Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake, DVD Review & Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed, thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to Jessica, comment #22, who said:

One thing I learned from the website (specifically the teacher's guide) is there are many versions of Swan Lake. The one featured in this story has a happy ending, while some have a tragic suicide ending. I guess I am not cultured enough, because I was unaware of this. The only other version of Swan Lake I have seen is a children's movie. lol!Thank you for the chance to win this for my daughter.
Today is the official re release of Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake! I am so happy to be introducing my readers to a great way to expose your child to the beauty of a professionally performed ballet, encourage a love and appreciation of dance, and introduce basic ballet steps. After watching it a few times, don't be surprised if your daughter starts asking to go to the ballet!

Product Description: This is a hip new twist on learning about ballet, featuring the Paris Opera Ballet and Students from School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center, Official Academy of New York City Ballet. Our 40 minute DVD is a cool, fun, beautiful show with a brain. Prima Princessa, an animated fairy ballerina, magically transports a group of little girls to see the Paris Opera Ballet perform select segments of Swan Lake. In between acts, the children return home to learn simple ballet steps which are playfully shown mixed into colorful montages of toys, animals, children and young dancers from the School of American Ballet.

I liked the DVD format, it broke Swan Lake into several shorter acts with Princess Princessa appearing in between to lead the girls in learning a few simple ballet steps. These were demonstrated by students from the School of American Ballet, followed by the darling little girls showing off their own versions of the steps. It was a bit repetitious, the clips with Prima Princessa were shown twice in a row, but after some consideration I decided it was very age appropriate for my daughter. Sometimes it wasn't until the second time through that she joined in with her own moves.

The only drawback to this DVD, was that the storyline of Swan Lake did cause my 3.5 year old a little bit of apprehension, the evil magician scared her, but she's a bit of a scardy cat. I think most of her peers at preschool would've been fine with it, and she still liked the sections with Prima Princessa. Two more titles are due to be released this year; perhaps another story would've been better to start with.

I am really glad the video showed professional ballerina's in a performance setting, to show my daughter what real ballerina looks like. The forty minute length was perfect for her and we especially enjoyed the bonus feature of the baby swan dance. The overall DVD had a high quality of production and it's sure to be enjoyed by little ones interested in dance.

Here is a short trailer clip:

There are some additional resources to be found on the Prima Princessa website. You can print out coloring pages of Prima Princessa dancing some of the steps taught in the video and learn more on the ballet dictionary page. There is even a teacher's page with activities geared toward preschoolers to second grade. The Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake DVD is available at Target, Amazon, and the Prima Princessa website.

Giveaway!

One reader will win a copy of Princess Princessa Presents Swan Lake on DVD!

To Enter:

Visit the Prima Princess website and tell me one thing you learned.

Additional Entries:

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• Tell me your favorite ballet.

Giveaway open through March 16th at midnight EST to US and Canadian residents. Winner will be notified via email and have 48 hours to responds.



Disclaimer: Thank you to Princess Princessa Productions for the reviewers and giveaway copy of this DVD. No other compensation was received for this post. This review relates my own personal experiences and opinions and yours may differ.