Fire Missing From the Circuit

[disharma1317]

Bring back Ventrilo and we could all talk this out

dope idea

Oh dear.

 

[jasraj93]

LOL quickly skimmed through this discussion, until the personal issues don't arise again this so called fire won't be back, when the bhangra scene bumped a lot of teams had personal issues with one another and practiced that much harder to win, i played dhol for Nachda Sansaar in England and the personal issues that were going on were just how it was in North America a few years back. Just my opinion though, this does not reflect my team or anyone else LOL

 

[scaplash]

If you wanna change the game, stop fucking commenting about it on BTF.

Sorry man but I disagree with what you just said. If you want to change the game, do everything you just said and also comment on BTF.

Talk about stupid shit and piss people off. It is fine to do it. That might just help light that fire we all have been talking about. I think the Husky Bhangra captain posted earlier and said something like "I dont really comment/post" but why don't you? I want to hear what you have to say. No offense to all the collegiate team captains but you all are just way to nice and scared to tell another team they suck haha

lol two quick clarifications- I graduated-so I'm not captain of HB-don't want people thinking I'm speaking for the team right now. Secondly-I do post and I do comment-what I meant by that qualification is that I don't post as much as some other people do on BTF-mainly because-yeah-I wonder if anything I say is even considered in the grand scheme of things-as an ex-collegiate captain-you feel like a small fish in a big sea. But I think the one thing that I really have taken away from this discussion is that regardless of what other people think of my opinion-if i believe in it-then theres nothing wrong with posting it and at least having the discussion. That's what I think makes bhangra special here in NA/UK

 

[SherPunjabi408]

The dance-offs in this video make me cringe. It pretty much shows us the current state of North American Bhangra haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCDYOtQpndY

 

[AnkurK]

The dance-offs in this video make me cringe. It pretty much shows us the current state of North American Bhangra haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCDYOtQpndY

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

 

[Multani]

At this point, I dont think teams improving their dancing ability will help revive the scene . A bhangra competition is an event where a select group of teams perform mostly the same fundamental steps, but in different order and at different speeds from one another. After a few years of that, everything is done and the scene gets boring. This is what made the era of non-bhangra gimmicks great, it changed things up, alleviated the repetitiveness and the good ones *in combination with good dancing* were memorable and attracted many new fans to the sport.

I feel that modernized bhangra is what could have kept the momentum going, but the "bhangra purists" of BTF successfully phased it out of bhangra, and now were stuck seeing the same things again and again, resulting in a very bland bhangra circuit with very little chance of attracting younger fans who don't really care about the fundamental steps, but come for the stunts. I'm talking thousands of people. In the era of gimmicks, 50-100-500k+ views on Youtube was a normal thing but now only a few select teams at a few select competitions hit those kinds of numbers. Non bhangra fans don't think it's clever of you to modify phuminiya by 1 move, or that you put your kunda segment in the end, or that you have lights on your props anymore. They want stunts, they want "so you think you can dance" kind of material. Bhangra Empire and their enormous following is proof that the audience prioritizes wow factors over anything else.

I know many people will cringe at the thought of bringing that kind of dance back to bhangra, and I'm not suggesting we do anything about it. I am just pointing out that you should not be surprised that the scene died out.

This. That's the only true response in this thread. Every team worry too much about judging criteria instead of pushing the set to limits with creativity.

 

[siddyp]

At this point, I dont think teams improving their dancing ability will help revive the scene . A bhangra competition is an event where a select group of teams perform mostly the same fundamental steps, but in different order and at different speeds from one another. After a few years of that, everything is done and the scene gets boring. This is what made the era of non-bhangra gimmicks great, it changed things up, alleviated the repetitiveness and the good ones *in combination with good dancing* were memorable and attracted many new fans to the sport.

