Rating: 
Summary: Good DVD but Challenging for Beginner
Review:
This dvd provides works to build a nice dance routine at the end. However, it is not easy to follow for a beginner.
The instruction section moves through the movements much too quickly for a novice. Jillina only shows the movements 4-8 times. She doesn't breakdown how to perform some of the motions.
I recommend this dvd to a beginner with some other dance training or someone with some other bellydance experience. A novice to bellydance will probably have to review the instructional section several times before understanding some of the movements.
I have used other bellydance dvds as well as taken classes. In some of the instructional portion, I was struggling to figure out what movement Jillina was using. (Most bellydancers use the different names for the steps. Unlike ballet or such, they don't have uniform names for the moves.)
However, the dvd does build a terrific routine. It breakdowns the different segments. In some cases however, she does run through the multiple movements too fast & without enough cues for a beginner.
I do wish there were a segment with the music so you could do the entire routine through without any prompting. The last time through has the prompting for segment 7.
It is clear Jillina is an experienced dancer and enjoys bellydance. That makes the dvd all the more enjoyable to perform. Her three dance routines at the end are a pleasure to watch.
Overall, I would recommend this dvd. Though I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction for a novice. I might use "Bellydance Fitness for Beginners - Basic Moves" as they go over the movements in greater detail and break them down better. Other than that, this is a terrific dvd.
Rating: 
Summary: Jillina is the Best
Review: All I have to say is that ALL of Jillina's DVD's are awesome!
In Reply to "wonderbread bellydance"
Do you know who Jillina is? She is one of the best belly dancers in the U.S! Hello... this is level one, you don't expect her to give you a full blown performance. Try her "Egyptian Choreography" or check out the "Belly Dance Superstars" DVD. I promise you will be impressed.
Rating:
Summary: WOW - best bellydance instructional video I've seen
Review: And I have seen quite a few. I have been bellydancing for two years and have taken classes with a variety of live instructors, seen bellydancing live a number of times, danced in student shows, and done several of the videos on the market (Neena and Veena, Rania, etc). Jillina's instructional video is terrific, although I'm not sure how easy it would be for beginners. For a road-warrior who needs to take her dance practice into a hotel room, it's been great.
Jillina's workout is separated into several parts. There is a technique section, where you really practice individual moves. I found this section almost as good as a classroom teaching environment. Then, you learn combinations. The combinations are drilled in, both without and with the music. The combinations are creative, challenging, and yet repeated enough that even I could learn them.
Finally, the combinations with variations are taught in a complete choreography. Jillina has a great sense of musicality, as the rhythms and trills of the music are perfectly matched by the moves. This really made the choreography sink in and "make sense" to me. I also enjoyed putting together a full dance piece.
Jillina also includes a video of her performing this choreography for a live audience. It was so beautiful, it took my breath away. Yet, as you watch it, you also recognize the very same moves that you learned in her video. It's extremely inspiring.
Rating:
Summary: Great, easy to follow instruction
Review: As an Asian decent with no Arab blood in my veins, I admit I cannot tell what's traditional from what's not. Plus, I'm a complete beginner to bellydance, and I don't know if Jillina's dance is authentic or not. But still I think I can give a fair (?) review of this DVD.This is a very well structured, easy-to-follow guide for the beginners. Jillina first shows a choreography that she's going to teach in this lesson, and starts from streching, moves on to "techniques" demonstartions, where you'll learn each and every technique used in the choreography. Jillina explains into details of the movement, one by one.
Then, "breakdown" of the choreography comes next. I do like the way Jillina does this part, because the camera follows her move from her back (with a mirror image in the backdrop), making it possible for the viewers to follow her instinctively. Do you see what I mean? If you are a person like me who have difficulty in translating "her foot to the left on my TV" to "my right foot", this "view from the back" is extremely helpful in reducing this kind of confusion and stress.
Then, after the breakdown, she puts them all into a choreographed dance with music, again with the camera shooting from her back. I recommend this DVD to anybody who wants to have a real "step-by-step" instruction to this exotic art.
Rating:
Summary: So much fun, I had to buy Level 2 and 3 immediatly!
Review: I absolutely love this DVD! It was exactly what I was looking for! A few years back, I was lucky enough to find a Belly Dance and fell in love with the dance form. Unfortunately, live got in the way, and I was no longer able to attend the class. Since then, I have been trying desperately to find instructional videos that came close to the classroom setting and didn't simply repeat a hip drop on to infinity or try to make the dance more of a "fitness routine", and this is it! This DVD is broken down into 5 segments: 1. Stretching-a brief stretch of a few major muscle groups. Jillina does recommend a good warm-up of at least 20 minutes prior to stretching and dancing. 2. Technique-an introduction into each of the individual moves with an excellent breakdown of each movement. Each move is only repeated a few times, so you may want to rewind and repeat if you feel you need more time to absorb the movement. 3. Combinations-This section along with the next section is what really makes the DVD work it's weight in gold! Jillina take the individual movements from the Technique section and combines them into short sequences. She walks you through each step and breaks it down without music. After each breakdown section, she includes a segment with music in which you can repeat the combination a number of times (of course, with her vocal instructions included!). The music here is a little bit more pop Arabic music (Hakim, Warda, etc.) rather than more traditional belly dance music, but it is upbeat and fun to dance to. 4. Choreography-This section takes each of the combinations, with a few variations, and combines them into a choreographed dance! Each combination is reviewed with the additional variations. After each review, you have a chance to perform the choreographed dance with Jillina. The choreographed dance starts from the beginning after each reviewed combination so that you are able really learn the dance from beginning to end! This is exactly how you would learn a new dance in a classroom setting! 5. Performance-And finally, you can see Jillina perform the full choreographed dance in costume in front of a live audience. She also performs two additional short numbers (one similar to the dance that you will learn, and another to a drum solo). The only qualm I have about the DVD is that I wish it would have more tracks broken out in the Technique and Combinations section so that you can easily skip back to repeat a section without having to rewind. In short:
