With this episode, the controversial and challenging topic of judging in the North American bhangra scene is tackled. The evolution of the random sponsor to recent graduates of dancing as judges is discussed with Saleem Malkana.


iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/bhangra-pulse/id474702692

"If you have a sibling or a girlfriend on a team, you should not judge." 
 
It's sad that this occurs (and has occurred even this season), and it is completely unacceptable.  I urge all teams to agressively route out these types of biases through the following steps:
 
1. Once accepted and judges are known, file a formal objection with the organizers to that judge's participation.
2. If the competition refuses to remove the judge, make a formal public objection to put the circuit on notice of the conflict of interest.
3. Dance the set under protest.
4. Renew the objection after the competition.

As awesome as this approach would be, the problem is that all teams care about at the end of the day is whether or not they're going to place at a competition. And doing the above (even including #1 since some organizers may not keep complaints anonymous), could easily jeopardize your chances at placing, especially since you're already dealing with a biased judge. I'm pretty sure that's why a few of the situations that happened last year slid by without any public outing. As a result, judging in the scene is only going to get more incestuous since no one (competitions, teams, judges) is really making an effort to take a stand against situations like this.

As awesome as this approach would be, the problem is that all teams care about at the end of the day is whether or not they're going to place at a competition. And doing the above (even including #1 since some organizers may not keep complaints anonymous), could easily jeopardize your chances at placing, especially since you're already dealing with a biased judge. I'm pretty sure that's why a few of the situations that happened last year slid by without any public outing. As a result, judging in the scene is only going to get more incestuous since no one (competitions, teams, judges) is really making an effort to take a stand against situations like this.

If a competition's judges/organizers react to a complaint of bias by jeopardizing a team's chance of placing, then that competition should be boycotted, and the judge kicked off of the circuit.  Plain and simple.  I would never be afraid of bringing up bias to an organizer...because if the above scenario actually ever happened, I would burn that competition's reputation to the ground.


What teams fail to realize is that the leverage actually has, and always will be with the teams.  If we were united in one voice, we could change a lot of things on this circuit.  Including weeding out phony judges (of which there are way too many these days) and phony organizers

What teams fail to realize is that the leverage actually has, and always will be with the teams.  If we were united in one voice, we could change a lot of things on this circuit.  Including weeding out phony judges (of which there are way too many these days) and phony organizers

Agreed. That unification is hard when our community is so informally based. We're not a labor union, ya know; our support network basically lies in informal relationships. The bigger the team you're on, the higher the chance you know more important people in the community and probably the more secure you feel in sticking your head out there. You know whos got your back. But I think a big part of coming together as one voice is in making the smaller teams feel like they have similar support behind them....which may just be on them to work hard on get their name out there, or maybe it's something we can work on as a community.

We are the 99%.

you're gonna get pepper sprayed by the judges

Point being - I'll form that union with you Faizan but I bet we'll be the only ones.

The 99% in the bhangra community doesn't have the balls to stand up and say something potentially controversial. It's all a massive ass-kissing political game, to get into competitions, to place at competitions, and to make everyone like you.

+1

The 99% in the bhangra community doesn't have the balls to stand up and say something potentially controversial. It's all a massive ass-kissing political game, to get into competitions, to place at competitions, and to make everyone like you.

+1

Dheerja, a grass roots independent movement is the only way.  Collaborating with compeititions and judges is not going to go anywhere.  The key is to get major teams on board, and the rest will follow.  We'll have this up and running soon enough.  Prior attempts at a union like this were a failure, but this time, the process will be more direct and less formal at the forefront.

Dheerja, a grass roots independent movement is the only way.  Collaborating with compeititions and judges is not going to go anywhere.  The key is to get major teams on board, and the rest will follow.  We'll have this up and running soon enough.  Prior attempts at a union like this were a failure, but this time, the process will be more direct and less formal at the forefront.

Awesome, glad you're taking a stand here. Let me know if you need help, you know how strongly I feel about this stuff