Ballroom Dancing Made
Easy! (BFS)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Main Program: B-
The Quick Step.
The Waltz. The Tango. The Cha Cha. Even the Jive. All are
dances associated with ballroom dancing, which has slowly become more and more
popular. The increasing popularity has
extended to motion pictures (Sean Connery and Kim Basinger did it in the 1983
James Bond film Never Say Never Again) and contests of top dancers show
up on TV all the time. Since these
moves are not common and not as easy to do, as freer-styled Hip Hop dance
crowds would have you believe, many DVDs have surfaced on how to learn to do
these dances. One such volume is Ballroom
Dancing Made Easy!
BFS/American Home Treasures has made this 72 minutes-long
program their entry into the market, and although it will not turn you into the
hosts, Connery, Basinger or a professional dancer overnight, it is well drawn
and shown as Angela Rippon and Ian Waite show all the basics that have a
certain intelligence you will not necessarily get in such special interest
programming. The hosts are pleasant,
have some chemistry and never talk at the audience, something that can happen
without trying. If you want to pick up
a dance DVD, this is as good as anything on the market for the purpose.
The 1.66 X 1 image is not bad, shot on analog professional
NTSC video, which is just fine for such a production. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no serious surrounds, but plays
back fine otherwise. The few extras are
text origins on the dances taught and text on the hosts.
- Nicholas Sheffo