Mala
09-09-2005, 04:48 AM
You won’t find this content in the regular run of the mill salsa DVD. Jaana takes up isolations that seem to me to touch the fringes of preparing for show dancing. All thoroughly Latin.
She gets right down to it with different types of isolations essential for sexy Latin feel. Each has a different level of detail so I’ll comment on each separately. Her method of teaching these isolations is a quick explanation, and then a quick exercise for you to do along with her.
1. Toe and ankle isolations
2. Latin points—front, side, back
3. Latin points with plies
4. The Latin walks—front and back walks, ronde
5. Rib cage isolations
6. Hip isolations
7. Ripples
8. Cuban Motion
9. Shoulders—up/down, forward/back
10. Arms and fingers
11. Neck and head
The first four isolations—feet, ankles, points, walks etc—are explained very well with a good amount of detail and repetition. Also at a good pace. Each has its associated do-along exercise. Do enough of these and it will make a big difference to your stance and the line of the feet as you dance.
The next four isolations—ribcage, hips, Cuban motion and ripples—are breezed through rather too quickly. These are the more important and more difficult ones and are the ones that one needs much more detailed explanations of. She needed to go much slower and create a lot more repletion. Plus she needed to show us how she layers one type of isolation over another. Eg a ribcage shift with a hip crunch. If you get this section right—you’ve got it made. But it needed more. There’s an exercise for each isolation however. Jaana uses these isolations thoroughly and great effect in the other videos (salsa, rumba, cha cha) and there’s no point buying any of those without this one. But she doesn’t explain many of the uses of isolations in the initial video. Hip shimmies, for example.
Shoulder isolations turned out to be surprisingly simplistic. Just forward back, up down. Slow and then fast to a shimmy. The head and neck isolations are good and very nice to do along with her.
The arms and fingers styling is really good. She teaches how to move the arms with the elbow first and that gives it a different look altogether different. She teaches the inside and outside wrist turns with finger styling. This one also has a particularly long exercise which is almost a complete dance in itself.
Not enough thought has been put into making things properly visible and clear. Many movements are from just too far away and even using my player’s zoom function didn’t quite solve the problem. The colors are also all wrong because her feet sort of merge against the wooden floor. She’s dressed to blend in not stand out. She’s sweet and charming though and I love her accent. She has interestingly brassy red hair.
I wish the music through this video had been Latin—and had stayed that way. Instead all the navigational music is obnoxiously disco and the exercises are set to a jazz piece.
I’d give it a 4 on 5 with marks off only because more time needed to be spent on detailing the hip and rib cage isolations. Costs $34 and it’s very good value for money, specially as I got one free with the other two I bought—salsa and cha cha styling. I wouldn’t part with it for the world and have made a copy for everyday use rather than risk putting scratches on the original.
The dance DVDs I own at the time of this review:
1. Salsa for Gringos-basics-Stephanie Gumon and ave Paris
2. Salsa for Gringos-Turns and spins I-Stephani Gumon and Dave Paris
3. Red Hot Salsa – Basics – Ron and Bethena Rosario
4. Ladies Styling-Technique-Juliet McMains
5. Ladies Styling-Syncopations and Variations-Juliet McMains
6. Ladies Latin Styling-Core Isolations-Jaana Kunitz
7. Ladies Latin Styling-Salsa-Jaana Kunitz
8. Ladies Latin Styling-Chachacha-Jaana Kunitz
9. Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa (Intermediate)
10. Learn to Dance the Salsa CD 2-A sexy and stylish approach – Tennia
11. Style Like Nobody’s Watching – Olivia Dasso
12. Red Hot Salsa - Mambo Shines. Ron and Bethena Rosario
13. Instant Belly Dancer-Curves-Neon
14. Instant Belly Dancer-Hips Plus-Neon
15. Salsa Cubana—Basics
16. Salsa Cubana-Advanced
17. You can dance the cha cha
18. Kaytee’s Beginners Guide to Salsa
She gets right down to it with different types of isolations essential for sexy Latin feel. Each has a different level of detail so I’ll comment on each separately. Her method of teaching these isolations is a quick explanation, and then a quick exercise for you to do along with her.
1. Toe and ankle isolations
2. Latin points—front, side, back
3. Latin points with plies
4. The Latin walks—front and back walks, ronde
5. Rib cage isolations
6. Hip isolations
7. Ripples
8. Cuban Motion
9. Shoulders—up/down, forward/back
10. Arms and fingers
11. Neck and head
The first four isolations—feet, ankles, points, walks etc—are explained very well with a good amount of detail and repetition. Also at a good pace. Each has its associated do-along exercise. Do enough of these and it will make a big difference to your stance and the line of the feet as you dance.
The next four isolations—ribcage, hips, Cuban motion and ripples—are breezed through rather too quickly. These are the more important and more difficult ones and are the ones that one needs much more detailed explanations of. She needed to go much slower and create a lot more repletion. Plus she needed to show us how she layers one type of isolation over another. Eg a ribcage shift with a hip crunch. If you get this section right—you’ve got it made. But it needed more. There’s an exercise for each isolation however. Jaana uses these isolations thoroughly and great effect in the other videos (salsa, rumba, cha cha) and there’s no point buying any of those without this one. But she doesn’t explain many of the uses of isolations in the initial video. Hip shimmies, for example.
Shoulder isolations turned out to be surprisingly simplistic. Just forward back, up down. Slow and then fast to a shimmy. The head and neck isolations are good and very nice to do along with her.
The arms and fingers styling is really good. She teaches how to move the arms with the elbow first and that gives it a different look altogether different. She teaches the inside and outside wrist turns with finger styling. This one also has a particularly long exercise which is almost a complete dance in itself.
Not enough thought has been put into making things properly visible and clear. Many movements are from just too far away and even using my player’s zoom function didn’t quite solve the problem. The colors are also all wrong because her feet sort of merge against the wooden floor. She’s dressed to blend in not stand out. She’s sweet and charming though and I love her accent. She has interestingly brassy red hair.
I wish the music through this video had been Latin—and had stayed that way. Instead all the navigational music is obnoxiously disco and the exercises are set to a jazz piece.
I’d give it a 4 on 5 with marks off only because more time needed to be spent on detailing the hip and rib cage isolations. Costs $34 and it’s very good value for money, specially as I got one free with the other two I bought—salsa and cha cha styling. I wouldn’t part with it for the world and have made a copy for everyday use rather than risk putting scratches on the original.
The dance DVDs I own at the time of this review:
1. Salsa for Gringos-basics-Stephanie Gumon and ave Paris
2. Salsa for Gringos-Turns and spins I-Stephani Gumon and Dave Paris
3. Red Hot Salsa – Basics – Ron and Bethena Rosario
4. Ladies Styling-Technique-Juliet McMains
5. Ladies Styling-Syncopations and Variations-Juliet McMains
6. Ladies Latin Styling-Core Isolations-Jaana Kunitz
7. Ladies Latin Styling-Salsa-Jaana Kunitz
8. Ladies Latin Styling-Chachacha-Jaana Kunitz
9. Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa (Intermediate)
10. Learn to Dance the Salsa CD 2-A sexy and stylish approach – Tennia
11. Style Like Nobody’s Watching – Olivia Dasso
12. Red Hot Salsa - Mambo Shines. Ron and Bethena Rosario
13. Instant Belly Dancer-Curves-Neon
14. Instant Belly Dancer-Hips Plus-Neon
15. Salsa Cubana—Basics
16. Salsa Cubana-Advanced
17. You can dance the cha cha
18. Kaytee’s Beginners Guide to Salsa