I feel that modernized bhangra is what could have kept the momentum going, but the "bhangra purists" of BTF successfully phased it out of bhangra, and now were stuck seeing the same things again and again, resulting in a very bland bhangra circuit with very little chance of attracting younger fans who don't really care about the fundamental steps, but come for the stunts. I'm talking thousands of people. In the era of gimmicks, 50-100-500k+ views on Youtube was a normal thing but now only a few select teams at a few select competitions hit those kinds of numbers. Non bhangra fans don't think it's clever of you to modify phuminiya by 1 move, or that you put your kunda segment in the end, or that you have lights on your props anymore. They want stunts, they want "so you think you can dance" kind of material. Bhangra Empire and their enormous following is proof that the audience prioritizes wow factors over anything else.

I know many people will cringe at the thought of bringing that kind of dance back to bhangra, and I'm not suggesting we do anything about it. I am just pointing out that you should not be surprised that the scene died out.

This. That's the only true response in this thread. Every team worry too much about judging criteria instead of pushing the set to limits with creativity.

100% agree. and everything mentioned can be accomplished. Teams can bring their dancing to an excellent level. And bring a set with wow factors. And cater it to the specific rubric. Just gotta use your head.

 

[mithu]

Kind of surprised no one has brought up mixes.
Biggest downfall in the past 2-3 years has been mixes, and how the mix complements the sets. The biggest decline hasnt been dancers skills, choreography, or gimmicks but the diversity and complexity of mixes. Every compt you go to you hear the same crap over and over and over. No one is going outside the norm to try something different or to make it unique. Its the same cookie cutter mixes over and over and over. Couple years ago the mixes were so diverse and unique to teams and mixers.

 

[GSingh]

Kind of surprised no one has brought up mixes.
Biggest downfall in the past 2-3 years has been mixes, and how the mix complements the sets. The biggest decline hasnt been dancers skills, choreography, or gimmicks but the diversity and complexity of mixes. Every compt you go to you hear the same crap over and over and over. No one is going outside the norm to try something different or to make it unique. Its the same cookie cutter mixes over and over and over. Couple years ago the mixes were so diverse and unique to teams and mixers.

It's a similar story with choreography. The circuit's been around long enough that creativity has been saturated. So much has already been done, so many ideas have already been put on stage that coming up with new things has been tougher and tougher for teams. The number of active mixers has been reduced so a lot of teams end up going to the same few people for their mix and their style then becomes the team's style which creates that feeling of homogenization -- everyone and everything looks and sounds the same (although historically, we can point to times in the past when a few mixers dominated and all collegiate teams were basically one team (musically). See Klasikhz - utter domination).


For me, the golden era of mixes was from 2009 to about 2012 with guys like Neet, Kush, Harman, Jason, Sunlite, Sunpreet, Jackie, Iqwak (note that no one mixer mixed like the other). Mostly everything else after that was an imitation of those. Recently the UK has brought some changes into the mixing scene with new guys esp GCC, HSD, Berik, APPD guys, but generally speaking, we can tell that it's a UK mix. JVD's mixes tend to be the same key the entire way through (WBBC mix was 'G' from start to finish) and is majority Tru skool loops (thanks Simon ) so that's a stylistic choice (if it was one) that we can appreciate (or not if you think that's not how it should be). G creates a really energetic hype feeling so it works for their dance style. GCC's tended to be chirpy with a hint of Toronto but much more refined in terms of quality. This is because they have their dedicated mixers that are connected with the team in question. They're able to translate the team's style into their music - exclusively.


Look at JJ's recent mixes - you can tell that different people worked on them because they have their own distinct styles - does any one define JJ? I consider Iqwak's style to be "their" style simply because their most famous mix (and my favorite) was his work -- I could be wrong, who am I to decide.


I will say that the QUALITY of mixes has definitely improved over the years as more and more mixers learn the technical skills needed to polish their sound. No longer do I have to worry about blowing my ears out with a rogue peaking mix.


