I personally feel everytime a topic where Bhangra Empire is mentioned or one of their performance videos is posted, we have people that will continue to say their style dance is not "real bhangra"/robotic (which even I mentioned above)/too gimicky/etc etc.
The bottom line is though, the BTF crowd is amongst the minority in the global bhangra audience. The majority of people here have a lot more knowledge on bhangra as a dance form/art than others who simply attend shows as audience members - many of whom watch a lot of team performances for very first time this year. They have no idea what has or hasn't been recycled from previous performances, they have no idea if a team has "stole" a move/gimmick from someone else, etc.
One thing you can never take away from this team are their accomplishments - both within the bhangra circuit or outside of it. Among the "major" stuff: they have placed at 20+ competitions, have performed in front of the President of the United States & First Lady, have been on America's Got Talent, have performed at numerous at NBA & MLB games, they offer dance classes to a variety of age groups at FOUR different locations/dance studios, they have performed in England, and more recently performed in the country of Bahrain at the Formula 1 Grand Prix. I'm not even listing "smaller" things they do/have done constantly - that is quite a resume if you ask me!
I don't feel BE's target audience is only the North America bhangra circuit. They are thinking globally and their exposure goes well beyond those that have any sort of bhangra knowledge - they have over fifty five thousand "likes" on their facebook page, yes you read that correctly - 55,000+! This very video was posted on their facebook page on Saturday and they have already received nearly 900 likes & over 100 comments on it.
So you can sit here all day and say that the could have incorporated lehria, punjab, mirza, faslaan, bedi, phumnian, etc etc much better in this set, but I doubt they are going make drastic changes. I, too, would love to see more "folk" moves incorporated in their set, but I think their sets are geared more toward overall entertainment than just perfect execution of traditional bhangra moves (much like you'd see in a LIVE team).
Anyway, I watch their sets to marvel at their creativity (with moves, formations, gimmicks, their mix, etc) and "flawless" execution - not to watch them perform traditional moves. It's no surprise to me that when my non-bhangra team friends are exposed to the dance, they always seem to stumble upon a Bhangra Empire performance, get awed, then proceed to ask me if I've heard of the team before
~ Basim
Show Posts
