Product Description: Your little one will be a star in Bella’s magical world with this Bella Dancerella Home Ballet Studio. It makes ballet fun and easy to learn with a 30-mintue dance-along DVD. Five basic ballet routines are outlined step-by-step on the durable, double-sidedmat. Includes a balance bar.
the best toy in the world, ever... This is our (spoilt) daughter's favourite toy. She loves the DVD and has now decided to become a ballerina. If you want to have some rest just put in the DVD and know that your daughter has serious quality time while working out for the next hour...
This set is an absolute bargain. The DVD alone is worth the price as it is professionally done. I don't know what the compaints are about this item but we and especially our daughter loves the music and the entire presentation on this DVD.
Dreadful presentation, please don't be fooled by the packaging I bought this DVD with gear from Walmart at $13, steeply reduced from the original price. I am watching it while writing this review. The lead plummish oldest presenter/"ballerina", probably a teenager, is the worst dancer. Her ungraceful dancing style has little to do with ballet. Other little girls are just so much better. Unfortunately the camera was not focused on them. The smelly plastic mat made with cheap PVC is slippery. The bar is unsteady. It has turned into a towel rack in our household. The whole thing seems awfully and amateurly put together. The best thing is clips from various actual ballet performances. You don't want to introduce ballet to your little ones from this DVD. It has nothing to do with ballet, let alone Swan Lake.
OK For Kids, Expected more as an adult This dvd set was orgionally priced at about $30, but I got it on sale for $17 (thankfully). My set was the Swan Lake edition and came with 2 dvds and 2 mats, one bar and NO shoes. The first dance DVD was horrific. The girl (who couldn't have been more than 14, if that) had huge braces and a pretty thick accent, and was hard to follow what she was saying. The songs were very annoying from a moms point of view; my daughter has almost 100 DVDs and there is not one song on any of them that is more annoying than the songs on this DVD. She also was very quick with her instructions, and my daughter found it hard to follow. There was also a lot of time spent talking to a rude monkey and mute teddy bears. The kids also looked very unhappy and had forced smiles on thier faces. The second video was far less annoying, and had much better songs. And Bella was sans braces. The set was much nicer, and I don't think there were any talking stuffed animals. If you are going to buy this, I highly recommend getting the Swan Lake version. I'm ok with it for $17, but if I had paid full price I would have considered returning it.
How much do I hate this DVD? The bar is nice, and I suppose the mat will come in handy for reviewing the basic positions. But the DVD... it's just awful. The music is painfully bad. Seriously, what dp little girls dressed like fruit have to do with ballet? And the "host" is a confusing choice: her accent is distracting, and it's made even worse by the fact that she's talking around braces. The two little girls who help her don't look much happier. In fact, the one on the left looks like someone told her to smile or else.
Trying to keep up with the nominally enducational DVD is harder than you might think, as the mat has two sides and you have to flip it over mid-stream, only you get no warning and no time to do it. And the positions are introduced too quickly and with no discussion; they're just lyrics to the annoying song.
Our daughter got this for her 3rd birthday, and she actually looked at me the first time we watched it and said, "I want the fruit to go away." I had to laugh out loud and tell her I did too! Overall, I'm sorry her grandparents spent $15 on this. Total disappointment.
Annoying for adults but kids love I would have to say that I agree with most of the reviews that I've read. This is amazingly annoying and lame for parents to listen to and watch... but the kids love it. I have two girls 4 1/2 and 3 and they love it. They come home from ballet class and they have to watch it... over and over again. Well I can get dinner ready without any trouble... but the songs can get to ya. When I got it last year it was only 19.99 not sure how the price doubled this year. Maybe wait till after christmas for a better price or go for the dancing barbie one that seems to be better made.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