Plea to teams: along with learning to dance, please learn to mix -- the music to which you dance defines your team so take ownership of it and present something that's uniquely YOU. Just like you learn powerpoint/word for classes, you can pick up basic acid skills to at least put together your concepts so if you do feel like you don't have the time to really bring the mix together, at least the person you hire has a canvas that you've laid out. I've always tried to cater to each team's specific style because it's not MY mix, its theirs -- but one can only go so far to adapt.


What is something to note is that the quality and uniqueness of the mix has not had any effect on who wins competitions. We've seen many teams get first place with absolute shit mixes and teams with really good mixes not even place. The message this sends to teams is that mediocrity in mixes is ok, spend your time elsewhere. As long as you speed up a song, put a beat on it and pitch it up, you should be ok (this is how mediocrity is bred). I want to agree with that because it's the dancing that defines the performance but it would be nice if mixes mattered a little lol.

 

[KushK]

If you wanna change the game, stop fucking commenting about it on BTF.

Sorry man but I disagree with what you just said. If you want to change the game, do everything you just said and also comment on BTF.

Talk about stupid shit and piss people off. It is fine to do it. That might just help light that fire we all have been talking about. I think the Husky Bhangra captain posted earlier and said something like "I dont really comment/post" but why don't you? I want to hear what you have to say. No offense to all the collegiate team captains but you all are just way to nice and scared to tell another team they suck haha

Ankush your team sucks. Lasers ain't shit

Howie you are an awesome fella

 

[bhangraholic01]

in my opinion the fire is gone, why? because even the teams that used to have rivalries and are still on the circuit there dancers are not the same. So these new dancers are competing with a team that's already won and established there name yet they don't know how the team has done it. Like I was excited when I saw SGPD in the lineup for Windy City but when I saw the video I was disappointed, I was expecting the top tier SGPD boys that use to murk the stage. The Aeg and Virsa rivalry, Aeg is a killer team but I always saw that virsa had a slight advantage against them with the more aggressive dancing and personally speaking "Stronger dancers". Now aeg has stopped, which I pray they come back ( The actual aeg not the aej kids from pau ) and virsa has only a few select dancers left that I can enjoy watching ( shoutout to Shai and Lucky ), Virsa at boston was not a placing set for me it was not executed properly and so one. Virsa needs to drop the new guys they picked up or help them to get better ( not post videos on instagram of your self doing kicks and spins and then tag it folk ). Bring back the good stuff virsa please. Nj is the only team that still has JUICE. the new guys ( warriors ) have the fire within them, if you see them at a comp its 1st or nothing mentality and that's the mentality that will bring back the fire on the circuit.


So teams should stop saying oh we don't care if we win or not we just came to enjoy and have fun. If that's the case don't compete just attend the show and go to the after party. You'll have more fun that way. If you are competing get first then enjoy and have fun because now you have something to brag about and to rub in everybody's face.

8) now everyone man up get your squads together and make killer sets and apply to every single comp and get those trophy's.

 

[shwinerz]

Surprised at the lack of UK involvement in this topic.

I've been dancing for a few years but not part of a big UK team, in that sense I don't think I'm the most experienced dancer, but I'm captain of my own team and previously captained my uni team.

1. I've seen a big difference in the mentality of some collegiate NA teams. There's a big emphasis on power, making moves look big, but without a traditional grounding. I don't mean to go into a folk/traditional vs modern conversation, but what I've been exposed to in the UK is that you learn a traditional understanding, watch folk Punjab videos and understand what's desirable from it.

After that, then develop your individual styling. You can see each team has approached dancing in that way, it's actively encouraged. Looking at NA sets that's the biggest difference between a fairly good collegiate team and the top teams. You can see classic 'fire' teams had that mentality in them too, they understood that grounding.

2. Feedback. I agree with previous feedback posts for newer/college teams. I think it's a mixture of both - I would watch videos of teams, record myself and try and figure out what I'm doing differently, countless hours spent doing the same mov over and over until it was engrained in me. It was definitely was rough at first but keeping at it for years has reaped rewards. Having said that, feedback from more experienced dancers has been crucial, I've been so lucky to have had support from other UK members, but potentially because they think I'm experienced that feedback has stopped, and I find myself unsure how to step up those extra few levels and that experience would be invaluable.

