The Happy Drunk Reviews: Meaning in Movement, Dancing with Musicality,Texture and Nuance

Teachers teach technique. Dancers have to learn how to be dancers on their own. ( a teacher can guide but it is a different journey with each person). Technique is tangible and really is about the body. Dancing comes from the heart, the energy, the being. So when a DVD comes out that attempts to teach you how to be a dancer, when everything else out there is teaching technique, you have to get your mind in the right place to watch it.
Meaning in Movement:Dancing with Musicality, Texture and Nuance by Alimah is just that DVD. At first while watching this DVD all I could think was "this is wierd, this is wierd, this is weird"......even sweet little Nadira Jamal comes at teaching Improvisation ( Improvisational Toolkit Volume 1)  (a dancer's skill), in an ABC 123 way compared to Alimah. If Nadira is a beat poet then Alimah is the artist wearing full blue body paint while juggling pizzas to the soundtrack of baby cries. With relatively few ( I can think of TWO) DVD's out there not teaching technique, and attempting to teach what really is a personal journey, I expected to be coddled a bit. Nope. Alimah jumps right in there with bold creative imagery and no excuses. She LOVES to tell us that our hands are schools of fish, and you can tell by the way that she looks at them and moves them that she believes it too. Personally, she seemed to me like she'd be a very exciting and interesting person to be around, her energy is contagious.

Maybe it is just the mood I am in ( I have been dealing with my snowed in, bored out of their skull and fighting with each other kids all week), but I found this DVD a little overwhelming. Wonderful, but one that you need to be in the right mindset for.
       There are brilliant and I mean brilliant ideas about setting tone in your dance ( pretending to be wearing different types of dresses and how you would dance if wearing a red slinky dress as opposed to a flouncy white eyelet), and I loved her different arm movement descriptions" slipping on a dress, gathering, pushing, etc".
     As far as her dance style she reminded me a lot of Sandra. While I can appreciate Sandra as a great dancer, her style does not appeal to me.... so if you buy this for the 8 and yes, I said 8 different combos, maybe watch a YouTube of her dancing first to see if her style is one that you want to imitate/learn from.( which I recommend for any DVD). If you buy this for the multitude of ways to bring....well, all kinds of different things to your dance and could give two shits about the combos then I guess it doesn't matter. The first sections teaching tone and texture can be done by all dancers of all styles.
   This is a DVD to be digested. If you already are a dancer, then you can learn some new ways to use visualization in your dancing. Little bit by little bit you can add some things to what you already do, how you already express yourself. If you are a beginner/intermediate, and have technique out the wazoo but have no idea how to bring it all together into something personal ( dancing), then this DVD would be GREAT. Maybe even invaluable. Once again, all the good shit comes out after I sweated and fretted and figured it out on my own.
I am not saying buy this, I am not saying don't. I am saying read the above thoroughly and maybe some other reviews before you make that decision. You need to know what you are paying for.  As usual it is a well shot, well organized well thought out DVD, as all of CheekyGirls stuff is.  You might like this DVD, you might not....I think it all depends on who you are, and where you are in your dance.