RVD at Buckeye Mela 2018

[aheer_sunny]

What's up BTF! Here is RVD's performance from Buckeye Mela 2018. Mela has always had a great reputation and this weekend did not disappoint. We had an amazing time and the committee did a great job of bringing in a crowd that made us feel like we were a hometown team.

Shoutout to our liaisons Paarth, Nikita, and Janki for being so helpful throughout the weekend!

Also HUGE shoutout to the very talented DJ Baaj, PablaMix, and Aka$h. These guys are the most professional mixers I have worked with and I would highly recommend reaching out to them for mixes.

Congratulations to UNC, Furteelay, and DDR on their respective placings. The lineup was great and it was definitely a show to watch. Thank you to all the teams that helped us get ready and apologies on our side for any headaches we caused with borrowing stuff!

Enjoy! Critiques are welcome.

Video:


Mix:


Jodis:
Red: Sunny and Karan
Blue: Simran and Baltej
Yellow: Himmat and Banti
Green: Gurekmann and Sid
Frozie: Amanjot and Jai
Pink: Arsh and Chan
Purple: Guntas and Prince
Black: Jessie and Monty
Dholi: Dholi Ram (GOAT)

BHOOOOOOOOOPS

 

[SahilG]

This team gets better with every comp. Best set and perfromance I've seen from RVD. Drop @ 2:46 was my favorite part, keep it up!

 

[HarjeetMangi]

Best all the team

 

[TegHans]

Well done guys! I was not at Buckeye and don't wanna say anything prematurely but I'm interested to hear why this set didn't place. Seems like there was a lot of UK influence in this set and I liked it for the most part. Could've done more with 16, I felt that there was creativity lacking formation wise. A lot of the fast drops featured dancers shooting forward through the middle while others spread to the side for example. Dancing is getting better with every performance so definitely keep it up. Of course dancers seemed to have gassed out towards the end as well as I'm sure you guys have already discussed. When watching this on the live stream I was positive it was gonna place so I was definitely surprised that it didn't. I understand that this isn't the first time you guys have brought fire to the stage and weren't placed by the judges but keep your heads up and keep it coming! Love the improvement

 

[VickG]

Impressive

Form and stage presence is getting better with each performance. Definitely agree with formations lacking creativity while going 16. There were at time dancers weren't executing moves fully due to the lack of energy, which held back the performance. Personally believe a big flaw was your footwork. A lot of time you guys were just gliding your feet across stage for moves and weren't getting your legs up. Still an impressive performance nonetheless. Keep up the good work mah dudes!

 

[Howie Magz]

Thoroughly impressed with the improvements you guys have all had. From the sets that you guys have had, I would say that this was probably the best set from Buckeye Mela (from the videos that I have seen). However; if you cannot execute the set to its max potential it can cost you a placing. The above sentiments in regards to formations being better is true, but you guys need to work on your execution which is what truly hurt you. One of the black jodis was not up to par and I could tell that he struggled at certain points. I would keep this set and work on the formations a some more. Also get your dancers at a level where they can execute this set to the way you envisioned it Sunny. Good job once again.

 

[scaplash]

Thought you guys really stepped it up and have made strides. Critiques are similar to what's been said-formations could have been better- i'm sure they might have looked diverse on paper, but from an audience/video perspective, they didn't look unique from one segment to the next. A lot of "spread-type formations"- sometimes the spacing wasn't right and it just looked like a big clump on the stage. Also, moving vertical lines seemed to be off throughout segments.

You guys did do a good job of trying to organize segments with appropriate build-ups and drops-which really sold the set.

I agree with Howie on execution- though I would add on that outside of basic execution, there could be improvement in standardization. You guys went for a lot with a fast set with complex choreo, but not only were there discrepancies in angles of arms/legs, but just basic execution of moves would vary. Some people might add a chest pop that other jodis didn't etc. Also, energy I think could have been better you guys gotta work on maintaining high energy throughout the set-getting those knees up. This played into a lack of standardization because Jodis in the front would suddenly amp up the energy, and it changed the execution in comparison to some of the back jodis. Also, you guys' stance narrowed as the set progressed.

Anyways, I think with some cleaning and some increased energy this is def a top-placing set.

