Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake

My 3 1/2 year old daughter LOVES this Prima Princessa DVD. What a perfect way to introduce your little girl to real ballet permances from the Paris Opera Ballet with age appropriate narration. In between the performances (which are shortened for their little attention spans) she loves watching little girls just like her, dancing and having a grande time. She loves to dance along with this DVD - almost every day! Especially nice is that the correct ballet terminology is used. Dance teachers, Parents, and Little Girls all agree - Prima Princessa is the best! A perfect introduction to ballet for your little ballerina.

The segments of Swan Lake performance included in the video are absolutely beautiful. I wish there were more. In between the segments the video shows 4-5 basic ballet movements, each demonstrated by ballet students and other real life objects doing similar things (like a top spinning or a tiger jumping). They are all nice to watch. The fairy that is leading the whole video has an annoying voice and laughter, but that's to be expected for a children's video. The 'audience' of the ballet performance are a bunch of little girls dressed up in tutus and they are silly and cute, just as they should be. A very entertaining video even for adult viewers. A nice way to expose your children to real classic ballet, but not one from which you would expect them to learn.

My girls (ages 5 1/2 and almost 4) love to dance. If you have girls, you might have already heard of Prima Princessa. If not, here's the gist - It's a hybrid presentation on DVD. Part entertainment, part education. It may be more appropriate to say that it is education under the guise of entertainment. It consists of a presentation of Swan Lake by The Paris Opera Ballet broken into acts. The acts are further broken up by mini ballet lessons explaining and demonstrating different ballet moves. The entire DVD is narrated by a youth-friendly voice and cartoon fairy princess.

When I pulled out the surprise DVD for the girls to watch, their mouths dropped open and they were mesmerized. Not only did they pay attention to the ballet, but they asked appropriate questions: My (Almost) 4 year old asked - "If he don't (SIC) find her, what's going to happen?" They also repeated the tutorial words like "Peer-oh-ette" and mimicked the student dancers. I tried to take a few pictures but was chastised by my 5 1/2 year old when I tried to get her to hold still for a snapshot. "Mom! I'm a Swan!"

When it was over, they both exclaimed in unison "I want to do it again." They both did a marvelous job on retelling the story even!

Another day, a neighbor showed up with her 4 year old daughter and 18 month old son, along with two 4 year old girls she was babysitting. After playing outside for a bit, I invited them in and we popped in Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake. If you could only have seen our family room filled with 6 children dancing along with the ballet and students!

The DVD was a hit with all the kids and I enjoyed it as well. I hate to admit that I've never bothered to watch any performance of Swan Lake so it turned out to be a learning experience for me too! I highly recommend this for any family with kids who love to dance.

I was very fortunate to have been able to review, a wonderfully crafted DVD by two amazing moms from my old home state, New Jersey.

This DVD is just what this mom ordered. I took ballet as a child and have been recently trying to plant the dance bug in my 3 year old daughter's ear. You can only give her so many tutu's and princess things while asking "do you want to take ballet this year?"

Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake features a cartoon ballerina who narrates Swan Lake for us. Swan Lake, being performed by the Paris Opera Ballet is beautifully done. In between acts, we are treated to various ballet steps all set to a montage of toys, animals, children and young dancers for the viewer to learn. My daughter particularly loved the segments of little girls running around and laughing in their tutus. This 40 minute DVD has enough to keep the preschool age child all the way up to Grandma's age interested.

I organized a play date with my girlfriend so that my 3 year old could watch it with a friend (a 9 year old dancer student). The plan was to have the girls watch the movie while we continued our own play date over at the dining room table with coffee and our laptops. We started the tape and were completely sucked in. So much so that we took our respective places next to our daughters and watched the whole movie with them.

While the movie was playing I heard my girlfriend's daughter tell her mom that she wants to stay in ballet (she had been thinking of dropping it because she doesn't love her teacher).

This is a great way to introduce dance to your little one or to reinforce someone's love for dance.

For more on this review head over to my blog at http://reesspace.blogspot.com

My daughters are 7 and 10, they both started dancing at 3. I wasn't sure if they would like this dvd, but they both loved it. Especially my 7 year old.

It is very well done, interweaving Swan Lake, ballet lessons and adorable pre-school girls dancing around learning ballet steps.

This is a great dvd to introduce your child to professional ballet. Swan lake is a delightful story!

This dvd is perfect for ages 3 and up. As soon as you pop it in, your child will be twirling around, dancing to the music. Plus Prima Princessa is an adorable cartoon character that takes them throughout the video. What kid wouldn't love her, adorable.

I can't wait for the next dvd from these two moms!