Learning Belly Dancing from Books and the Web

Top 2. Aug 14, 2002 2:50 PM

» Delilah77 - Combination Video/DVD and the Web

Delilah again,

I just want to open the subject that has not been bridged here yet because it’s revolutionary. It’s the combination of videos/ DVD’s and the use of the internet. We are doing this at Visionary Dance Productions with some fabulous results! Soon it will be common place I'm sure.

Let me explain:

This year with the release of our new Instructional and performance Videos and DVD‘s (Absolute Beginning Bellydance with Delilah, A Retro Choreography, and Fire at the Iao) We’ve utilized the internet to extend the value of our work. It’s totally an open ended concept!

With the purchase of the video comes an internet password that allows you (the buyer) access to more information related to the material covered on the video such as:
• Costume details about the costume worn in the performance.
• Transcripts of the extra commentary tracks that are only on the DVD version but can be read by the VHS holder.
• Printable list of steps and their counts for the choreography taught on the video.
• Transcripts with additional notes for further clarification on points.
• Extra diagrams and photos.
• Weight belt exercises.
• Extra exercises and bellydance therapy
• Special offers.
• Stories and added human interest notes about some of the performances.
• Extra work with “Mapping the internal Realms of the Body”. You are asked to do it the next day but add certain extra details for layering. This gives you a whole new work out value.
• There is a zill lesson that is not covered in the instructional video portion but is detailed in the web club though the entire 35 minute choreography of Fire at the Iao.

There is more and it’s endless. We can keep adding things as they come up and we can put up contributions by teachers and students! The idea is to create an interactive international class room on the internet around a particular subject we all are investigating.

Eventually you will be able to just put your program into a DVD player(or what ever is around the next technical corner) that will automatically open to these web pages, but that technology has too many compatibility bugs in it still to be useful to the general public right now. Instead we are accomplishing the same thing with a password.

We have two Web Clubs;
#101 is the companion to Absolute Beginning and is aimed towards students and teachers and
#202 is the companion to A Retro Choreography and Fire at the Iao, and is aimed at Intermediate /Advanced students and Professionals. (Note: we had never seen Suite101 before we happened to name them).

They are separate and private pages because they are intended for those who are working with the particular video/DVD program and not intended for dancers who have not purchased my instruction. We have a gigantic and fabulous free web site at www.visionarydance.com. featuring over 60 articles, movies, sound bites, music, columns, galleries, retreats info, calenders and class schedules and more. The doors to the web club are on that site. Just use your password.

We are working on Visionary Bellydance Web Club #303 at the moment that will be dedicated to the new DVD versions of Volume 1 2&3. Our Summer project!

Delilah
www.visionarydance.com

-- posted by Delilah77

Top 3. Aug 14, 2002 3:04 PM

» Delilah77 - A reminder to think of the whole picture

Subject: A reminder

Delilah. . .

Learning to bellydance is not just in learning the steps.

The dancer must prepare her self daily physically emotionally, mentally and spiritually to execute this dance with any degree of skill. There is a ton of educational resources to be gleaned on the internet for the aspiring bellydancer!

Dancers reach out through e mail, chat groups and bulletin boards and connect like they never could before, and it is a wonderful thing. It inspires so much growth and development. We find out we can all teach each other, and learn from each other too.

Dancers get a sense of stylization, commitment, costuming, support and personal identification. New ideas and perspectives are spread through the web. I know women who never thought of bellydancing before by chance have found their way to our site and learned they too can begin bellydancing!

Delilah
www.visionarydance.com

-- posted by Delilah77

Top 4. Aug 15, 2002 10:40 AM

» ghaziya - Re: Combination Video/DVD and the Web

In response to message posted by Delilah77:

Delilah, I was very intrigued by your web club concept when you first told me about it last March. I think it's a great idea with a lot of potential.

On the surface, there's a lot that beginning dancers want to know that just won't fit on a video or its packaging, like which music you used, where they can find vendors to sell them supplies, etc. So the notion of creating some kind of supplemental documentation to augment the video can be very helpful to your audience.

Baraka took a step in this "supplement" direction when she released her Dancer's Toolkit video with a companion book. Her companion book contains some of the same types of things you described as having on your site: choreography notes, text descriptions of the steps taught on the video, etc.

Her book supplement was innovative and great added value, but I like your web approach even better because:

You eliminate the need for printing, binding, and mailing the physical book, and therefore you eliminate a cost that you'd otherwise have to pass on to your customers.
You can easily tweak the content over time if you feel like it.
Assuming your web password is somehow printed on the video packaging or attached via sticker, the customer won't lose your supplementary documentation. (I've misplaced my copy of the book that goes with Baraka's video. Argh!)

Anyway, since I don't have your DVD (just your original 3-part VHS series), I haven't seen your site, but I like the idea as you've described it!

--Shira

-- posted by ghaziya