Lunar Bellydance East Coast Tribal [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I'm an unabashed admirer of Sera Solstice from the time I had the pleasure of working with her marvelous first East Coast Tribal DVD. It was, and still is, a significant influence in my dancing. Sera's teaching also contributes strongly to my dancing, because she and her marvelous Solstice Ensemble inspire me by looking like sculptures come to life. Art moving in space.

I like Sera's work also because she sees dance as being as much an inward journey as it is an outward expression. From the trailer for Lunar Bellydance, you can see that it means different things to different dancers, but that for each it goes beyond learning the moves, muscle work and gimmickry. Given that I like her basic approach to dance and movement, it isn't surprising that I like her new DVDs. I suspect I always will.

The "lunarity" of Lunar Bellydance comes not only from the deep blue tones and lighting that form a backdrop to this dance flow, but I would say also from the quiet meditative mood. Why do you dance? What do you really want from your dance? Does your dance get you in touch with deeper feelings and energies not reachable in the rushed routine of daily life? The answers to these questions and so many others on dance come not from the moves and the techniques and costumes, but from being open to exploration. And that is what makes Sera's instruction unique - and to me, very valuable. I see reviewer complaints that this isn't particularly Middle Eastern or not even traditionally belly dance. If that's what they're looking for, it's to be found on hundreds of videos. Speaking for myself, I'd have to say I'm grateful that someone is looking at belly dance this way, daring to go deeper and wanting to share it with others. And this, above all, is the reason I like this DVD so much.

But, let's step into the moonlight now and see where The Solstice Ensemble is going to take us. We head into a movement meditation with which Sera fans will be familiar. Lunges and leans, circles and stretches recall your range of movement and warm you up before you begin a seated meditative conditioning sequence of deep full circles. It's like a soothing movement massage. Sera's calm almost-hypnotic voice guides you through the relaxing and surrendering movements as you are invited to open up your mind, let go of everyday chaos and lose yourself in yourself. This meditation is so refreshing and calming, without ever being fake, over-the-top or encroaching on your own spiritual beliefs. And I love the music. No regular traditional belly dance music would have done. If you're hoping to find something from your collection of BDSS CDs here, forget it.

The instruction for combinations begins with a segment that happens to be my absolute favorite on this video, the Essential Lunar Armwork. It's here that you first see the languid, liquid and cool atmosphere of this program. The method is to introduce you to one arm path and then add on the next till a full sequence is over. These are beautiful. It's what I wanted from Rachel Brice's DVD on arms and didn't get. There's variety and range of motion and smooth flow. There isn't any breakdown of basic moves, thank God. I put a blue cover on the lamp in my dance room to really create the moonlit mood when I dance along with this section and that makes it even more enjoyable. The moves are quite signature Sera and not merely deeply serpentine. Sera's voice-over here is tranquility itself. I love this section so much it's almost as if the entire rest of the DVD is an add on. But that's just me. The music fits to perfection. I wasted no time getting this piece.

The pace changes as we move on to Essential Lunar Hipwork. The music in this section is used to pace your movements. It may look like we're starting off with basic sharp hip slides but seconds later you add arms, chest and belly moves to this. Try this for a drill. Pelvic tilts, twists, slides, shimmies and shoulder moves enter the picture. This is not a slow dreamy sequence but an unrelenting non-stop drill of various belly dance isolations and moves. And this is where you know for sure it isn't a video for beginners. There's no time on this segment to stop and figure out - you move move move. If it turns out frustrating, it needs a few rounds of watching first. Do not come to this section a) unwarmed b) with rusting isolations. Advanced dancers will get a good workout. Intermediate dancers will have lots to work up to it for long. And I will collapse. Can't think how Sera's managed to call out these moves at such top speed.

Then we get into hipwork-footwork-undulations that will work with the combinations. This intuitive approach to teaching is quite amazingly conceptualized, by the way. What I also like is how Sera doesn't stop to instruct. Breakdown is called out while demonstrating the sequence with repetitions to follow without breaking the flow for a second.

