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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Learn two fun and elegant samba dances with Quenia Ribeiro and Quenia's band, Grupo Ribeiro!

Samba is the most internationally recognized music and dance form from Brazil. Samba is a patchwork of many cultural elements pieced together from Africa, Europe, and the Indigenous people of Brazil. Developed in Bahia and brought to Rio De Janeiro by people of African descent, Samba spread to all levels of Brazilian society.

There are many different styles of Samba music and dance in Brazil. In this instructional DVD Quenia Ribeiro teaches the sexy, and exciting Samba from Rio De Janeiro. She demonstrates the basic footwork of Samba and then she breaks the movements down into concise and understandable steps. The next section in the DVD focuses on 2 choreographed routines. This style of samba is most commonly referred to as Samba No Pe.

Carnaval is celebrated preceding Lent. The Escolas De Samba, or Samba schools are community based organizations that create the music, dance, costumes and floats for the Carnaval parade. In addition to the musicians (bateria), the parade is comprised of alas or wings. Many wings follow choreographed dance routines similar to the ones demonstrated in this DVD.

Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Dance samba in no time!! May 19, 2008
Quenia Ribeiro will have you dancing samba in no time. In addition to teaching you the steps she tells you what to listen for in the music so you can time your steps correctly. She has a bit in the begining where she introduces her band and has them play each instrument seperately as she tells you which instrument you should listen for and follow. I also purchased the samba reggae workout which is just as good and more of a workout tape than this dvd. The samba reggae workout teaches samba reggae instead of "no pe" which is the kind taught on this dvd and danced in carnival. I definitely recommed both since the instruction is excellent and easy to follow.

3 out of 5 stars

Looks good but hard to follow March 18, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I am giving this DVD a relatively low rating because the instructor is always facing you, thus making it difficult to follow the choreography, as you are left to figure out what side you should move to and what foot to start with. It's mostly ok when the simple steps are demonstrated in isolation, but extremely confusing when trying to follow the choreography. I found myself spending too much time concentrating on trying to follow her routine but in the opposite direction so to say, i.e. when her cues tell to step left she actually steps to my right etc. As a beginner with no background in dance, I wish the instructor would turn around with her back to the student at least sometimes so that I could just copy exactly what she is doing.

5 out of 5 stars

Worthwhile January 21, 2008
I really like this dvd. She does a good job of showing the steps slow then up to speed and gradually adding on until you have the whole dance. It is a lot of fun and seems to be very authentic samba (but I'm no expert!)

5 out of 5 stars

Samba queen January 14, 2008
If you want to do the samba like it's done in Rio, this is the DVD for you.

3 out of 5 stars

Great intro to Samba January 4, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Though I dance latin dance styles. The content was new for me. But Quenia does a great job of teaching. It has pluses and minuses but I really like the DVD and use it 4-5 times a month. (I workout ~30 times a month)

Pluses
1) She teaches the basic samba step at 3 speeds. Very helpful for a novice like myself.

2) She is not patronizing like some DVD instructors.

3) She is built like a real woman and not a 12 year old boy and she moves like you wouldn't believe. Very impressive.

4) Steps are repeated so you can get the hang of it without having to rewind 100 times.

5) She turns as she shows some steps so you can she the moves from different angles. That is helpful for improving posture and technique for those who want to be that technical.

6) She shows you how to "freestlye" some moves for those who want don't want to take themselves so seriously.

Minuses
1) It is unclear which foot should lead some moves. Left or right. Sometimes she says one and does another and then vice versa. I just did what naturally felt right but...

2) In the basic samba step she doesn't mention to sweep your leg around like she does at full speed. I still feel like I am missing something between the slow pace and full speed.

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