Bhangre De Shokeen - BBC 2017 and Tashan 2017

[kman58]

Hello BTF,

On behalf of Bhangre De Shokeen, and my co-captains Sukhdev and Bhavin, I am proud to present the videos of our first place performances from both Boston Bhangra Competition 2017 and Tashan 2017. We'd like to congratulate MBT and our VSB brothers for their placings at BBC, as well as AEG on their placing at Tashan. We'd also like to thank the committees of both of these competitions for hosting these well run events year-to-year and allowing us to share our passion for folk Bhangra.

Link to mix:
Tashan 2017
4K: Overhead:
BBC 2017
Overhead: Black: Ajitpal Grewal & Harpreet Cheema
Red: Bhavin Gala & Keshav Mantha
Orange: Aditya Singh & Aniket Patel
Yellow: Akshaya Nataraj & Kayla Neely
Green: Aman Vyas & Neil Shah
Blue: Sukhdev Brar & Yuvraj Singh

A special shoutout to our amazing dholi Nihal Singh, our singer at Tashan Khushwant Singh, and our singer at BBC Gurmit Singh (G Sing). You guys ripped it and made our set that much better. We'd also like to thank Dilbagh Nagi and Angad Jaggi from VSB for helping us out with last minute paggan at BBC. Finally, thank you Alvin Alex for the 4k Tashan video and Hardeep Singh for the BBC videos and helping us with paggan as well.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, here is also the link to our winning performance at Nach Ke Dikha 2017: Red: Bhavin Gala & Vishwas Sodhi
Pink: Ajitpal Grewal & Neil Shah
Orange: Aman Vyas & Harpreet Cheema
Yellow: Kayla Neely & Navkiran Munday
Green: Darshan Donthi & Yuvraj Singh
Blue: Keshav Mantha & Sukhdev Brar

Any feedback on any of our content would be much appreciated. Thank you again to the countless people who helped us with our set and performances!

--Keshav

 

[nikhil95]

Most importantly: To take it to the next level I think your team needs to try incorporating some riskier/complex choreo options. Your set feels very safe, well executed, but that means you can try more complicated things so it hits that much harder

From the BBC video balcony

1. That intro luddi was so hype, personally not really my style, but I think that says how much I was impressed by it. Having the dholi in the middle was a nice touch, didn't even realize until the dancers started moving

2. 2:34 during the shikke chaal don't have the people move into the formation, I thought it was distracting. Also during the chaal I would also recommend rotating your body a bit so you are facing the audience, it took a few seconds for me to realize what was happening because I couldn't see the shikka. The line at 2:42 was sloppy. Otherwise it was a unique chaal and I really enjoyed it.

3. 3:08 was unique but you guys sold it well and it worked. Khunde chaal was very safe, maybe a spot to try and incorporate something different. Or vice versa just cut it since the shikke chaal was hype and I don't think you'd lose anything by just striking it. Well executed with good nakhra and formations were clean so it works fine but another place to play around a little

4. Jhummur was really beautiful but again very safe choreo. A thought I had was using a josh jhummur to serve as a contrast or even just add a part in there that has a "wow" kind of moment.

5. The ending was hype: had really fun fast paced choreo and had really high energy. Worth mentioning since the rest of your set was a little bit slower it really made the ending especially stick out

6. I know next to nothing about the Malwai Giddha you guys did at the end except for watching SPD at Bhangra in the 6ix, that being said it was a really fun way to end the set and I personally really enjoyed it

Something that bothered me throughout the set were the girls, both amazing dancers so hats of ladies, but they stuck out since they were the only two without paghaan and the formations did not accommodate that fact. This could also just me but I thought it was worth pointing out. Going forward I would love to see A) Go 16 and grab 2 more girls to balance out the formations since your team really seems to dance as a jodi quite a bit. Or B) if you want to stay doing 12 watch JVD at WBBC 2015 they did a really good job of integrating the girls well into the set without having them stick out. Off the top of my head it I believe they were often mirroring each other in formations making it look more even. Good luck going forward, I hope I get the chance to watch you guys live some point in the spring and congrats on a VERY successful start to your team.

