Brand new as of January 2011, this DVD (Roman is pronounced Roh-mahn) is believed to be the first collaborative effort between a Roman (Romani) instructor, Reyhan Tuzsuz, and her student, Delpha Reihs.
As this DVD is about learning Reyhan's Roman style of dance, Egyptian and American cabaret-style dancers may not fully understand the moves and gestures and therefore misinterpret their meanings. While ATS, Tribal Group Improv, and Tribal Fusion dancers occasionally dance to slow 9/8 rhythms, the music that accompanies this DVD is predominantly fast and very fast 9/8s and may prove difficult to adapt for those dance styles.
I recommend this DVD if:
1. You are interested in learning from an excellent Turkish Romani dancer.
2. You have some music background, consider yourself a 'counter', or are able to learn by following clear visual and audio cues.
3. You are a beginning or intermediate level Turkish-style dancer ready to challenge yourself to the next level.
4. You are an advanced level Turkish-style dancer wanting to add to your dance vocabulary
What I liked:
1. The DVD contains 2 1/2 hours of material. In addition to the performance and instructional aspects, also included are video footage and photographs of Romani festivals, a cursory review of Romani history, musical instruments, and biographies of Reyhan and Delpha.
2. The dance segments are two-fold: Reyhan demonstrates first, followed by Delpha's breakdown of the movements to both the right and left sides. The progression of the movements and layering begins simply, increasing with complexity from the beginning to the end of the DVD. This is useful as a dancer can tailor viewing to one's current experience level, while also being able to see the challenges of the next level.
3. The studio used for filming was entirely in black with a simple lighted area for Reyhan and Delpha - no visual distractions for the viewer. Both dancers face a large mirror, making it easy to see the moves from behind and from the front.
4. The camerawork is from the back and side views; both dancer's attire provides clear views of the ankles and feet - this is important to be able to see proper placement.
5. Sidebars explaining some of the gestures appear during Reyhan's solos.
6. The music is an original soundtrack featuring Reyhan's husband Husnu and his ensemble. It includes fast and slow tempos of "Roman Heavy", "Roman", and "standard Roman". The terminology they chose helps distinguish between the different rhythms. They similarly chose names for the dance steps; again beneficial to make them easier to remember. Delpha reminds the viewer the terms are not standardized terminology. For me this was a very necessary piece of information often left out of other DVDs or videos.
Where modification would have been helpful:
1. I was quite surprised by the 2 1/2 hour length; there are 3 different levels of dance complexity in one DVD, and enough material is presented that 3 different DVDs could have been made. While having it all contained in a single DVD is beneficial, one does not always have 2 1/2 hours of uninterrupted time to view it. However once watched a time or two, a dancer should be able to tailor viewing to their experience level.
2. All the camera work is full-body shots. Adding closer views and/or close-ups would have varied the presentation.
3. An experienced dancer may find the pace of parts of the instructional sections to be on the slow side.
4. A larger font for the sidebars would make them easier to read. Granted they are not the focus, but viewers have difficulty reading the small print.
5. The 9/8 rhythm explanation may not work well if one does not have a music background or is not a 'counter'. Not all learn by the counting method; providing both the counting and a 'quick-quick-quick-slow-and-a' or similar breakdown would be helpful to non-counters.
6. A brief mention of which rhythm is being played ("Heavy Roman", "Roman", or "Roman Standard") prior to the dancing and instruction would help reinforce the differences. This was not consistent throughout the DVD.
7. More detail on how the rhythms are different (Doums=accents and fall on what beats) would help learn what to listen for and reinforce which rhythm is being played. If one has a music background, the graphics used are easy to understand; if one does not it may take a bit longer to comprehend.
In conclusion, I found this to be an excellent DVD and I am looking forward to future collaborations from this talented team of independent artists.
2 comments:
Ok....now that you've been enlightened by the fabulous Amina - here's my response:
Yes, Yes, Yes! I LOVED this dvd for several reasons, primarily: it's the only one of it's kind that I know of in existence that is widely available. The fact that it is very well done and easy to understand (although admittedly, it is somewhat helpful for you to already be familiar with the gesticulations and razor-sharp pelvic articulations) makes it all the more significant, in my opinion. It should be at the TOP of any Turkish Romani dancer's DVD list.
Maybe this REALLY amateurish video I made will help beginner music counters of 9/8 who haven’t had the great pleasure of seeing Raw Roman yet (which has a far more sophisticated approach than a ‘talking hand’)! I've used a familiar song to get you started – hope this helps!
http://tinyurl.com/4n3sbnx
The Slow 9
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