3. Competition. I don't think this as applicable since Scotland doesn't have a big enough scene, but beef aside from UK teams - for they didn't have that competition there wouldn't be as much of a desire to improve. When JVD won Wars in 2013, every other team knew they'd have to beat that set in 2014. Now you have GCC, Nachda Sansaar, Ankhi Jawan, APPD, JVD all capable of winning a comp, and to an extent teams like BPD and Vasda Punjab right on their heels. Each team has to out do each other and that's what's been taking the UK to new heights.

[size=1em]As much as I believe in my point 3, I don't think it's possible to fully be part of it unless you've covered points 1+2. You're only going to be able to push through with passion if you have the right grounding.
[size=1em]I think US collegiate teams put in a lot of work, keep in mind most UK uni teams only do 1 a year, if that. The issue is they don't have that grounding, and if they're not being supported properly they won't flourish or grow. In that sense we need to see how to educate these newer dancers properly. I think public judge feedback can help, I'd learn off watching videos of other teams and reading feedback on what they could do better, and applying it to myself. The judges can talk in more depth with the team privately should they wish.

[size=1em]I definitely think public score cards is positive, it's transparent. Even if people disagree it encourages discussion.

[size=1em]I support a minimum requirement of posts per year. If newer captains are unsure if what they're posting, they may as well post. If someone disagrees with the feedback it'll only get more discussion, the team will learn, and that captain will also learn.

[size=1em]Maybe if each captain of a collegiate team was encouraged to give feedback to other teams from the same comp. encouragsd Bhangra friendships, each team has a good 7+ posts of feedback and other college teams can learn from watching and reading those pages.

 

[Armaan]

This entire thread is amazing. Obviously many points have been mentioned year after year, but its felt as though the "community" aspect of of we had a few years back has dwindled. It's great to see this topic being passionately discussed.


@shwinerz - I think the public score card idea you mentioned is actually a great topic we should potentially open up a new thread about. Many have mentioned that the competitiveness has not exactly disappeared, but has changed in some weird ways. Having some sort of public scoring system would be great.


Rough Proposal:
- Assign a number of comps to be considered "Top Tier" competitions.
- After Top Tier competitions, all videos MUST be released to the public to encourage everyone in the circuit to stay involved and engage in discussion regarding everyone's set.
- Some type of public point system or voting to be implemented based upon a virtual simplistic judging form that can be submitted by any member of the community who is legible to vote.
- Voting legibility is based on being an active member in the community (kind of like how on BTF we have basic members, full members, etc based upon number of posts)


- All in all, use public judging along with actual judging to distribute points to teams throughout the season.
- Leading teams are the ones who get invited to the "allstar" comp such as Elite 8 or whatever. <-- This is the only FAIR way to assign the team's competing at any comp boasting that it has the top teams from the country. Don't worry Canada, we didn't forget about you!


I'm sure some people may be against the video release of their set immediately after a comp, especially earlier in the season... however I think it's important to note that just because a video is released doesn't mean you can't do the set again at the next comp. You still can, however because people have seen it, team's will be more motivated to change and adjust certain elements and potentially add more fire to the segments based upon feedback and crowd/judges reaction for next time. No one expects a brand new set every comp (despite some teams actually being able to do that). But everyone wants to see improvements and slight variations to keep it exciting.


It's a bit rough, but something I'd definitely want to see. I'm part of the DDN (Desi Dance Network) board and if you look at the HFD or Raas circuit, they all have some sort of point system which allows for transparency season by season. It works!

 

[Armaan Kapoor]

Glad this thread got started, and I guess I'd add my 2 cents, having joined the circuit back in 2011, right before the decline in the circuit kind of started.