1. Excellent instruction and breakdown of movements.
2. Fun combinations that you can really learn to dance, rather that repeat the same movement on to infinity.
3. You learn a fully choreographed dance.
4. As another review said, the camera angle is wonderful (Jillina faces a mirror with her back to the camera so that you can see both front and back. Also, you don't have to think about which direction you really need to move!). 5. Fun music! This DVD was so much fun that I had to go out and by Level 2 and 3 right away! I can't wait to try them!
Rating: 
Summary: wonderbread bellydance
Review: I am so disappointed in this dvd. This woman has no personality in her dance or her instruction. I would have gladly endured this if she had been a competent instructor, but she seems to feel that if she shows something once with a botox smile, it is enough. This is not what bellydance is about. It is about what little isolation exercises are about. She has the body of a "western dancer", so all of the affirmation I hoped to get from a little "curve" was also ditched. I am quite surprised that so many people recommended this dvd. That is the only reason I bought it. People seemed to think that this was at least well taught. I wish it had been. I'm just glad I only bought one dvd rather than the set of three.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful
Review: I just got this dvd in an attempt to try something different. I wanted to do something that was fun in my spare time and learn something new. I have always been interested and dance and thought I'd try bellydancing. I was nervous about whether this dvd would help me to learn or not, but it is very helpful. Those who say it is not good for beginners have not spent the time to learn it. The dvd breaks down the techniques for you to learn. Although I am still trying to get those down, the instruction is very helpful, but practicing it is essential! I wanted a little bit of a challenge when I was looking for a dvd, and this is definitely both helpful and challenging. I am looking forward to learning the fulll choreography. It's a lot of fun and I recomend this dvd to anyone who is up for the challenge to learn and have fun!
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I was very surprised at how pleased I was with this DVD. Unlike some others that I have tried (Dolphina for example), the moves were very easy to see because the excellent use of mirrors on the set. Her clothing was appropriate for the instructional sections (i.e., she wasn't wearing full skirts while teaching legwork), and the music is motivating. I also like the fact that she explains the right way to move, as well as illustrating what not to do. A couple of the combinations were a little difficult at first, but I liked the way the choreography was put together. I would have to say that my only real gripe with this DVD is that there is very minimal warm-up/cool-down. Even so, if you're looking for good instruction AND learning a real dance (instead of just a few combinations for a workout), this is an excellent choice.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, and a bargain too....
Review: I'm so glad I didn't let the couple of bad reviews here put me off, as I would have missed out on three excellent DVDs, which teach great choreographies in a very clever way - using a mirror to show both views. Jillina is professional, she obviously knows her stuff, and her instructions, though brief, are to the point and use imagery that helped me finally "get" a couple of moves I never did before. She doesn't wear a long flowing skirt that obscures her legs to teach, which is a great help. Last but not least, Jillina has a lovely figure, with well defined hips - not that a woman with a straight up and down body couldn't belly dance, of course - but hips do help. I personally have wide hips - but her well proportioned body didn't upset me (grin) as I don't buy bellydance videos to give me affirmation....... how sad for those who do..... Amazon needs to do some policing of reviews. The amount of bitchy reviews I read on this site are something else. They do seem to home in on the bellydance videos - so I suppose it could be some kind of reverse marketing. We have all read the stories about authors reviewing their own books, and roping in friends to add more reviews. The opposite is obviously also happening. What people who write racist and virulent reviews don't realise is that the majority of people who frequent this site are intelligent - otherwise they wouldn't be able to get their brains round the net! Intelligent people recognise personalised attacks for what they are. I take note of reviews that advise of bad production values and so on, but anything that criticises a dancer because she is the wrong race to bellydance would actually push me to buy it. The one video I have by someone who I suppose would be the "right" race is incomprehensible. So much for that! Beth from South Berwick puts it right when she says to keep racist comments to oneself. So, my dear one star viewers from CA and Ithaca, you should know that your reviews had the opposite effect in my case! Hope that made your day.....
Rating:
Summary: Excellent buy
Review: I've loved Jillina's style since I first saw her so I was very excited when this affordable set of DVDs came out. When I started belly dancing just four years ago, all that was available from reputable dancers were VHS tapes at 3-4X the price! In this video, Jillina teaches a fun choreography to a shortened version of a classic Egyptian song. This is not a routine for a completely inexperienced dancer. Some of the transitions are a bit rapid for a total novice. It is a good challenge for someone who has already taken some belly dance lessons. My only complaint is that the camera man often zooms in on Jillina's upper body and midsection during the practice session when I would like to see what her feet are doing! Overall, it's certainly worth the price!
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