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