REVIEWS ON THIS PAGE: Tray Chic by Meleea; Meleea's Fantasy Fan video; Schamadan with Horacio Cifuentes; The Art of Sword and Shamadan

Total playing time : Approx 120 mins. © Meleea NTSC FORMAT

Meleea's Tray Chic video (USA) Meleea is a performer and teacher based in Dallas, Texas. Her personal website can be found at www.beledi.com. This video was filmed at Meleea's home studio and has excellent light and sound quality. The video begins with a costumed performance by Meleea with the tray. This choreography shows how tray dancing looks in performance. Meleea begins the teaching section of the video with a talk/demonstration on the various kinds of tray that are suitable for performance, and how to prepare them for use, with hints and tips on the easiest way to get the balance of the tray right. Meleea then gives us lots of ideas of different items suitable using on the tray, again with of hints and tips for balancing. Meleea goes on to cover effective ways of beginning your tray performance, and tips for beginner tray dancers to practice to get used to dancing with the tray. The main dancing/teaching section begins with practice of basic isolation, arm movements, lots of different turns and travelling movements while balancing an empty tray, enabling the beginner to get a feel for balancing. Meleea teaches in her mirrored studio, always demonstrating the moves from the back and front. There are lots and lots of combinations on this DVD, especially chosen for tray dancing. There is also plenty of more advanced material on the video - covering floorwork moves and combinations. You'll be able to use the material to create many different choreographies. Meleea then goes through the routine showed at the start of the video, both with, and without candles/containers on the tray. There is another performance section at the end of the video - we first see a lovely tray/zill performance by Meleea's student Naima, followed some some bonus performance footage of Meleea dancing with the large ostrich fans, and double veil with drum solo. As with all of Meleea's videos, Tray Chic is packed full of content, helpful advice and useful tips - it runs for two hours giving excellent value at the bargain price of $25 US dollars plus postage (approximately £12 GPB plus postage costs). I recommend Meleea's videos because she thoroughly covers each topic she presents and she is a very professional teacher who is very wiling to share her wealth of knowledge with students. Meleea's website and online store can be found at www.beledi.com You will be ordering direct from Meleea, (not the Raqs Sharqi website).

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Total playing time : Approx 120 mins. © 2000 Meleea NTSC FORMAT

