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Basic Bhangra Presentation (Framework)

ban3rg

Active Member
Messages
1,492
Moderator Note: Download link had expired, so PowerPoint presentation has been attached to this thread. - Basim

I gave this presentation to our team last week. Ok so a few notes about this:

Purpose was to introduce new team-members to names of props, items in our costume, names of traditional moves, little bit of history of both bhangra and giddha, difference between a Sher and Boliyaan, etc. Very basic intro for people with 0 to little exposure to Bhangra. Philosophical stuff at the end is like stuff about our mission statement, like why we do bhangra, what kind of bhangra we try to do (traditional vs. modern and so on).

Blowout slide was just in there for fun, cuz the logo's from the Title slide's image. Many slides are blank or seem disjointed because I showed videos from youtube (for ex. Malwai Giddha and Jhummar i wanted to show video rather than verbalize - it was just easier).

I got a nice summary of "origin of bhangra" from one of Teginder's POL posts (see below). My sources were just cursory Google searches - I didn't cite them in there but if you want to know I can find them...

The "Meaning of Boliyan" thread from BTF was amazingly helpful - that's all I used for the "Lyrics Phrases" slides. I should have included more info on common Bhangra phrases like "Haripah!" "Balle!" "Ashqe!" and "Chak De!" and what those things mean.

To show musical spectrum of Bhangra I showed a few Sarbjit Cheema Only Folk music videos, a Miss Pooja video, Sunny Brown's Tonite, and Kashif's 2 Step Bhangra and also Bombay Rockers just to demonstrate the range of bhangra music.

For Malwai Giddha I showed:
Malwai Giddha

For Jhummar I showed Gabroo TV's Gabroo Shokeen Jhummar Exhibition from DDA as well as this video:
JHOOMER

I also showed this as a pointer, like "Hey guys, this is how everyone should try to dance in terms of energy/expression"
bhagwant singh

Anyways, just a starting point. You'll recognize a lot of the images which I got from the Media Center (thanks to BTF for being such a good resource). Some people on this forum are making a more potent presentation (at least i hope so) so watch out for that! Hit me with any questions/tips.




There are over 30 documented folk dances of Punjab. Bhangra started out in a small area of Punjab and was the folk dance of male farmers (Jatts) to celebrate the harvest. No one knows for sure when Bhangra started (although many websites state the 1400`s with no factual basis). Many believe that Bhangra is the newest of the Punjabi folk dances (much later than the 1400`s) and that it was derived from one way or another from Khatak (a Pathan folk dance). Many scholars have echoed the fact that folk dances usually originate from a combination of many existing dances. Bhangra was no exception. Bhangra early on incorporated Phumnian (from Jammu) and Luddi (a dance of victory originally from the areas of Peshawar and Attock). After 1947 a group of "refugees" or migrant Punjabis (whatever you want to call them) got together while in a refugee camp in Kurukshetra and perfomed Bhangra. At this performance other refuges were there who played different instruments, hence algozey, tumba, chimta, etc were added to Bhangra (so really, these aren`t "traditional" instruments to Bhangra"). This group of men then performed at various venues eventually performing at the republic day celebrations in New Delhi. Baazigars (street performers) also joined this group and added stunts to this NEW Bhangra and from here we eventually get the motivation for the acrobatics seen in American competitions. Over time other folk dances were added to Bhangra such as Jhummer, Pathania, Sammi (a women`s folk dance) etc etc and this dance was being propagated to college and high school students. Eventually this new conglomeration of dances was being judged on stage and competitions were born. A few farming type of actions were created while a group was abroad and this lead to the legend that Bhangra contains actions which resemble farming. False! Then dance ballets were added which depicted Heer-Ranjha, Malki-Keema etc etc. Again, not a part of Bhangra. Over time many of these elements were removed from Bhangra competitions in Punjab with the objective of trying to have this dance once again resemble Bhangra. In America you can see what`s going on first hand.

Teginder Singh Dhanoa
President and Co-Founder, Punjabi Lok Virsa
 

Attachments

ban3rg

Active Member
Messages
1,492
For "Traditional Moves" I showed this video and named a few of the moves (just big ones like Mirza, Luddi, Phumania, Sammi, Fasla, etc), which I compiled from the BTF thread regarding that video. Source: http://bhangrateamsforum.com/discuss/index.php?topic=280.0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=835DCxmVp0U


0:55 - Punjab
1:08 - Jeona Morh
1:20 - Khichan
1:24 - Garrarian (Jandu Singha, Mor Chaal)
1:30 - Faslan
1:36 - Chappu
1:48 - Pehelwan di Chaal
1:53- Korha (the guys with the khunda)
2:15 - Dankre
2:30- Jhummar
3:28 - Fast Jhummar
3:40- Dhamaal
4:01- Phumania
4:24- Mirza
4:43- Jugni
5:03 - Jodiyan
5:05 - Dande
5:24- Sial Koti
5:41 - Khichan / Dhamaal
5:46 - tunka
5:54 - Luddi
6:01 - taarhi (the side clap)
6:06- Chaffa
6:15 - Sheeshay
6:34 - Faslan
6:38- Bhabi
6:45 - Tari/Side Punjab
6:56 - Kabootar Chaal
7:03- Fasla
7:15- Jandu Sangha / Mor Chaal
7:22 - Khulla Punjab / Simple Bhangra
7:37- Khich (the pull) / Dankre / Dankara
7:41 - Sammi
8:01 - paari chaal
8:05- Punjab
8:15 - Khabba/Sajja Kann
8:21 - Chhaalan
 

ban3rg

Active Member
Messages
1,492
Oh, and as for "Trends" i kind of just rambled about teams through the ages, showed some older Cornell Performances from like '99 and early 2000s and so on, showed like how there is a Canadian style, West Coast style and so on....trend from all guys to co-ed teams is happening, modern to traditional trend. etc. etc.
 

