The Happy Drunk Reviews- Turn it Up! : Mastering Spins by Summer Sahar

It has taken me this long to get to Turn it Up!: Mastering Spins and Turns by Summer Sahar. I got it at c-mas. C-mas.... and walked by it still lovingly wrapped in plastic, having to turn away as I took the trash out or helped with homework, or walked out the door. " I will never get to watch you", I said as I walked by this DVD, yet again. And it is not like I am all that busy. I just wanted to be able to watch it. Really watch it. Take my time, not have to push pause because the familiar strains of" moooooom, she took my ( fill in the bank), she kicked my ( fill in the blank") emanated from the other room. At which point I curse, push pause and upon returning to the DVD player am so agitated that it doesn't matter how well Summer Sahar can turn, I am just waiting for 6 o'clock and the wine bottle. ( of course I am over dramatizing, but you get the point).
     So, today I had some nice hot coffee with the last of the mint chocolate truffle flavored creamer left over from the holidays and sat down for a look-see.  Happy Drunk Review time!

      The DVD. Let me just preface this by saying that I am a "natural turner". I don't spot, and I turn pretty well, I rarely get dizzy. I like to turn, so the reason I bought this DVD was to find newer ways to turn. I really didn't get much out of the section on spotting or turn technique. If you have trouble with turns, those sections are very thorough, and would be valuable, but I pretty much skimmed past them.
     She teaches 13 turns in all, starting with a 3 point turn ( which everybody knows), and ending with an "attitude turn",which was new to me. Let's face it, most of us do the same two or three turns. I know I do. If you are interested in this DVD to learn more turns, then go for it. It delivers.
       She is a BIG ballet and Jazz technique person, and during instruction uses terminology from those disciplines. I hate ballet-bellydance fusion, but can see in my own dance where ballet training has been very beneficial ( I took from the time I was three until I got boobs, and had to quit). If you can open your mind to learn the terminology, you can really glean some helpful knowledge from Summer. I don't think she ballet's-it-up to the point that it just looks like a ballet dancer in bedlah ( a pet peeve of mine), but it does help her carriage quite a bit and her movements have a beautiful controlled flow to them.
     At the end there are bunches of fab combos.
   This is a well put together, well shot DVD with plenty of information for the price. I have come to expect this from CheekyGirls and am never disappointed.
As simple as this sounds, buy this if you are interested in either A. learning how to turn, or turn better, or B. if you want to learn new turns. Warning, though, this DVD is not one where you can just watch it one time, pick something up and then forget about it. I think you'd have to work with the DVD for a while to learn the technique she teaches. Also, this is definately a intermediate DVD. Beginners might feel a tad intimidated by it.

If you are happy with how you turn, or the turns you do, then skip this DVD.

The Happy Drunk Reviews-Raqs Al Asaya with Virginia

Been quiet lately.... or at least, quiet for me. Doing a lot of thinking, re-tooling, letting some old dreams go, making space for new ones. But I did have time in all this metaphysical self- seeking to Happy Drunk Review, Raqs Al Asaya, a killer cane DVD.
Man. Something inside of me knew that this DVD was going to be really really good. And it was, really really good.
   Virginia is a good instructor. She is clear and detailed without going too slow. She breaks things down well, she is pleasant to watch.
     There are bunches of combos on this DVD that focus on various aspects of cane dance. For this reason I think this DVD would be good for all levels. I consider myself an intermediate cane dancer and I learned some new stuff from this DVD ( including a hip slap sort of move that looks just wicked).
     Cane is one of those things that unless you have been dancing for a LONG time, you have limited exposure to. Cane workshops come along maybe every two years or so ( at least around here), and most of cane stuff is learned and danced in a quicky choreo, then forgotten. So if you have any interest in learning cane or learning MORE cane this would be a good buy. It is a good amount of material for the money. There are some DVDs in my collection that I do once or twice then put away and there are some that I work with frequently. ( Ruby's floowork DVD, Delilah's set, Michelle Joyce's Drills DVD's) Raqs al Asaya will be added to the break-out-and-do-frequently-DVD-pile.

As far as things I did not like about this DVD, well, the sound quality is not that great. It sounds tinny and over-modulated. It is not a high budget DVD, but after about 30 seconds you really decide that it doesn't matter.
On a completely shallow note Virginia has some of those "mod" bangs that hang in her eyes. I felt like brushing them out of her face the whole time. I know, so mature of me to even take the time to type that.

       Buy this one, gals. You won't be disappointed.