Meleea's Fantasy Feather Fan video (USA) Meleea is a performer and teacher based in Dallas, Texas. Her personal website can be found at www.beledi.com. This is an instructional video on the art of dancing with feather fans. The style of dancing and the use of the fans is probably best described as American cabaret. The video was shot in Meleea's home studio. It has good lighting, sound and picture clarity. The video is divided into three main parts, a performance segment, and two teaching sections; one using the large ostrich feather fans, and the other using the smaller, but equally stunning, marabou feather fans edged with peacock head feathers. The first part of the video is of Meleea in performance with the large ostrich feather fans. I found this section a very useful introduction as it allowed me to see the fans in action on the stage, and to get an idea of the kind of effect they have in a stage performance. Meleea has a beautiful, soft, feminine and elegant style of dancing and I enjoyed her performance greatly. The first part of the video details how to use the large ostrich feather fans. Meleea talks us briefly through the structure of the fans, and describes the content of the video. She wears a practice leotard and hip scarf, so it is easy to see what her legs and feet are doing, and the camera is excellently positioned so you can all of Meleea, and the fans, in full shot all of the time. There is a mirror at one end of Meleea's studio, so that you can see her from both sides, and Meleea also demonstrates the movements and techniques both from the back angle, and then again from the front angle, so you get a clear idea of the technique. As a teacher, Meleea comes across as very knowledgeable about fan technique, a confident presenter, and is generous with her information. The video feels as if the viewer is actually having a private lesson with Meleea in fan technique. For each technique, pose, or combination, Meleea also shares with us other variations on the movements, giving the student many techniques and ideas for creating a dance routine with feather fans. There is a *lot* of material on this video, which also comes with some printed notes from Meleea on caring for the fans, and helpful reminder notes on the poses, manipulations and combinations. The teaching material is presented in a logical fashion, beginning with poses easy enough for complete beginners to master, then through to simple fan manipulations, before going on to combinations - combining the fan poses and movements with travelling steps. The more complex the movement, the more time Meleea spends breaking it down for us. After firstly showing us how to hold the fans, Meleea begins the teaching segment demonstrating many different poses that can be used in a routine right from beginner level upwards. Some of the poses are dramatic, some are feminine - all are very pretty and very effective for those dancers looking to create a dance routine with sophistication. For each pose, Meleaa breaks down the arm and hand movements needed to achieve that particular look with the fans. I really appreciated the way Meleea took time and care to talk about and demonstrate various variations on each basic pose, which would give the beginning fan dancer a good working vocabulary to begin with. Types of poses include: The Clamshell (or Venus Arising from the Sea); Peacock Tail; Cross my Heart; Showgirl Headdress; Elizabethan Ruff; Winged Victory; Framing the Hips; I Dream of Jeanie; "Wings", plus variations on all of these. Next Meleea takes us through fan manipulations - how to move the fans about to create different visual effects. She covers lots of ways of creating figures of eight's using the fans, and details the wrist technique required, and again shares with us variations on the movements. Meleaa covers many types of manipulations, and I particularly liked the figure of eight ones which fits in well with figure of eight body movements used in belly dance, and this part inspired me to think about how I could use the fans in terms of musical interpretation - getting the fans to move and reflect the undulations of the music. The manipulations include: Figure of eights; large, deep, shallow, travelling; candle hands; sweeping figure of eight's; travelling and turning with fan manipulations. The next section is combinations - combining the fans with various footwork and travelling steps. Meleea first clearly breaks down the footwork for us, before demonstrating the combination with the fans. There are lots of choreographic ideas here, and Meleea generously shares as many as possible. Combinations include: Forward, place, step together, step; cha cha cha; reverse cha cha cha; grapevine; mock grapevine; backbend; clock step; butterfly step; circle back step; back, side, in place step; corkscrew; travelling with fan wipes; travelling with wings; large hip circle with fans; twirling; varying your eye levels; Algerian style footwork; the Suhaila step For all of the travelling steps, Meleaa takes us through many different variations of using the fans with each combination, to create lots of different possibilities for creating your own unique choreography. I found the way Meleea shows us lots of combinations to be very helpful, as it enabled me to see the great variety of moves that can be used with the fans, along with many ways of using the different poses and manipulations to transform the energy of the dance, from powerful and dramatic and being a complete show off, to sensual, mysterious and entirely feminine. In this section, Meleaa also shows us some possible endings and finale poses, combined with a little of using the fans in floorwork, which of course gives even more choreographic possibilities. I have been greatly inspired by the first half of this video that contains a great deal of material. Before moving on to the second main part of the video, Meleaa takes us through a review of the combinations and variations, combining them into longer mini routines. The second part of Meleea's fan video is a whole extra teaching video in itself as it runs for another 45 minutes. It covers dancing with the smaller peacock edged marabou feather fans, and of course the same techniques can be used for dancing with any of the other smaller fans. Although invariably there is a little repetition from the previous part of the video, Meleea has been careful to include other material more suited to the smaller size fans, which of course is also suitable for the pheasant tipped fans. As in the previous section, here Meleea also helpfully shows us the moves from the back, as well as from the front. Along with some extra wing poses and manipulations, this section also includes lots more fan manipulations combined with travelling steps, as well as how to use the fans during accents in the music. This section also shows different the movements and manipulations look on the smaller fans. The last section covers using different types of music for fan dancing - this section contains two performance sections - the first one is in Meleea's studio, and we see her dancing with the large ostrich feather fans. This is a beautiful choreography to Egyptian music which uses lots of fan movements and manipulations, and of course footwork from the whole of the video, showing you just one of the kind of dances it is possible to use the fans with. This is followed by a video of Meleea live in performance dancing with the smaller marabou and peacock eye fans. This is a very upbeat routine with a faster tempo, using a piece of modern Egyptian pop with a Spanish flavour. This video that will suit lots of dancers, students and teachers looking for a new style of prop to work with. Although it is not a professionally recorded video, the sound and picture quality is good, and as there is a great deal of information and ideas that will inspire you for a long time, I highly recommended this video as it represents excellent value for money at $25 US dollars (plus shipping). Think of this video as a toolkit that you can use many times over and create many unique choreographies from. You will be ordering direct from Meleea, (not the Raqs Sharqi website).

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Total playing time : Approx 40 mins. © Oriental Fantasy PAL FORMAT

