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Audience
- Thread starter dheerja
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Jeeti
New Member
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- 974
I enjoy performing in front on a non south asian crowd, but I don't like the feeling of "OHHHH AHHHH"...its not like even a reaction of admiring..its more of them trying to figure out wtf it is, and then you know reacting like wow...that was cool...they don't know what to look for as far as energy and what actually makes a good dancer...so its kind of frustrating...
IDEALLY, i would love to perform in front of all fellow performers...wouldn't that be a sight....that would be amazing. That's why I liked fusion..they seat the performers right in front of you...
South Asian crowd it all depends...again on whether they are a South Asian crowd that actually enjoys bhangra...for example, I'm not sure if it was the same for Miami BC, but SBB's crowd was LAMMEEE...nothing against the organizers, it was just that the demographic there was not really a rowdy crowd and was SOOOO QUIET the whole time...it completely sucks the life out of you on stage..
IDEALLY, i would love to perform in front of all fellow performers...wouldn't that be a sight....that would be amazing. That's why I liked fusion..they seat the performers right in front of you...
South Asian crowd it all depends...again on whether they are a South Asian crowd that actually enjoys bhangra...for example, I'm not sure if it was the same for Miami BC, but SBB's crowd was LAMMEEE...nothing against the organizers, it was just that the demographic there was not really a rowdy crowd and was SOOOO QUIET the whole time...it completely sucks the life out of you on stage..
South Asian, but def not all GUJURATI CROWD.
so one time, when i was with uconns team, it was one of our first performances of the year, we wore Yales uniforms (thanks govind) cuz we didnt have ours sent in on time, and it was like some diwali show by some gujurati association here in CT...so it was bein held down in newhaven, neaby Yale, and we went to get unis from Govind first, and then went to the gig.
TERRIBLE CROWD. apparently they LOVED US, but, it didnt show at all while we were dancing, and jeeti's right it totally sucks the life out of u on stage, i mean im dancing my ass off and im lookin around at the crowd and u jsut see people transfixed staring not blinking, quiet as hell, like they dont know wats going on right now. apparently they loved us, a few random uncles came up to us and said nice job afterwards in the corridors when it was dinner time.
i duno. weird experience. they dont know how to act, at least THAT specific newhaven,ct crowd haha. and yea we were the only punjabi act in the whole show lol
south asian crowd ftw!
so one time, when i was with uconns team, it was one of our first performances of the year, we wore Yales uniforms (thanks govind) cuz we didnt have ours sent in on time, and it was like some diwali show by some gujurati association here in CT...so it was bein held down in newhaven, neaby Yale, and we went to get unis from Govind first, and then went to the gig.
TERRIBLE CROWD. apparently they LOVED US, but, it didnt show at all while we were dancing, and jeeti's right it totally sucks the life out of u on stage, i mean im dancing my ass off and im lookin around at the crowd and u jsut see people transfixed staring not blinking, quiet as hell, like they dont know wats going on right now. apparently they loved us, a few random uncles came up to us and said nice job afterwards in the corridors when it was dinner time.
i duno. weird experience. they dont know how to act, at least THAT specific newhaven,ct crowd haha. and yea we were the only punjabi act in the whole show lol
south asian crowd ftw!
Roop
New Member
- Messages
- 9
hahaha personally,
i would say south asian audience. Mainly because you get more hype about it, as a dancer. Though i've never performed at a large scale in front of a western audience, just small shows. I feel that you have to work harder to get the interest of a nonwestern audience, and, you can never know their reaction to bhangra is going to be, so you have to try to get them engaged, somehow (an intro, skits, some traditional stuff, mixed in with modern, etc.--though you have to do that with any audience, i guess). With a desi audience, they have seen bhangra before, and its generally admired in our society, so you can expect a more enthusiastic crowd if you pull off a decent performance. This is my general ideology.
HOWEVER
*i find that performances with a mix crowd tend to be pretty hype. Maybe cause then, bhangra is repping our culture, and people are more supportive and excited.
*performances where theres a younger crowd, obviously, have much louder audiences. Some people tend to be more reserved around their older family members (unless you have reallly loud family members to begin with)
*When i first started watching bhangra at events, i was muchhh more pumped to watch it, no matter how badlyy they performed. I cheered through the whole thing, regardless. Now, when i watch it, im a critic...and yea, a good performance is a good performance, but im usually not wowed off my feet. So people who dont watch bhangra alot, but love the culture, are more expressive audience members.
*Since bhangra is becoming more traditional now a days. Many people are really looking into what the gist of it is. So i would say performances with a more serious, and smaller audience can be insightful. If you just get cheered on and on, no matter what...and you only get positive feedback...you get an instant ego boost, and just stay stuck at your performance level. With smaller audiences, you can monitor their reaction to you. though its hard to get into a dance when theres bland faces looking directly at you....