Amit

New Member
Messages
187
Arjun, I heard good things about the presentation. Props for putting it together, looks like it took some work.
 

ban3rg

Active Member
Messages
1,492
Thanks man. Oh yeah and to clarify that long list of moves would have been very confusing/people wouldn't remember any of them so I only emphasized the more commonly used ones: Luddi, phumanian, sammi, jhummar, mirza, dhamaal (even though the mirza done in the video is not the most common kind i have seen)...
 

Kapil

Wear Responsibly 2.0 || One for All...All for FAUJ
Messages
133
Looks amazing bro

Although it's good you emphasized only the important stuff/more common stuff, I think this is a great opportunity to capture as much knowledge as possible in one place. If everyone can contribute what they know to this thread, we can compile the beginnings of what was talked before on a different thread , what was to become explicit demonstrations and 'precise' definitions/history/videos for each style, etc

From a quick glance, on the guys, I noticed you left out kamarband (rectangular cloth tied around the waist), patti (sometimes a gota strip is used, but this is the strip on the pagh), and taveet. Some of the girls' stuff I hadn't heard of, sources would definitely be great to see! I'm not so sure about the shoes part, i've never heard of shoes as being part of the outfit.

Finally its probably important to note that there are different names and spellings for a lot of the different aspects..especially for beginners so they don't get confused. Such as malwai vs malwe giddha

great stuff!

Kapil

PS I heard govind did some in depth report on bhangra while he was at college-- govind hit me up if this is true!
 

Basim

♥ BTF ♥
Staff member
Messages
1,459
Arjun, you are incredible siiirrrr! A very simple presentation with concrete structure. It has a great compilation of information from various sources. A job well done and a big thanks for sharing it with the BTF community!

Love always,

~ Basim :D
 

ban3rg

Active Member
Messages
1,492
Sure thing man (Kapil). I hope Govind can share that with us. And thanks for your comments Basim!

Kapil, you're right, since our team itself does not wear kamarband, I didn't think to include it but good point. What is the difference between patti and gota? As far as I know, both mean the strip tied around the pagh. Finally, you're right, I did not include taweet textually in the slide, but when I showed the Gurman Folk Dance Academy guys' picture (slide 19), I did point it out and mention it. Couple of the guys are wearing shoes in that picture (like the one kneeling by the dhol) but I know they didn't wear them on stage, obv.

Source for Bhangra costumes text-slide (yeah I thought it was weird that this site is including shoes too, never have seen bhangra being performed with shoes): http://www.partyoffers.co.uk/articles/an_introduction_to_bhangra_.html

Source for Giddha costume slide (haha even I had never heard the terms "pazaib" or "suggi-phul"): http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Giddha

As you can tell, I didn't dig THAT deep for this - the giddha link is the first hit for google search "giddha costume" haha. BTW the MIT "Bhangra costumes" page was a good resource too!
 

Kapil

Wear Responsibly 2.0 || One for All...All for FAUJ
Messages
133
haha yea that MIT page has been around for a WHILE. needs to be updated slightly though, i'll see if I can put some of this stuff on!

so for patti vs gota, from my knowledge :
- "patti" is the specific strip tied around the pagh, sometimes gold, or black, or matching color.

-"Gota" is that gold lining stuff you see all over a costume-- for example, many costumes have the bottom of their lungis/chaddars lined with a strip of gold gota. The decorative lining is not always gold, you could have silver gota lining a piece or gota of a design pattern. For example, on a sari, it's the decorative lining http://www.yourdesignerwear.com/images/APR1594_2lg.jpg (from googling "gota" in images)
 

Gurvir

Member
Messages
704
holy sh*t this is a crazy presentation...so good that i saved it on my computer, re-embedded all the videos, wrote up some notes and will probably end up presenting this to people at my school..but of course i will give you credit
 

karan923

Member
Messages
534
I'm just curious to know exactly how props became part of the bhangra scene. How did props get involved? What is the symbolism of sapps, khunde's, kaato's? Why do we use them?
 

dheerja

Member
Messages
607
Huge props Arjun, this is such a good idea for teams that have dancers new to bhangra and the bhangra scene.
 

Kartik

Member
Messages
319
ankitpatel5 said:
Can someone please reupload the presentation? not of the above links are working... thanks in advance.
Hey, I updated the presentation before giving it this year. If anyone needs it feel free to PM me and I can send it over. I'll try to upload it over the next couple of days as well.
 

Govind

Member
Messages
364
Nikhil said:
You did the community and your team justice man. Awesome job.
+1...Outstanding work Arjun.

One thing I wanted to point out was I've often heard people call a certain move that Arjun posted above "Sammi." I was always confused by this because Sammi is actually a separate folk dance, too. It's a women's dance that's performed at quite a slow pace (often to that song Main vaari main vaari meri sammiye)...I have a video of it somewhere on a hard drive and will post it up.
 

dheerja

Member
Messages
607
Govind said:
One thing I wanted to point out was I've often heard people call a certain move that Arjun posted above "Sammi." I was always confused by this because Sammi is actually a separate folk dance, too. It's a women's dance that's performed at quite a slow pace (often to that song Main vaari main vaari meri sammiye)...I have a video of it somewhere on a hard drive and will post it up.
It is! It's a beautiful dance that's often confused with "slow giddha". Here's an example:
Sammi - Harbhajan Maan

There's another one that we did sammi to 2 years ago, can't seem to find the video but here's the song:
sammi folk song
 
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