My biggest observation, especially last year, in why the circuit is dying is due to the lack of independent teams consistently competing in the circuit each year. When we go back and talk about old school teams like Empire, AEG, SGPD, NJ, etc the difference was that these teams were competing all the time against each other over multiple years. Plus, people were true to their teams! Think about how many people in the circuit dance for other teams now? (JJ at Elite 8 2015, BK at Bruin 2014, the list goes on).


Honestly, the only consistent independent teams competing right now are FCB and SMD. Independent teams brought the fire and strong rivalries to the circuit back in the day, not collegiate teams, and we're lacking those consistent independent teams now.


That being said, I think the result of independent teams being less engaged in the circuit now has opened up competitions for newer, collegiate teams (like Buckeye), who haven't performed at a high level before and therefore are just happy to be competing. If this is where we're heading in terms of collegiate teams taking over the circuit (specifically this year), then it's going to take time for rivalries to build up again. It's hard for a new team to come and bring the "fire" if they're just getting introduced to the bigger stages.


People should know that those collegiate rivalries still exist (as said by Aditya, Cornell's biggest rivalries the last few years have been CMU and UVA). At Blowout last year, I could say that Taisu and I were focused about beating just those 2 teams. But why? Because we didn't know what those other teams were going to bring. We frankly didn't even know anyone on a lot of other teams there because we had never competed against them. For the fire to come back, we need to see more teams (collegiate or independent) competing more consistently.


For collegiate teams that are becoming increasingly involved in the circuit, my advice to you is to be different. Do something that no other team would think of. Love us or hate us, that's been Cornell's goal since Kartik and Anik were captains back in 2012, and it's continued ever since. Sure, we take criticism for our sets, but at the end of the day, at least we don't look like any other collegiate team on the stage. Create an identity for yourself and that "fire" will come.

 

[Shahrukh]

First off, lol at ^^^

Few people understand what it means to make a set where each segment has purpose. It's not about doing some crazy idea for the sake of breaking the mold, that just leads to stupid stuff that usually doesn't make sense. It's about making choreography that shows that you know what the fuck you're doing. I'm of the mindset that my generation of dancers (2008-2012) made sets that made more sense because we watched endless amounts of India live teams. We tried to emulate them, not just sgpd or nj or whichever team people think is a powerhouse now. We tried to learn how to properly do each dance that makes up a Bhangra routine, and then we tried to tweak them in ways that made sense for a music team.

Imo, the only teams from the past year (leaving my own team out) that made really proper sets were the warriors and Shaan Punjab di. Both teams have an incredible foundation in that they can already execute moves properly and understand the dance, and thus can move forward and actually do some innovative shit that actually speaks to you. Look at NJW's sucha soorma segment from Burgh, it's fucking beautiful, and they didn't do anything with lights, throwing props, whipping out roses/hearts, or any of the stupid stuff I've seen countless times over the last 5 years. They made some actually innovative choreography and showcased it.

Teams don't need to just do some crazy stuff, they need to understand how to properly dance and then try to innovate. They need to understand that playing sapps, putting them down for 8 beats and then picking them up again doesn't mean anything unless you're doing some crazy formation or crazy choreography in between. They need to understand doing mirza to a dhamaal beat as throwaway choreo to lead into phumaniyaan shows that you don't get how unique of a segment it actually is, and that it should be given its own time if it is to be done. Doing opening or ending mela doesn't get you more points unless you're actually doing something interesting. Doing a cutesy segment where the guy gives the girl a fake rose or vice versa or the guy twirls the girl and dips her and then pirouettes off stage isn't unique, it's been done a million fucking times by now. Stuff like that shows me as a judge that you don't understand what you're doing. The circuit will be much better off when more teams realize all of this.

^This is everything. Learn from India teams, be innovative with your choreography, and make sure your routines FLOW.

Also I will be messaging every team that posts their video a critique from now on, dont want to post on btf because it might look like im blasting you as long as the captain gets the critique it will help.

