World Dance New York's new Movement Catalog Series is not traditional dance instruction. Rather, these DVDs are like interactive dictionaries where you can look up demonstrations of specific dance elements. Each element is displayed with an accompanying commentary. The program is 'open level,' appropriate for anyone who is creating choreography.
When you are working on a choreography with The Body Language of Bellydance DVD on your screen, you will find you have a ready source of moves and inspiration. It is also helpful as a learning tool in that it provides an entire system of moves - not just the few select steps that can be offered in a class or the typical instructional video.
The first section of The Body Language of Bellydance catalog arranges a collection of dance body language phrases by theme and emotion: Spiritual experience...majesty...sensual goddess... drama and flirtation...compassion...ritual...dream...inspiration...mystery, and other archetypes: A dictionary of emotional flavors. If you are seeking to infuse your dance with meaning and amplify its emotional expressivity, the pose and gesture combinations in this section will help you unlock the story-telling potential in your dance without sacrificing dance in favor of pantomime.
The next section is a collection of arm trajectories - including poses that derive from them, and steps that can be embellished with these arm patterns.
The Trajectories into Phrases section presents elements that turn arm patterns into gestures, and poses into phrases: Entering and exiting poses, preparation and resolution, how to achieve subtle changes of emotional color and high-contrast effects.
The Accents & Angles section explores the role of body, head, and face angles, wrist circles, flips and infinity loops, an array of weight shift variations, turns, and accents, such as head turn, head toss, chest lift, and torso drop, featuring the expressive potential of these elements to form evocative, meaningful dance body language phrases.