We drop back into a moonlit mood for this section. I've written a lot of reviews but am actually finding it difficult to describe. When you watch this, notice how very different these methods are from those of others. As we go into the combinations now, we find that they're divided according to the four elements, air, fire, water and earth. There's a demo of the combo, and then Sera breaks down the combo slowly, with full infinitely detailed explanations and reminders. It's fascinating that the movement sequences on this video have been taught from every angle and so deeply. I didn't realize some of this when I first watched the DVD. The step-by-step doesn't skimp on anything - from the position of your fingertips to the weight change in your feet. You will be amazed at the trouble Sera has gone to with detail for a video that does not claim to be for beginners at all. You do each combo on both sides, slowly slowly slowly. That way you also get to practice it and soak in more details. And if you thought you'd got enough, think again, because the combo is then practiced faster several times! You can see that the basic approach she has used in East Coast the original, holds through here as well. There's one thing about Sera's style. You can dance along and roughly get the moves, but you cannot look like her until you deepen your technique over time. I always wear those black tribal pants and put lots of bracelets on when I dance anything Sera because I want to give myself every chance of letting my moves looking similar. Each combo has totally different music. I see that some people tend to dislike her music - and that's right from the first video. I think it's masterful. Brilliantly selected and varied.

There are four combinations, one for each element but they can be put together, used elsewhere, whatever. As I'd said, it isn't the traditional style of teaching, combos, or choreographies. It's a holistic flow. Speaking of flows, a whole section lets you practice now with music only. The separate pieces of music come together in a very interesting way. After this whole long programs, we move on to a cooldown.Not that it will be easy for anyone but the most advanced to go from one end of the video to the other.

We end with two performances, one of which features Danielle with Sera, and the other just Sera in on WDNY's very moonlit stage. In a word, beautiful.

This is for intermediate to advanced students.
This is a really nice work-out of almost continuous movement. In addition you will learn some really cool arm poses and movements. This is done in Tribal Fusion style.
You will learn several combinations that are fascinating to watch.
Sera Solstice takes you through the combinations with her clear and relaxing voice, and ends with a short performance by Sera and her group. I love that her troup represents many types of women. Not only does this add texture and dimension, but allows the students to see the movements done correctly on many body types.
Sera uses a "follow along" style of teaching, so some previous belly dance is needed. If you need detailed breakdowns, you need to work with some other videos first. If you enjoy tribal fusion, you will really like this, it's fun. World Dance New York has good quality videos, so you will get a clear picture and sound.

I am a huge fan of Sera Solstice. Have 5 of her instruction/performance DVDs. On top of hers, have a big collection of instruction and some performance belly dance DVDs so have quite a comparison of instructional belly dance DVDs.
Recommend this for intermediate thru advance.
What I like about this DVD:
1. Learning more of Sera's signature moves along with her teaching to convey more feeling/soul into music. Sera gives a very detailed break down on the moves.
2. It's challenging. Not something I can just pickup the 1st time. Will take me awhile to really get down on the layering and nuances.
3. Her 4 elements: water, air, fire, and earth. Liked how she portrayed the combos for each.
4. How she has that tribal spirit. Constantly having Solstice Ensemble with her in warm-up, demos, cool down and group performance. Enjoy how Solstice Ensemble is incorporated by dancers of all shapes, sizes, and ethic background.
5. 3 great, full costume/makeup performances at end: lovely duet between Sera and Danielle (?). Good music, they incorporated into this duet the combos taught on this DVD, nice costumes, great duet interplay. This 1st one was my favorite of the 3. The second performance is a solo of Sera. She is such a graceful, moving dancer. Costume in this one was gorgeous! (I want that skirt!). Didn't care for the music. 3rd performance was a group Solstice Ensemble performance. Awesome group formations and synergy within group. The 2nd and 3rd performance could have been better if used better music.
6. Has warm-up, meditation, demo of combos, detailed breakdown of combos, cool down and 3 performances. She spend a great deal of time/energy making this and it shows.
7. Like how Sera wore leggings for instruction part so you could clearly see when her toes were pointed, knees when bents, etc.
What I didn't like and this is just my opinion:
1. THE MUSIC! Don't like most of the music. It's very industrial/techno/lounge music. Doesn't sound belly dance or middle eastern at all. The music for mediation was not meditative at all for me. So much so, that I found myself skipping thru meditation because couldn't get into it with that music, not soothing/serene music. The music she has to represent 4 elements, I didn't feel representing any of the 4 elements at all. The music was neither belly dance (with exception of water) nor giving me any feeling of those elements when I heard them. The solo and group performance music was not the best. Felt performances of these 2 could have been better if they used more appropriate/fitting music. Belly dance became lost. It felt more like NY modern dance than belly dance.
2. I know this is Lunar, but the instruction part was quite dark. Had dark background, little lighting and dark clothes, so harder to see the moves being demonstrated. Saw this even on Solar DVD which couldn't understand at all why that 1 was dark and not light.
Overall I would recommend this DVD particularly if you are a fan of Sera's style. I am learning great combos and tools for injecting feeling/soul into my dance. Found it to be very helpful in growing as a dancer.