 

[sumeetj]

This entire thread is amazing. Obviously many points have been mentioned year after year, but its felt as though the "community" aspect of of we had a few years back has dwindled. It's great to see this topic being passionately discussed.


@shwinerz - I think the public score card idea you mentioned is actually a great topic we should potentially open up a new thread about. Many have mentioned that the competitiveness has not exactly disappeared, but has changed in some weird ways. Having some sort of public scoring system would be great.


Rough Proposal:
- Assign a number of comps to be considered "Top Tier" competitions.
- After Top Tier competitions, all videos MUST be released to the public to encourage everyone in the circuit to stay involved and engage in discussion regarding everyone's set.
- Some type of public point system or voting to be implemented based upon a virtual simplistic judging form that can be submitted by any member of the community who is legible to vote.
- Voting legibility is based on being an active member in the community (kind of like how on BTF we have basic members, full members, etc based upon number of posts)


- All in all, use public judging along with actual judging to distribute points to teams throughout the season.
- Leading teams are the ones who get invited to the "allstar" comp such as Elite 8 or whatever. <-- This is the only FAIR way to assign the team's competing at any comp boasting that it has the top teams from the country. Don't worry Canada, we didn't forget about you!


I'm sure some people may be against the video release of their set immediately after a comp, especially earlier in the season... however I think it's important to note that just because a video is released doesn't mean you can't do the set again at the next comp. You still can, however because people have seen it, team's will be more motivated to change and adjust certain elements and potentially add more fire to the segments based upon feedback and crowd/judges reaction for next time. No one expects a brand new set every comp (despite some teams actually being able to do that). But everyone wants to see improvements and slight variations to keep it exciting.


It's a bit rough, but something I'd definitely want to see. I'm part of the DDN (Desi Dance Network) board and if you look at the HFD or Raas circuit, they all have some sort of point system which allows for transparency season by season. It works!

i like the point system thing for sure. i feel like it encourages people to hit up competitions and knowing there is a consistent ranking system or qualification system for some competitions would be kinda cool - sorta similar to how the point system in the ATP (professional tennis) tour works

 

[hardeep_singh]

lol stop worrying about "fire" and worry more about actually understanding bhangra music/dance and punjabi language/culture. circuit is just a large collection of phudus as far as i can tell so far.

 

[Manjot]

So, in the name of Bhangra, who wants to start some beef?

 

[Yesh]

Sorry, this post is a little out of order. I dont know if i fall in the category of old dancers or new because I was part of that weird limbo time span from like 2012-Present, but these are some of my thoughts on the past few years of the circuit and what the circuit is now.

When I joined the circuit at the end of 2012 (post Elite 8)), I WAS SO FUCKING PUMPED to be a part of the circuit. I started off as a noob (and still am lmao lets be real), but I was excited to learn about bhangra (all aspects of it, not just the dance), meet new people, and just compete.

The sad part was that no one else my age or even slightly older really cared about bhangra as a whole; the fire was missing. While this discouraged many dancers my age, I still took it upon myself to learn. I took it upon myself to learn from those dancers from the 2007-2012 era.
****This is something newer dancers need to do, reach out and annoy the FUCK out of old dancers till they help you. Educate yourself on bhangra, watch video from as early as you can (yes India teams too) and see how the circuit has evolved/is evolving. Learn about the culture of bhangra, what a saap, kato, and khunda is, how to tie a paagh (finally learned and man its freaking so helpful to know), how to get outfits, picking songs, etc.

For the next 3 years at UNC, there was consistently a genuine lack of interest in bhangra every year. People just joined UNC's team to say they were on a dance team. No one wanted to work, no one put in effort to learn, they just came, went through the motions, and left. It was disappointing. I was hoping that some other people would come along like me who were genuinely interested in dancing. Not just to win competitions, but to actually just become a better dancer and leave an impact on the circuit.

