and then to reinforce what I know. ( advanced students,you might get something out of it, too).

Now for the Petty Shit:

We all know that these are low budget DVD's. I normally wouldn't care. Normally. Like I said before, if Suhalia was teaching us how to fly around the room on Isis Wings but the DVD was shot in her bathroom I would still watch it. Let me amend that statement. I would still watch it if the quality wasn't a major distraction. Unfortunately the quality was terrible in this one.
    Problem one was the volume. Whoever did the sound on this, well....Miss Nadira needs to get her money back. I had to majorly adjust the sound on the talking segments ( I had the volume up to 17 at one point!), only to have to quickly turn it down on the music and dance segments, so my eardrums wouldn't get blasted out. That sucked just a little bit. Also, the first DVD had her with good lighting, just sitting there talking. I guess she was going for a more "professional " look, so this time it was dark lighting, and wierd "look here, now look here" camera angles. In the middle of a sentence she'd change camera's, and it was just plain wierd. and noticibly distracting.

Good petty shit....the girl is just plain pretty, smart and charming. and she's got some meat on her bones...... a real bellydancers body. I like that.

So a snotty thumbs up on this one, if you can get past the volume thing.