I just try not to think of the audience. they dont differ drastically, you can get positive/negative responses from both types...both types of audiences are there for a performance in essence. so just bring it.
i would say south asian audience. Mainly because you get more hype about it, as a dancer. Though i've never performed at a large scale in front of a western audience, just small shows. I feel that you have to work harder to get the interest of a nonwestern audience, and, you can never know their reaction to bhangra is going to be, so you have to try to get them engaged, somehow (an intro, skits, some traditional stuff, mixed in with modern, etc.--though you have to do that with any audience, i guess). With a desi audience, they have seen bhangra before, and its generally admired in our society, so you can expect a more enthusiastic crowd if you pull off a decent performance. This is my general ideology.
HOWEVER
*i find that performances with a mix crowd tend to be pretty hype. Maybe cause then, bhangra is repping our culture, and people are more supportive and excited.
*performances where theres a younger crowd, obviously, have much louder audiences. Some people tend to be more reserved around their older family members (unless you have reallly loud family members to begin with)
*When i first started watching bhangra at events, i was muchhh more pumped to watch it, no matter how badlyy they performed. I cheered through the whole thing, regardless. Now, when i watch it, im a critic...and yea, a good performance is a good performance, but im usually not wowed off my feet. So people who dont watch bhangra alot, but love the culture, are more expressive audience members.
*Since bhangra is becoming more traditional now a days. Many people are really looking into what the gist of it is. So i would say performances with a more serious, and smaller audience can be insightful. If you just get cheered on and on, no matter what...and you only get positive feedback...you get an instant ego boost, and just stay stuck at your performance level. With smaller audiences, you can monitor their reaction to you. though its hard to get into a dance when theres bland faces looking directly at you....
I just try not to think of the audience. they dont differ drastically, you can get positive/negative responses from both types...both types of audiences are there for a performance in essence. so just bring it.
tonygarcha
New Member
- Messages
- 67
I think with a non south asian crowd you get more response from them. We do numerous shows year round which are shows directed towards a more western crowd (Vancouver Folk Fest, DesiFest, Kelowna culture shows). They are the hypest crowd because they are seeing something that they have never seen before and the amount of energy that they feel they respond back with it
With a south asian crowd, You still get the same responses from a more younger crowd (high school competitions, your friends, etc) but the older crowd (parents, elders, etc) they have seen bhangra almost their whole lives so they may appreciate it but not show it as much in their reactions.
With a south asian crowd, You still get the same responses from a more younger crowd (high school competitions, your friends, etc) but the older crowd (parents, elders, etc) they have seen bhangra almost their whole lives so they may appreciate it but not show it as much in their reactions.
pluthra
Member
- Messages
- 296
i like performin for a crowd that has a gist of what bhangra is i dont wanna come in and perform for people who dont kno its like (1) y r u here 1st of all dont tell me u just wanna see it unless uve done some research and can find an interest in it; also i like performin for people who r like a few years older than u and the crowd is filled w/them.....like we went the cultural show at our high school this year and it was all the seniors from last year takin over 2 rows and all we did was yell non-stop b/c u feel really proud that ohh those r my kids (not literally) but then that makes the people on stage performin more hype too.......so like the whole factor of performin for some1 you used to learn from makes it great b/c u kno theyre cheerin u on always.....
i dont like the western crowd too much like i said before they dont kno wats goin on....its just cool to them....wat a stupid reaction at least give more to me.....so its definetly more fun to perform in front of a desi crowd (bhangra crowd) b/c they can give u critique....sure u want that boost of self esteem but that criticism definetly feels good to (only if its constructive)
roop btw ur use of the word "dig" was funyyyy i dont kno y
i dont like the western crowd too much like i said before they dont kno wats goin on....its just cool to them....wat a stupid reaction at least give more to me.....so its definetly more fun to perform in front of a desi crowd (bhangra crowd) b/c they can give u critique....sure u want that boost of self esteem but that criticism definetly feels good to (only if its constructive)
roop btw ur use of the word "dig" was funyyyy i dont kno y
HarmanSingh
New Member
- Messages
- 531
One of my favorite performances ever was in front of a crowd that had 0 Indians in it. It was at a college campus, and the rest of the show was made up of hip hop routines, spoken word poetry, African drumming and singers. The auditorium was sold out and the place was hype from the second our mix came on. The place was literally bumping from start to end. I have never seen a crowd so into a performance, people were dancing in the back, their seats, etc and really hyped us up too. And they were all interested in learning more about Bhangra and really appreciated the similarities between African drumming & dhol and some similar beats.
I think it comes down to whether people are there for a straight up hype night or for a more laid back evening. Because you can find both whether you are in front of an Indian audience or a western audience. You would think a place like Toronto would have the hypest audience ever, but the truth is the crowd is pretty quiet, except for when a local team comes on. A lot of this has to do with the crowd in Toronto being more catered to adults who cheer for their kids, but don't really go nuts for other teams. It kind of sucks for teams that travelled to be performing in front of a crowd that is just staring at you, but what can ya do. The crowds in America are generally more college students who don't care who is up there performing, they just wanna have a good time.