-Sonny

 

[srikarran]

Something I noticed that bothered me was that dhol didn't add anything to this set. There were a lot of moments when you were just quiet despite being mic'd up. I know the mix was quiet during this performance as I was in the audience and that maybe affected your decision to stay quiet for a majority of the set. Regardless, it felt like you didn't know this set and you couldn't add anything to it to make the dance more energetic. There were some drops where you went wild but out of all them these were only few.

I think it works more to your advantage if you guys can have a dholi who is at practices and at your location so they get to play to your moves and not to just the music. Or at least share video's between each other if you didn't get a chance to do so this time.

I don't mean this to be an attack at Ram, I have a lot of respect for him. This time I just don't think Dhol added anything to this set except for maybe the ending.

 

[Jazz Gill]

What's up with Detroit teams getting robbed recently? lmao
I was in the crowd during this performance and I had no question that this performance should have gotten a first or second place. The fact that you guys didn't place at all is beyond me. Yeah, the energy was not amazing, but neither was the energy of most of the placing teams. This was definitely the best set of the night and the crowd was going crazy!!! Drops were insane. Work on stamina, getting all your dancers at the same level, and just picking up your legs and yall will be making noise in the circuit. A top team for sure. Only going up from here, keep it up!

 

[BhangraSUCKS]

What's up with Detroit teams getting robbed recently? lmao
I was in the crowd during this performance and I had no question that this performance should have gotten a first or second place. The fact that you guys didn't place at all is beyond me. Yeah, the energy was not amazing, but neither was the energy of most of the placing teams. This was definitely the best set of the night and the crowd was going crazy!!! Drops were insane. Work on stamina, getting all your dancers at the same level, and just picking up your legs and yall will be making noise in the circuit. A top team for sure. Only going up from here, keep it up!

Ya the lions got robbed this year

 

[Archana]

Well done boys! I definitely enjoyed the set. However, there is always room for improvement. Just like some have stated above, execution was one of your major flaws. There were many times where I saw some guys chilling out in a move and some going ham. Many were even walking into their formations. Just because the move is slow, does not mean you let your form go. This also goes into grace vs. power. Some dancers were trying to be graceful/subtle in a segment, but some were powerful. Figure out what your motive is for that segment. Your intro could have hit harder. I feel like the lights and then you guys shifting to the left made it look sloppy. Formations were sloppy and not as creative. Another thing would be to get your dancers on the same page. You have to remember, that you are only as strong as your weakest member. Do moves that your whole team can 100% execute. There were many subtle moves in your set that I really enjoyed. This was a great set and I believe if you guys can execute it perfectly with minor changes, you guys would be golden! Can't wait to see more of you guys!

 

[aheer_sunny]

Bump:


Shoutout to Bhupinder Aheer (The one and only Bhoops Ent.) for this sick music visualizer with our Buckeye mix and an edited version of our logo!

Hit him up on Facebook or check out his Instagram @bhoops_studios for your teams logo needs. He does great work and in a timely fashion.

 

[jasvig]

First of, I loved your long ramaals and Ram's dhol playing really enhanced the performance.

Set Design:
1) I thought you guys that the moments where two groups where doing different choreo felt distracting and didn't complement each other (ex. 1:35 and 5:14).
2) I think your set had a lot of repetitive elements. I think your luddi drops were really hot because they came outta nowhere but as the set went on, it became very predictable that you were gonna do a luddi drop because you would pause right before.
3) Formations wise, I thought that you had a lot of moments where you had a group of people busting through the middle with the existing middle people moving out to the sides. I think your formations can also be a little more asymmetrical as that adds variety and opens up more possibilities to what you can do.
4) I liked how you brought Ram into the center for jhummar.

Dancing:
I think you guys had a lot of energy but it looked very floppy/ flimsy at times. Your dancers had dope nakra and looked natural but it kinda looked like everyone was trying really hard to go ham with the expense of form. I also noticed a lack of grace on moves like sammi that can be executed more delicately. Try to find a balance between keeping your natural-looking dancing individually while synchronizing the team to look more cohesive. I noticed that there was a large discrepancy between individuals going ham when they are front center vs chilling when they aren't. This was especially obvious when dancers would transition out of front center because there was an immediate drop in energy (ex. 4:48)

I look forward to seeing you guys at NKD!