Dunia's Secrets Unveiled

Overall Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars)

This video features instruction in American-style veil work by Dunia, a dancer based in San Jose, California who is known for her beautiful veil work. (If you're not sure what American-style veil work is, please read Styles Of Belly Dance In The United States elsewhere on this web site.) Following an introductory section in which Dunia talks about her background as a teacher, dancer, and event producer, she spends about 14 1/2 minutes on a warm-up, then the rest of the video consists of instruction on how to do some of her trademark veil moves. Although she doesn't explicitly set out to teach arm movements on this video, arms are obviously a significant aspect of veil work, and she includes some excellent comments on arm technique. As the closing credits roll, Dunia does a brief veil performance.

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This video emphasizes the style of veil movements that Dunia is best known for: wrapping the veil around her head and body in different ways while dancing, framing her face and body in a variety of styles as if wearing an elegant garment. Although she uses a semicircular veil for the instruction, the moves on this video can be used with either a rectangular veil or a semicircular one.

The video opens with a sort of slide show of photos taken of Dunia over the years. Some include group photos in which she appears with her troupe or her friends. These photos alternate with a section in which Dunia, clad in her leotard, is doing undulations as a frame of silk veils billows around her. So, each photo appears on the screen for a while, then the scene cuts to Dunia's undulations, then another photo appears, then more undulations, etc. Although this was interesting at first, it went on for a little over 3 minutes, and the time could have been better used showing Dunia doing a complete veil performance in full costume.

This is followed by a segment in which Dunia talks a little bit about her background. For about 3 1/2 minutes, she discusses how long she has been dancing, what types of dance-related projects she has worked on, etc.

Next comes a section on warm-ups, which lasts about 14 1/2 minutes. Dunia introduces about 11 different exercises. For some of them, she talks about which muscles they benefit. She also makes a point of emphasizing the appropriate pelvic angle to use in posture, to avoid injury.

After this, Dunia briefly talks about how a veil should be constructed, including comments on appropriate fabric, trim, etc. Although she provided good information, this section was weak because there were no camera closeups to illustrate the points.

The real "meat" of this video followed. This was the section on how to do 7 distinct veil movements (2 of which were wraps). She demonstrated each move several times. Often, as she repeated the move, she inserted additional comments that might be useful to the person trying to learn it. Some users will like this, because it will let them practice a move several times before they have to rewind. Other people might have preferred for each move to be demonstrated only once, with the idea they would rewind to repeat it, to make room for more content to fit on the video. This comes down to a matter of personal taste on the part of the user, and no video can suit everybody. Those who like repetition are the ones who will be pleased with this video. I timed this section at 33 1/2 minutes.

Following the final veil move, Dunia made some brief closing remarks. Next came about 1 1/2 minutes of closing credits, superimposed over a veil performance by Dunia clad in her leotard.

You Will Probably Like This Video If

• You have a passion for American-style veil work and you'd enjoy learning some unique moves.
• You're a fan of Dunia and you would enjoy owning a video that features her.

You Probably Won't Care for This Video If

• You're disappointed by instructional videos that don't have a performance section separate from the credits.
• Your passion is either Egyptian style dancing or American Tribal Style, and American-style veil work just wouldn't fit in with what you like to do.

What I Liked

• Dunia took some time to explain why certain warm-ups were part of her routine and which muscles they benefited.
• I very, very much like the particular veil moves she selected to teach on this video. These are all distinctive moves that look attractive when performed, and they flow effectively from one to another.
• I like Dunia's explanations. I feel she chooses appropriate words to describe what she is doing. From her years of teaching these moves in her classes, she has learned to anticipate possible pitfalls, so her explanations appropriately included a level of emphasis in the areas where a student might go wrong.
• For each move, Dunia explains how to transition out of it at the end. I've seen some veil instructors who don't do this.
• The instructions for specific moves are peppered with details that apply to dancing in general, not just to veil. For example, her comment that an arm shouldn't just hang there--it should do something worth watching.
• Dunia taught a total of 6 distinct veil moves, plus an opening wrap. A dancer who spends time with this video will emerge with enough of a veil repertoire to dance through a typical 3- to 4-minute song.
• The background was simple, and not distracting.
• Dunia selected clothing that contrasted with the background (but not excessively), so the outlines of her body were easy to see. She wore a hip scarf that contrasted well with her leotard.

What I Didn't Like

• Sometimes the camera work made it difficult to see what Dunia was trying to teach. It often focused on the wrong part of her body--for example, it would sometimes show her from the waist down while she was talking about how to position the arms.
• Although Dunia sometimes turned to the side or turned to show her back to the camera to illustrate what to do from that angle, she didn't do this often enough.
• I was very disappointed that the section showing her performing with the veil was only 1 1/2 minutes long, and obscured by the closing credits. This was the main reason I gave this video only 3 stars for content instead of 4. Dunia's veil work is beautiful to watch, and at the time I bought this video I was really looking forward to having a performance segment that I could watch over and over.
• The performance segment would have been nicer if Dunia had done it in a complete costume rather than the leotard she used for the instructional segment.
• The section on how a veil should be constructed was weak. Dunia said the correct things, but the camera work failed to show the types of close-ups that would have illustrated what she meant.

• Warm-Ups: 11 exercises (sciatic nerve stretch, thigh stretch, head slides, head circles, shoulder rolls, arm stretch, snake arms, hand circles, rib cage circles, pelvic circles, large pelvic circle)
• Veil: 7 moves (maypole, tucking the veil, head wrap, India wrap, back windmill body wrap, pull and feed, Arabic twist)

Contact Dunia as follows:

Scarab Productions
P.O. Box 24849
San Jose, CA 95154-4849
United States

Phone: (+1) (408) 264-4DDF
Fax: (+1) (408) 264-9DDF
Web Site: http://www.desertdance.com

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