Difficulty Forming/Motivating New Team

[preet98]

Hello! I've been dancing my whole life, so I decided to involve others in my love of bhangra/giddha by forming a team. However, I'm having trouble getting people to join. When I post to my social media, people (mainly friends) say that they want to join but never follow through. The few girls I have gotten to join (we are all between the ages of 18-22) spend the majority of practice talking, goofing off, or standing. They seem unmotivated and unwilling to put in their full effort. I've tried teaching them dances that I choreographed and even showing them videos of other performers. They also take weeks to learn a few basic moves. I'm unsure of what to do and am beginning to get frustrated myself. Is it something I'm doing/not doing? Any help is much appreciated! Thank you!!

 

[Basim]

Welcome to BTF preet98,

I feel your pain. It's always a difficult time starting up and recruiting people. The important thing is not get frustrated. You'll eventually find someone as motivated as you to get a team established and trained.. start small by performing at events, with non-profit organizations, school shows, regional dance competitions, etc and then grow from there.

How many people do you have currently and where are are you located in? If you're looking for younger dancers, college/schools are a great place to recruit. Make a professional flyer to post, hold some informal recruiting sessions, and even try to setup a booth during a busy time to draw in more interest. If you get permission, you can even try posting up some flyers at Gurdwaras in your area.

I'm sure others can chime in with advice, but this website is a great resource for individuals interested in bhangra or teams starting out/wanting to get to the next level.

All the best,

~ Basim

 

[preet98]

Welcome to BTF preet98,

I feel your pain. It's always a difficult time starting up and recruiting people. The important thing is not get frustrated. You'll eventually find someone as motivated as you to get a team established and trained.. start small by performing at events, with non-profit organizations, school shows, regional dance competitions, etc and then grow from there.

How many people do you have currently and which are are you located in? If you're looking for younger dancers, college/schools are a great place to recruit. Make a professional flyer to post, hold some informal recruiting sessions, and even try to setup a booth during a busy time to draw in more interest. If you get permission, you can even try posting up some flyers at Gurdwaras in your area.

I'm sure others can chime in with advice, but this website is a great resource for individuals interested in bhangra or teams starting out/wanting to get to the next level.

All the best,

~ Basim

Hello, Basim! Thank you so much for all of the helpful tips. Right now we have 4 people total, including myself. We’re located in Salem, Oregon. The girls I have right now are not Indian so they’re having difficulty fully grasping and putting in effort for bhangra/giddha. There are Indians in my area but none of them seem interested (even those at the gurdwara).

I’ve thought about posting videos of myself dancing so more people know what they’re in for and can see how fun it would be. I will also definitely use what you’ve suggested! Thank you!

 

[siddyp]

When we started, we leveraged gigs. We barely could get 6 guys together for a practice. We'd take maybe 4 to a gig. But those gigs got us into the community light. We would always ask for donations to help get us started. Any events, grad parties, sweet 16s even doing them for free because we wanted to let the community know we were there.

The consistency and willingness to do that, made us better at the set we were doing at whatever gig we did next. Which helped improve us as dancers. Which opened more opportunities. Which put us in front of more people. And slowly but surely, more guys seeing that we were consistent, getting better, and most importantly, having a good time, is what brought folks in and kept them in long term.

The key, to me, is to get at least 4-6 core people that will be in for the long haul. Looking at any successful independent(non academy) team, that's what you see:

Virsa: Sukha, Sunny, GSidhu, and they had more guys I can't remember all the names
AEG: Harman, Gurbir, Faizan, Ankush and more
FS: Gsimz, Sunpreet, Arun, Bobby, Sahil, and more
FAUJ: Cherag, Anu, Abhi, Aminder
FCB: Myself, Ram, Harman, Pankaj

And I bet if you ask any team, its a similar story of at least 3-6 folks that got it started and stayed with it. Get your core group together, learn and train a 3-4 minute set you can do at gigs/events, and do as many as you can. The consistency will get the ball rolling and more people will want to show up.

Best of luck!

 

[preet98]

When we started, we leveraged gigs. We barely could get 6 guys together for a practice. We'd take maybe 4 to a gig. But those gigs got us into the community light. We would always ask for donations to help get us started. Any events, grad parties, sweet 16s even doing them for free because we wanted to let the community know we were there.

The consistency and willingness to do that, made us better at the set we were doing at whatever gig we did next. Which helped improve us as dancers. Which opened more opportunities. Which put us in front of more people. And slowly but surely, more guys seeing that we were consistent, getting better, and most importantly, having a good time, is what brought folks in and kept them in long term.

The key, to me, is to get at least 4-6 core people that will be in for the long haul. Looking at any successful independent(non academy) team, that's what you see:

Virsa: Sukha, Sunny, GSidhu, and they had more guys I can't remember all the names
AEG: Harman, Gurbir, Faizan, Ankush and more
FS: Gsimz, Sunpreet, Arun, Bobby, Sahil, and more
FAUJ: Cherag, Anu, Abhi, Aminder
FCB: Myself, Ram, Harman, Pankaj

And I bet if you ask any team, its a similar story of at least 3-6 folks that got it started and stayed with it. Get your core group together, learn and train a 3-4 minute set you can do at gigs/events, and do as many as you can. The consistency will get the ball rolling and more people will want to show up.

Best of luck!

Thank you! This was very very motivating and helpful. It’s my first time actually leading a group so I know there are things that I haven’t been doing correctly and I need to work on. We’re having a team meeting on Sunday to discuss what we can do from here on out to make the 4 of us a stronger team and really get our name out there. Will definitely be using your advice on how to get us more we’ll known. Thank you!

 

[siddyp]

No problem!

It’s my first time actually leading a group so I know there are things that I haven’t been doing correctly and I need to work on.

https://www.amazon.com/John-C.-Maxwell/e/B001H6NROC?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Since it's your first time, I highly suggest reading some of his stuff, and doing research on how to lead. Leadership skills will help in all areas of life, not just bhangra.

 

[akhbar]

Hello, Basim! Thank you so much for all of the helpful tips. Right now we have 4 people total, including myself. We’re located in Salem, Oregon. The girls I have right now are not Indian so they’re having difficulty fully grasping and putting in effort for bhangra/giddha. There are Indians in my area but none of them seem interested (even those at the gurdwara).

I’ve thought about posting videos of myself dancing so more people know what they’re in for and can see how fun it would be. I will also definitely use what you’ve suggested! Thank you!

If youre in Salem, maybe try and combine forces/work with Oregon State's Bhangra team in Corvallis? There's a few Bhangra dancers in Portland too, but Salem might be the limiting factor due to lack of Indians