Urban Jam - Hip Hop Dance with Laya Barak (All Regions)(NTSC) [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Product Details

Actor : Laya Barak
Format : Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC
Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0188883000383
Product Group : DVD
Region Code : 1
Release Date : 2007-07-24
Running Time : 80minutes
Studio : StratoStream - World Dance New York
UPC : 188883000383

ASIN : B000RDO27M

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Laya Barak's "Urban Jam - Hip Hop Dance" program offers instruction in innovative hip hop styles for skill levels from beginner to professional. The program includes a warmup and isolations section, followed by beginning, intermediate, and advanced routines, and then an additional breakdown of the beginner routine (separate upper and lower body breakdowns are shown). The warm up and isolations provide you with a basic stretch, together with exercises that will improve the upper and lower body coordination that is so essential for hip hop dance. The Beginner hip hop dance routine is broken down step-by-step with ample repetition. An additional "Arms" and "Lower Body" section breaks down separately - move-by- move - all the arm and footwork of the beginner routine. The intermediate routine involves more detail in upper body accents. Musicality also becomes more important, as the routines get more complex. In the advanced section the movement is more challenging, as the tempo accelerates and the choreography becomes more intricate.

About the Actor

Laya Barak began her training in her hometown of Detroit, studying modern, jazz, ballet, and tap but found her greatest inspiration in the dance style of hip hop. Spending summers at The Edge Performing Arts Center and Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles, Laya has trained with some of the top choreographers and teachers anywhere. She continued her studies at Indiana University where she gained her degree in Dance Peformance. Laya was the co-director of Indiana's In-Motion Dance Company, and also co-choreographed and directed the award winning dance concert Revival. Today, Laya teaches workshops and master classes around the US and abroad including Canada, Israel and Australia. She is on the faculties of Steps on Broadway's "The School at Steps" and Dance New Amsterdam, both in New York City. Laya Barak is also a singer/songwriter. You can hear her music at myspace.com/layabarak.

Customer Reviews

Energetic Fun in Dance (2007-10-22)

This excellent dance instruction DVD starts with a terrific warm-up, that centers on isolations and stretches. In order to do all the stretches full-out, you'd have to be quite limber, but you can do them at your own level, and still get a lot out of it. This warm-up section is good even if you don't want to continue on to the dance routines, as it makes a great morning "wake-up" as well as a relaxing way to get the tension out of your body after a hard day. Loose pants and a soft stretchy top, with sneakers, is what Laya Barak, and her 2 assistants, Jonathan Lee and Eleonora Barbacini are wearing, and the presentation is well done, with simple lighting and camera angles enabling you to see what is being demonstrated clearly. Music is by Jay T. Jenkins and Mervyn Theodopolis Jr. (Warmup), Daryl "D. Roe" Monroe (Beginner & Advanced), and Ray Johnson (Intermediate). The Beginner routine is easy but fairly long; the choreography flows well though, and the movements are broken down and explained enough to be able to assimilate it and make memorization easier. When performed up to tempo with the music you should be able to dance and enjoy it, and though some dance background would help a lot, enough passion for dance and desire to learn (and enough practice!) will get you through the routine if you are a beginner. The Intermediate picks up the pace a lot, as well as the length of the routine, and the Advanced is jammin'! It's a joy to watch Laya perform this invigorating and innovative dance form. She is a marvelous dancer, who completes every movement to its maximum point with precision and speed, as well as having musicality and that indefinable thing in dance called "line." Bravo Laya!

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