Schamadan (Germany) This video is taught in the English language. HORACIO CIFUENTES was born in Colombia and began to dance at the age 5. He studied Flamenco in Spain, Ballet in Gdansk and was, as a result, invited to dance with the San Francisco Ballet. Within 8 years he was featured as a soloist in over 40 classical and modern ballet performances. After discovering the beauty of Middle Eastern dance, Horacio and his wife Beata, who also has a background in ballet, formed "Oriental Fantasy" and put on theatrical productions every other year, with new music, choreographies and costumes. As a dancer with a strong professional background, Horacio has superb technique, isolation, posture and presentation. Beata and Horacio's website can be found at www.oriental-fantasy.com. The production on this video is excellent, both in sound and picture quality. It is shot in a large mirrored studio; the lighting is excellent and the mirrors mean you clearly see everything Horacio is doing from all angles. In this video geared towards advanced dancers, Horacio teaches a choreography especially created for schamadan (candleabra) or tray dances to be used with sagat (finger cymbals). All the music used in the video is listed in the opening credits. The actual music used runs for five minutes which is about the right length of time for a schamadan performance. As is geared towards advanced dancers, this video doesn't contain a warm up or any safety tips, so you will need to already be aware of how to balance schamadan and trays, and know how to dance with them safely. The video is divided into several sections, gradually building up in complexity. Firstly, Horacio goes through all the steps and patterns that will be used in the choreography. He wears practice dance wear and it's easy to see all the movements he performs. Each pattern and step is described really well a few times, with some breakdown on the more intricate steps and on the arm movements used. The second section of the video details the actual choreography in slow motion without music, while Horacio talks through what is happening. This slow motion section will give you enough time to write down the choreography if you need to do so. In next section Horacio (still in practice dance wear) dances through the choreography at full speed with the music. Following on from that, the choreography again is repeated at full speed with music, but this time the finger cymbals are added. There is the really useful addition of the finger cymbal patterns used that flash up at the bottom of the screen at the appropriate parts of the choreography, so you'll know exactly what you're meant to be playing, this is a brilliant idea and is very helpful. The last section features Horacio doing a fully costumed performance, complete with finger cymbals, tray and lighted candles against a beautiful moon and stars backdrop. This demonstrates how the complete choreography will look in performance. The choreography itself is elegant, graceful and looks great with the candles. For dancers who are maybe a bit less advanced or confident, or maybe fairly new to shamadan, you could leave out the finger cymbals until you feel confident to perform with them at a later date. The video is structured in such a way in that you'll find it easy to be able to do this. The content of the video has been extremely well thought and out and put together, resulting in a video that's really easy to follow and great to work with. You will be ordering direct from Oriental Fantasy, (not the Raqs Sharqi website).

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Total playing time : Approx 46 mins. NTSC FORMAT © Princess Productions 2003

Farhana - The Art of Sword and Shamadan Farhana is a performer and teacher based in Hollywood, California, USA. This video was filmed at the Moun of Tunis restaurant on Sunset Boulevard where Farhana has danced for over a decade. She has danced at parties for many dignitaries and celebrities, has performed at live concerts with the like of Hakim and Amr Diab and has been featured in numerous TV programmes. She teaches in the Silverlake district on Los Angeles. Her personal website can be found at www.princessfarhana.com. This is my favourite of Farhana's two instructional videos. it covers dancing using swords and candleabras (shamadan) and is suitable for dancers at intermediate level and above who are new to working with these props. The video begins with a Farhana costumed beautifully in a red bedlah set performing a 3 minute sword routine. The video is divided into a number of subsections; a history of balance dances, including an unbiased discussion of the history of dancing with shamadan. The "selecting and maintaining" props section is extremely helpful and useful for those dancers looking to dance with these props for the first time. Farhana shares a lot of tips on buying and storing swords, together with safety and balancing advice. Her advice on being safe while working with shamadan is excellent. For the main teaching sections of the video, Farhana wears a black crop top, leggings and a hip belt, against a background of a light blue satin curtain. This good contrast meant that I did not have any problems at all seeing exactly what she was doing. All her movements can be seen very clearly. There were only a couple of camera angle changes, and I had a good view of Farhana at all times and was didn't have any problems following her. The sound quality on this video isn't the greatest, it seems a bit distorted but I didn't have any trouble understanding Farhana at all. This video contains warm up exercises designed specifically for balance and floorwork, posture and placement of swords, travelling and stationery steps, floorwork (including helpful tips on rising up from the floor gracefully) and other balance points for sword. In the main teaching section, Farhana demonstrates all the techniques using the sword; there is also a complete sword choreography on this video. The choreography uses the moves demonstrated in the main teaching section of the video. It's not the same choreography that we see at the beginning of the video, so if you can pick up choreographies easily, you will get two sword dances for the price of one. The choreography that Farhana teaches on this video can be easily adapted to use with shamadan. Farhana first walks through the routine, then this is repeated as the actual choreography is displayed at the bottom of the screen. This is very helpful as if you have trouble remembering choreographies from videos, you could write it down. The written choreography is clear and easy to follow. The video concludes with a lovely shamadan performance by Farhana which I found very enjoyable. She uses the correct type of music (zeffa) and appropriate costuming for this type of dance and this natural and elegant performance is the one I enjoyed the most from both her videos. Unlike some other teaching videos from Egypt that I've seen, she does dances with the candles lit for her demonstration. This is a different choreography from the one taught, so again if you're good at picking up choreographies from screen, you will get another dance for your money. I enjoyed her teaching style very much and she came across on screen as a very pleasant, open, and helpful teacher, willing to share her knowledge readily with others. If you're at an intermediate level and new to sword or shamadan especially, this video will be very useful for you and Farhana's tips will help you keep safe while dancing with these props. All the music used on this video is listed in the end credits. You will be ordering direct from Farhana, (not the Raqs Sharqi website).

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