It has finally happened though, now going into my last year at UNC. My dancers are the most motivated dancers I have seen to date. They are ALWAYS wanting to learn and are pushing me to get my lazy ass to teach them something (I feel old now) and this is how it should be. They schedule practices amongst themselves on top of the additional required practices.
I feel there is a new push coming with younger dancers. I saw it at Tashan with UVA, VTech and MBT especially, they are two fantastic teams with young dancers who are just as motivated, if not more, than UNC. Buckeye, Husky, Hurricane, Spartan as well, I can see them with the same drive. It's coming, just give it some time.


Independent teams are starting to make a comeback (hopefully), and there needs to be that competition between teams. It just looks like FCB and Virsa just run shit right now (respect to both teams, I luv you), but there needs to be other teams willing to step up and compete against them. I am pumped to see what teams like KPGD will do to the circuit and hopefully bring some fire back!


For all girls teams, I havent really seen much competition either. SMD just comes in, wrecks shit, and leaves without anyone even trying to take the trophy from them.


1) New dancers are still not learning the fundamentals of dancing, I see all these coed collegiate teams chalk full of new dancers trying to put on these hype gimmick full sets, only to not pull them off as well as the independent all-guys team did the previous year. FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE DANCE. LEARN PROPER FORM. LEARN TO DANCE CLEAN, GRACEFULLY, ENERGETICALLY and then focus of putting on a nasty set.



2) This thread is pretty apparent of this, but the circuit is still swarmed with OLD dancers who just havent really given up dancing yet. I understand why you cant give it up (can't put it in words), but if you arent gonna stop dancing, atleast give the younger dancers some room to grow and express themselves. I feel like as the older dancers you should treat the circuit like you treat your team, you want the best for it, so go out of your way and help people, not just criticize and ignore remarks made by young dancers. If you don't agree with what is said or done, talk to them and take that opportunity to teach them.
It is up to the older dancers on this circuit to shape the circuit how they want, I believe the fire missing from the circuit is coming not from a lack of interest from younger dancers, but a lack of interest from older dancers which is just spreading to younger dancers.
I was lucky to have people like Kuntal, Raj Shah, Sumeet, Simran Sodhi, Megha Bagai, Ravi, Akash G., Alan Guan etc. and so many more older dancers to help me improve, but i think every dancer that is learning and trying to improve should have the opportunity to reach out to any old dancer.

Judging -> A really appreciate every judge I have talked to at every one of my comps. You ALWAYS get insightful information, but FOR FUCKS SAKE, if UNC gets compared to UNC at Elite 8 one more time, I AM GOING TO GO CRAZY. THE CIRCUIT IS DIFFERENT THAN IT WAS 4 YEARS AGO, THE DANCERS ARE DIFFERENT, THE ROUTINE IS BOUND TO BE DIFFERENT. Judging needs to be kept to the dance that was performed that night at the competition, and feedback should be centered around that sole performance. There are some fantastic judges out there who will completely tear your team to shreds and that was we like to hear (Kuntal and Shahrukh are just two off the top of my head). I hate when a judge says 'I really like this segment, and this segment, but this segment was weak' Define WEAK, be more in depth with your critiques, if you aren't detailed enough, the critiques become virtually useless.

***To the mods - has there every been a thread or category of threads specifically designated to new dancers, not just to introduce themselves but to talk to one another, critique videos from a new dancer's perspective, etc. I think it would be very beneficial! ALL of my dancers on UNC read BTF, but none ever post because they either consider what they have to say not significant relative to the old 'legends' that still troll BTF day to day, or just a scared they will get shit on.



Also, a personal opinion, but when are coed teams going to stop trying to make their sets just like all guys teams. There are girls on your teams that just seem to be neglected. They are graceful dancers and that should be highlighted when possible (*cough* jhummar *cough*). Show people you can dance all areas of bhangra, from graceful to powerful.


Excuse the grammar, and please point out areas where I may have said something wrong!

 

[KushK]

I just like that everyone says excuse my grammer now at the end of their post aha. Everyone stop saying that so we can bring the BTF grammer police (you guys know who you are) back to piss people off haha.