Comments on: Are Reviews Relevant Anymore?

By: LynetteSerpent

LynetteSerpent — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:11:08 +0000

Claire,
You haven’t been reading Gilded Serpent for very long have you? Take a look at our reviews and our submission guidelines. Reviewing is a tough job but very important to an arts community. Would you like to do a review for us. Send me a note! If you find a review on our site that you don’t agree with, please leave a comment below the review. This benefits all to have your additional views.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:40:27 +0000

Well, I *would* read the reviews…if reviews of bellydancing videos/DVDs were ever anything but positive. Seriously, in Zaghareet, Habibi, and most places online (other than Amazon, which often doesn’t have reviews for independently produced instructional videos), I’ve yet to see a review that wasn’t superlatively positive and glowing. Doesn’t anybody ever see a video that they hate? Why don’t we ever see those reviews?

By: Tracey Farmer

Tracey Farmer — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:48:48 +0000

Excuse the typo above…

My example means that some people aren’t fans of certain genres in bellydance. So no matter how popular the instructor, there are those who will not buy their products. But then are those who will buy anything with a famous name attached.

I agree with Melissa, who commented above that some of her favorites are not by well known/well respected dancers. Maybe a review on GS will give these artists exposure they deserve, especially if they’ve produced a great product.

By: Tracey Farmer

Tracey Farmer — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:40:11 +0000

I read the article and pretty much the writer answered her own question. I think reviews are relevant if they stick to the material its supposed to represent or teach, not the popularity of the dancer. A lot of the DVD’s I’ve reviewed are by dancers I’ve never met or don’t know too well, like Mahsati Janan. Never met her, but I think she does a good job in teaching fan veils….if that’s what you want to learn. A glowing review about her DVD won’t mean much to a dancer not interested.

I like the set up/breakdown on how we now try to compare DVD’s… quality, instruction, material, etc. There are so many beginning drum solo, finger cymbals, etc you can compare each one, but it all boils down to if you’ve been exposed to the instructor/dancer and like their style. For example, if people are not a fan of your, and no matter how big a star you’re supposed to be, they will not buy it.

We’ve all been disappointed by a CD or DVD purchase. That’s why we have swap meets. GS reviews are just trying to help dancers make a quality choice.

By: Martha Duran

Martha Duran — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:25:30 +0000

Note: I DO WRITE DVD REVIEWS FOR GILDED SERPENT

Before I started writting for Gilded Serpent I use to buy DvDs from well know dancers end most of the time ended up with follow along dvds or excercise your way to fitness dvds that didnt have much innovations in the dance. First of all I recommend that before you buy a DVD you ask yourself WHAT KIND OF DVD DO I WANT? WHAT FOR ? TO EXCERCISE ALONG OR TO LEARN FROM? FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES? after you answer that is when you go and read the reviews.
Personally i have never trusted reviews or comments made in Amazon most of the stuff written there is made by either friends of the dancer on the dvd or new to the dance world dancers…
NOW I only buy DVDs from people who i have attended workshops or i have gone to see at a show. THere are many DVDs outhere that are terribly reviewed because they lack of production but i get more info or instruction or a better show from than highly produced dvds.
Sorry if someone out there who loves to comment or review on Bhuz or Amazon gets offended but most of the comments are too positive and lack information of the content and that makes me feel that i cant trust the reviewer.
Here in Gilded Serpent I know I can reallly trust a review because I know you cant review a friend thats a rule here. And I know that everyone who writes in Gilded Serpent is a well known well respected in the dance community dancer and most of all highly experienced.

By: Dina

Dina — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:24:16 +0000

“I find Amazon reviews to be a really mixed bag, because the reviewers could be anybody, and often say things like “this was too hard.” Too hard? Knowing nothing about that person… that’s meaningless.”

True. The only thing that is worse are things like “the instructor was unattractive/not in shape etc”.

By: Lynette Harris

Lynette Harris — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:53:15 +0000

Yes, GS will need to put our reviews in database eventually that is searchable by all those categories. Time and money! Volunteers?

By: Tracy

Tracy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:45:53 +0000

(Disclaimer: I have written CD reviews for the GS, but no DVD reviews.)
Just thought I would comment here on the value of reviews. I have a huge library of dance DVDs and have been inspired to buy them by many different things: taking a workshop with the instructor… hearing good things on the Bhuz board… having a dancer friend recommend the DVD to me. But in every case I go looking for reviews from multiple sources. I find Amazon reviews to be a really mixed bag, because the reviewers could be anybody, and often say things like “this was too hard.” Too hard? Knowing nothing about that person… that’s meaningless. What I look for is description of elements and notes about production. (Clips are very useful as well. I think everybody producing dance DVDs should post clips!) I try to read reviews critically and pull out what is important to me. For example, if there’s a comment that the camera shows only the dancer’s face while she demos a move, I’ll steer clear! That bugs me. Therefore I like to read as many reviews as possible, and when possible, from sources who identify themselves, so I know a bit about their perspectives.
I do sometimes wish we had a site like videofitness.com — full of searchable lists by instructors, categories, et cetera. Maybe one day.

By: Dina

Dina — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:32:37 +0000

@Melissa:
I agree a lot. Pretty often the professional reviews are firstly viewed from a strong peer perspective – content is judged “excellent” if the performer is excellent and well-established to the reviewer. Outsiders to the community with a strict look on the content and its usability only will not always judge the content excellent though, and walk away disappointed.

Also some of the now much loved and appreciated youg companies like WDNY or Cheeky Girls raised some eyebrows with decade established dancers in the beginning one hears. How wrong were they to quickly judge Neon et al. as super commercial, when she put out some of the didactically most outstanding stuff an entire generation of new dancers is trained with

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:53:40 +0000

I take the professionally done reviews with a grain of salt. The fact is that some of my favorite videos were by dancers that aren’t well respected in the bellydance community and some of the videos I sold after one viewing were done by highly rated dancers. I think these reviews are better for people who want to immerse themselves in the bellydance community and don’t want to make an obvious mistake like saying they think Dolphina’s zil video is cute. ;D