And I always love performing after a beautiful symphony orchestra. Oh the look on peoples' faces when we go up there and our guy does his Sher while they sip their wine. haha. talk about changing the mood of the night up
I think it comes down to whether people are there for a straight up hype night or for a more laid back evening. Because you can find both whether you are in front of an Indian audience or a western audience. You would think a place like Toronto would have the hypest audience ever, but the truth is the crowd is pretty quiet, except for when a local team comes on. A lot of this has to do with the crowd in Toronto being more catered to adults who cheer for their kids, but don't really go nuts for other teams. It kind of sucks for teams that travelled to be performing in front of a crowd that is just staring at you, but what can ya do. The crowds in America are generally more college students who don't care who is up there performing, they just wanna have a good time.
And I always love performing after a beautiful symphony orchestra. Oh the look on peoples' faces when we go up there and our guy does his Sher while they sip their wine. haha. talk about changing the mood of the night up
mafzal
Judge / Dancer
- Messages
- 2,098
Performing in front of people you personally know is AWESOME. So maybe a school cultural show, then you have like Parul said 2-3 rows full of people cheering for you it's awesome. However, good to mix it up with a hard-to-impress crowd! Cuz at times some people will just cheer for you no matter what even if you suck. I wanna try to do a lot of different kinds of performances.
One performance that was cool was where it was maybe half desi, half other, and the a couple desi kids started getting hype and so the other kids were like ooohhh we should get hype tooo, and then they did. Also I gotta agree about kallus! They get so enthusiastic and then they play their 2-step or shuffle and you can join in with them tooo. Immigrants are also sweet like if you do a show where some Arabic dancers and African dancers and all sorts of stuff are there, too, then everyone is so interested and excited for each other's dance.
What about type of routine? I mean I would do a different set/mix for school culture show versus Groundshaker! For people not familiar with bhangra [desi or non] it's cool to do the hip hop beats mixed in, cool sound effects, gimmicks, stunts, but then also keeping traditional elements, i.e. keep a mirza segment in there, then you not just showing party bhangra but you really show 'em a well-rounded taste of bhangra.
One performance that was cool was where it was maybe half desi, half other, and the a couple desi kids started getting hype and so the other kids were like ooohhh we should get hype tooo, and then they did. Also I gotta agree about kallus! They get so enthusiastic and then they play their 2-step or shuffle and you can join in with them tooo. Immigrants are also sweet like if you do a show where some Arabic dancers and African dancers and all sorts of stuff are there, too, then everyone is so interested and excited for each other's dance.
What about type of routine? I mean I would do a different set/mix for school culture show versus Groundshaker! For people not familiar with bhangra [desi or non] it's cool to do the hip hop beats mixed in, cool sound effects, gimmicks, stunts, but then also keeping traditional elements, i.e. keep a mirza segment in there, then you not just showing party bhangra but you really show 'em a well-rounded taste of bhangra.
ranjit singh
New Member
- Messages
- 308
haha...I almost forgot about this performance Harman...the crowd went INSANE...especially when Deep started krumping haha...that was one hell of a nightHarmanSingh said:
dheerja
Member
- Messages
- 607
Parul are you still in HS?? Aren't you on this UMD Bhangra team? Wow I feel old. I should be promoted to senior member just because of that.
Some of my favorite performances have been in front of bhangra-loving audiences (other teams and the VIBC crowd), but nothing beats performing in front of your school. People at school just have this adoration for the high energy of bhangra, regardless of their ethnicity. Columbia sports suck, so a lot of people see the dance teams as representations of the school and go crazy during big on campus performances.
Some of my favorite performances have been in front of bhangra-loving audiences (other teams and the VIBC crowd), but nothing beats performing in front of your school. People at school just have this adoration for the high energy of bhangra, regardless of their ethnicity. Columbia sports suck, so a lot of people see the dance teams as representations of the school and go crazy during big on campus performances.
sulmoney
smd, bitch
- Messages
- 532
in regards to pb, a lot of the current move towards traditionality gets lost on the audience. i remember when vcu performed at pb2007, they brought a fairly traditional (yet great) routine, and the crowd was dead during it. however, columbia at the same show brought their columbia style (uber non traditional) and the crowd was going buck. so, it really depends on the type of routine. i feel like a lot of the nuances of traditional bhangra (facial expressions, grace, smaller details, live sections) get lost on an audience that is not familiar with bhangra, but the more popular elements (high energy, dhol beat, constant movement) are universally appealing
Rohit
New Member
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- 163
I agree fusion has a brilliant set up because it's so much hype dancing for your fellow teams. Although I've comepted at many fusion(as in mixed comp where u perform all genres) comps like SAA here in Toronto. The crowd there is awesome since it's 14-15 universities competing against eachother each with a crowd of atleast 100 cheering. But I would love to experience the crowd you see in those India videos would be deadly. But myself at a bhangra comp I'll cheer for the teams I know personally and for things I liked unless I am there as a coach then or performer then I would analyze each team and give them there due respects/props afterwards.