Teaching DVDs/videos

[elisedance]

Tell us which DVD/videos worked for you - and also protect us from the lemons!

Please indicate the dance style (standard, smooth etc), the type (routines, technique), the level (beginner, syllabus, advanced etc) and of course the instructor.

[Rugby]

Good topic ee.

[elisedance]

Yes - if that is we get a post or two

[cornutt]

The only instructional videos I've spent any time watching are the DVIDA ones.  The smooth ones with Jim and Janelle are pretty good.  The rhythm ones with Ron Montez are kind of frustrating -- you can pick up steps by watching them closely, but -- I'm going to keep it real here -- a lot of the performances look "phoned in" and the technique is pretty slop in some of them.  My instructor gets really frustrated trying to use them to teach, because she has to correct so many of the technique points.

I have seen one on smooth choreography and variations with Michael Mead and Toni Redpath that is very good for what it is (it's not a basic technique training video). 

We bought a workout video with Bob Powers and Julia Gorchakova.  Hoooollllllllllyyyyyyyyy coooooowwwwwww... I didn't make it through the first five minutes.   

[etp777]

I've heard very good things about the video from Michael and Toni too. 

[Rugby]

The only instructional videos I've spent any time watching are the DVIDA ones.  The smooth ones with Jim and Janelle are pretty good.  The rhythm ones with Ron Montez are kind of frustrating -- you can pick up steps by watching them closely, but -- I'm going to keep it real here -- a lot of the performances look "phoned in" and the technique is pretty slop in some of them.  My instructor gets really frustrated trying to use them to teach, because she has to correct so many of the technique points.

I have seen one on smooth choreography and variations with Michael Mead and Toni Redpath that is very good for what it is (it's not a basic technique training video). 

We bought a workout video with Bob Powers and Julia Gorchakova.  Hoooollllllllllyyyyyyyyy coooooowwwwwww... I didn't make it through the first five minutes.   

Yeah I'm doing my gold American medals and the Ron ones are a mess.  Obviously retakes were not in the vocabulary.  I would be embarrassed if it were my video.  If you didn't know what you were doing these videos could really screw you up.  If you don't like how they do it one way don't worry, in the next shot they seem to forget the move and change the footwork timing or what have you.  I end up laughing at it.  Divida told a friend of mine that they were redoing the latin with someone else.  Even the syllabus is ridiculous, can't see them being used seriously as each step is like 8 bars long and they don't even let you know that they are all individual steps within that one big move.

[Rugby]

I've heard very good things about the video from Michael and Toni too. 

Yeah, I would recommend these two.  Well done and worth watching.

[pruthe]

Would it be worthwhile creating a directory of teaching (or other) videos on PDO? Just wondered what others thought.

[Rugby]

Perhaps with catergories such as Standard, Latin, Smooth, Rhythm, Technique and so on.

[cdnsalsanut]

I have the entire DVIDA international syllabus on DVD.  I put together a club and we each bough 5 videos.

STANDARD INTL
I highly recommend all the standard video's with Victor Vessaret and heather Smith (Hope I have the spelling right).  They're excellent; well organized and lots of information about technique.

LATIN INTL
Corky Ballas narrating (he talks way too much and says little).  Karina and Slavik demonstrating.  They are terrific. I would avoid buying anything with Corky Ballas doing the dancing, they are outdated and he doesn't give much information about technique.

LATIN TECHNIQUE
Shirley Ballas - an oldie but a goodie. 

MICHAEL MALATOVSKY AND JOANNA LEUNIS
Body Basic and Touch of Africa.  Good demonstration but very little technique. Good dance demonstrations at the end

JONATHON CROSSLEY AND LYN MARINER
Naturalism.  Same thing, great demonstrations, but little technique explainaton. Also good dance demonstrations at the end.

BLACKPOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
All great to look at. Semi finals and finals.  highly recommended, but for enjoyment, not for learning.

CAL POZO's
Forgedaboutit!  Terrible.

LEARN TO DANCE VIDEO's
Terrible, waste of money.  Showing the same thing 20 diffferent ways.  Don't they know we have a reverse button?

SALSA

QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO SALSA
Fantastic set.  Rueda based, but well put together. The best salsa vids I've seen

JOSIE NEGLIA, AL LIQUID SILVER, ALBERT TORRES, SALSA CRAZY, SUPER MARIO. Some better produced than others...but not great.  Too much wasted time. I do recommend the Oliver Pinder dvd's.

WCS I also say the Ron Montez ones are bad.  So are the quebecois Mario.  Just old and poorly put together.

DOWNLOAD VIDS DAILY
There is a site called http://dancescientist.com/ where you can download individual lessons for between $8 to $10 each.  You can download them within minutes and watch them immediately.  Teacher is Monica Olejnik.  She's very good. They are mostly latin technique lessons on Rumba, Samba, Jive etc where she takes some basic technique and does a class on it.  I found them useful

[Rugby]

I have all the DIVIDA syllabus for latin, standard, rhythm, and smooth (both the new and old versions) as well as many styling and technique ones.

Have to agree with you cdnsalsanut.  Corky can drive you crazy after awhile and I always thought that getting Cloris Leechman on DWTS was some how a karmic payback for his videos.

[etp777]

hahaha, I have to say I find that a little surprising, as he did a dance camp for us, and I was impressed both with how well he explained the technique, and how he got through whole group (50-100 of us) and was able to quickly spot problems and explain them to each of us, student or pro, and fix the problems. 

[skipper]

What is the work-out DVD with Bob and Julia??

[elisedance]

Would it be worthwhile creating a directory of teaching (or other) videos on PDO? Just wondered what others thought.

Sure - that would be great.  Would you like to try

[cornutt]

What is the work-out DVD with Bob and Julia??

It's a set of stretching and flexibility exercises.  It looks like a lot of it came from ballet; they use a bar a lot.  It's very strenuous.  I'll have to dig it up tonight and find the name.