Dancetime DVD! 500 Years of Social Dance: Volume I: 15th-19th centuries by Dancetime Publications

VERY OUTDATED!!!!!

This is a fast source for dance history classes to see the evolution of dance forms. Of the two volumes in this series, I find the 15th through the 19th centuries particularly useful for students and interested individuals to see accurate costumes, dancers's postures, steps and figures. The DVD doesn't analyze the steps, but they are demonstrated accurately and in a lively manner. Some of the sung narrative is corny, but not too distracting. Very little cultural context is included in the narrative, but that is for textbooks and historical documents. I recommend this DVD for beginning and non-major classes. A conscientious teacher would be able to use this as a visual aid to her/his lectures.

A wonderful DVD. Put together very professionally with excellent menus which make the DVD easy to navigate. Very well danced and historically very informative and accurate.

I got this video in the hopes that it would provide for me some instruction into at least one of the dances from one of the time periods. Instead it is a dance troupe performing dances from the different times. Due to costuming and lack of zoom in camera work you are unable to see the women's footwork. If you are interested in only seeing the dances this video will suit well your purpose, but if your desire is to be able to dance to the music that you enjoy of these time periods, in the proper manner... forget it. If I had known it was performance would not have bought it. Now I will gift it to someone that can appreciate it. I can not.

We bought this inexpensively, to supplement my daughter's homeschool curriculum in the arts. She enjoyed the video series.

This DVD traces history, dance steps, fashion and romance. I was amazed that it is an educational and entertaining experience.Both the beauty and complexity of these older dances are impressive. The costumes are exquisite and the dancers imbue meaning into the steps, which they perform. Volume 1 is a fascinating window into the past. The DVD has a ton of background information, which is worth keeping for its encyclopedic content.