Namaste! This is how we greet each other in India. It means "I bow to the God in you." Our culture and art are both ancient and spiritual. Classical dances of India are born in the temples and are the dances of the mind, the soul and the divine. These dance traditions still follow the rules set by Guru Bharata in his Natya Sastra (Science of Dancing) from second century AD. This dance instructional DVD is created for aspiring dancers who want to learn the basic technique and practice on a regular basis to become magnificent dancers. Learning any art takes time and practice. At the end, the rewards are wonderful. This is an attempt to introduce you to the technique and inspire you to pursue this art further. This DVD disc features interactive menus and chapter marks for easy access to your desired dance step or scene. Some of the highlights of this DVD include: 1.Salutation, 2.Basic Positions, 3.Single Hand Gestures, 4.Warm up Exercises, 5.Steps Series One, 6.Head Movements, 7.Eye Movements, 8.Neck Movements, 9.Steps Series Two, 10.Double Hand Gestures, 11.Poses, 12.Costumes & Make Up, 13.Ananda Natanam Dance. In this DVD, Padma Chebrolu demonstrates how she has taken her years of intense Bharata Natyam training and teaching experience to the dance studio. She instructs the viewer just as she trains her students in private classes. All of the steps are taught in simpler and smaller segments to make it easy to follow. Padma uses well organized material and standard teaching method throughout. This DVD teaches traditional Bharata Natyam as performed by hundreds of millions of Indians all over the world. If you are interested in India and its arts, this DVD is a must for you. |
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55 of 56 found the following review helpful:
 Basics in a nutshell - celebrating the commercial birth of the American "Bharatanatyam"May 24, 2006
By K. Palani
First of all, it was odd to read in the Product description that the author thinks that "Bharata Natyam as performed by hundreds of millions of Indians all over the world". In reality, less than 1 among 10000 Indians know even the basics of Bharatnatyam.
This DVD lets you watch 28 mudras, 20 hastas, 3 warm-up exercises (which is ridiculously inadequate), 8 head movements, 8 eye movements, 4 neck (stiff!) movements, 10 "poses", and 29 steps at 2 speeds. Considering that each DVD player can let you play the movie at half or quater speed, the whole idea of giving 2 speeds is foolish as there is no explanation of the different phases (and common errors) of the movements. The "guru" herself does not seem to realize the miriad of errors that she makes herself.
The cameraman was unaware of the difference between shooting a belly dancer and a Bharatanatyam dancer: very often the dancer's hands and feet in this DVD are cut out of the frame, and only the dancer's face and stomach are visible.
What surprised me most in "Dances of India - Learning Bharata Natyam" is the rather useless ("talking head" only) lenghthy introduction (7 minutes). All in all, nearly half of all the time in this DVD we see Padma Chebrolu's "talking head" - rather awkward for a "Bharatanatyam guru" too.
Don't expect to find anything useful in the "Costumes & Make-up" section. You can learn as much from here as from seeing 1 photo of a Bharatanatyam dancer.
The instructor, a full-time software engineer with an MBA, is well-aware of the inadequate quality of her demonstrations of something that is presented as "Bharata Natyam". If Tony Blair loses his job soon, he might well go to India and teach western ballet there. He will surely be better at it than P.Chebrolu at Bharata Natyam.
Anyone who knows how to search the Internet can find Bharata Natyam DVD trailers from Padma Chebrolu's "Learning Bharata Natyam" and see that it is no match for serious instructional Bharatnatyam DVDs like, for example, SriDevi Nrithyalaya's videos.
I bought this "Dances of India - Learning Bharata Natyam" DVD from Amazon out of curiosity, and now regret paying so much for another piece of junk.
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 LEARNING DANCES OF INDIA - VIA VIDEONov 24, 2000
This is an excellent video. The quality is definitely a 5 stars. The instructor's method is easy to follow and understand.This video will provide the people of India's culture a method for keeping their traditions alive throughout generations. Young as well as old, experienced as well as inexperienced, will be able to follow the instructions. The instructor's method of sharing the connection of body, hand, and eye movements, helps the viewer understand the importance of each movement. A welcome addition to the dance arena and more so, to the Culture of India.
15 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Comparatively speaking, this is a pricey DVD - definitely not a bargain!Feb 24, 2006
By Nimisha
Among the educational Bharatnatyam DVDs, this one is the most expensive. Yes, the image quality is better than in, for example, the Drishya Bharatham DVDs, but what about the accuracy and precision of the technique, and clarity of explanations? Of course we cannot compare J.Suryanarayanamurthy, a Kalakshetra professor, with P.Chebrolu. So why P.Chebrolu's DVD should be 3 times more expensive than J.Suryanarayanamurthy's?
Instead of giving too many cultural introduction (we all can read books, and do not need lectures on DVDs!), P.Chebrolu should have given more time to actually show and explain the moves deeper.
Anyone who actually tries to learn anything with this DVD will end up with too many unanswered questions.
17 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 Good for a complete novice and non-IndiansMay 16, 2004
By Anna Kern
If you are new to Bharata Natyam, this will be an interesting video to watch. You will not become a Bharata Natyam star after watching it, but you will surely find it useful if want to familiarize yourself of this Indian Classican dance. Pro's:
1.This is one of 3 video's of Bharata Natyam that you can get on a DVD, which means that you can see even the facial expressions very well
2.Basic introduction to an extremely complex world of Bharata Natyam for non-Indian students who are new to the Indian culture
3.Well-structured and directed. Con's:
1.In some places it looks like a fusion of other dance styles with Bharata Natyam, which is fine if you don't plan to become a top dancer like Balasaraswati in the past or Medha Hari of today
2.Covers a very limited area of the Bharata Natyam arsenal (roughly, about 0.1%) - what can you expect from a short video, after all?
3.Performance is good by the American standards but rather inadequate by the Indian (have you seen young Bharata Natyam dancers especially when they dance in the temples at the Hindu festivals?).
13 of 15 found the following review helpful:
This is a neat video!!!Apr 14, 2002
My five year old daughter just started taking classical dance classes. As I do not have dance background, I was struggling to help her practice at home. Then one of my friend recommended this video to me. This video breaks up the steps, hand gestures and other movements into simple segments and makes it easy for me to help my daughter learn. Everyday after school, I just put the tape on and make my daughter follow the video. Some times I get up and try it out too. This has become a mom and daughter fun time. My daughter has made excellent progress in the recent weeks. She now can remember the detailed aspects of each movement. She can pronounce all the Sanskrit terminology. She is moving very fast compared to other children of her age. Her teacher is very impressed by her progress. I recommend this to all the parents like me who are planning to join their child in the classical dance class. It really made things easy on us.
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