 

[TegHans]

Sick performance and well-deserved 1st place, glad I got to see this one live. Agree with most of the points above here, especially that the choreo could have been more risky given your guys' skill level, but I'll list some of my own thoughts as well.

-Move completion was not there for everyone throughout the set, so some things look rushed during fast segments or lazy during slow segments. One segment where I noticed this the most was the khunda segment.

-I'm not huge on standardizing form, cause I think everyone should stand out in their own way, but there were some instances of hunched backs and flat-footedness. For the most part, the dancers were very strong in the upper body but less strong in the lower body, which accounted for things looking a little lazy during slow drops.

-Angles for the most part were good, but could've been better at certain points. Ending is where I noticed this the most.

I really enjoyed this set and it lived up to the hype you gave me @Keshav. Song selection was on point as it always is with you guys. As far as the mix goes, I think it'll be one of the top ones of the season for sure. Through your style of mixing with the integration of a bunch of instruments, I do think at times there are areas that get too busy like the last few beats of khunda chaal, but you are good at controlling it so that it does not bury the original song too much, but it is something to watch out for. Other than that I think it was dope.

 

[Varan Rakhra]

Kiddan Mundeyo! When I saw you guys won first at Boston I was anticipating a more modern routine since historically from what I remember Boston is def more on the modern side of bhangra but right when the beat hit I was pleasantly surprised! Luddi was hot! However to be completely honest comparing this to VSB at the same comp I didn't get the same feeling and excitement that I got from them. As others mentions above me the routine was very safe, formations and drops imo could of been better. Jhoomer was hot but the execution could of been higher. Ending Malwai Gidda segment did not hit for me at all, I think if u started ur set off like that or even in the middle of ur routine It would of hit more. Ill write a more in depth review later, I'm just stuck in traffic and watched this performance and thought I share my quick 2 cents! Congrats on the placing and pumped to see more as the season continues.

 

[iJatt]

This was nice

 

[scaplash]

Congrats on the first place, you guys have had a string of solid wins. One thing I hope you guys retain is your style- it stands out from other teams in the circuit and makes the performance more fun to watch.
Most comments have already been said and most of mine are building off the ones above as well as looking at the BBC performance and comparing it to some of those top level teams (SPD,FCB, etc).
I would add that formation spacing seemed off throughout the set, making it hard for some of your formational effects to hit. Chan mere makhna was in my opinion one of your most successful segments-but one of the few examples of where formations helped a segment. In Phumaniya, by contrast, I'm not completely sure what the formation was, and how it made the segment better.
Energy was pretty solid throughout, though as the set wore on, people got sloppy getting up out of betke and it made you guys look more out of sync. I think the high energy masked some deficits in form (which is very subjective and honestly a personal opinion). Dancers on the whole did not look very controlled during prop segments. Standardization fell apart in faster segments
Moving forward, I think working on formations (working on spacing so that they are effective in delivering something impactful to the viewer), betke/energy towards the second half the set, standardization and possibly form related stuff (shoulders bouncing, knees higher).

Anyways-hope that was helpful, congrats on the success and I hope to see more videos from you guys.

 

[BhangraSUCKS]

You guys remind me of the San Antonio Spurs, quietly winning competitions but not really having any wow factor.

I give you all a solid C+

 

[Howie Magz]

Congratulations once again on a fantastic season and you guys really put Philadelphia on the map (2 first places in the Fall is quite the accomplishment). I can agree with everything that has been said above in regards to taking more risk with your set design. I think that you have a good foundation built for you guys and now its all up to whoever makes the choreo to really think outside of the box and create something that will make people WOW BDS just put on a sick set rather than the whole "safe" set. Every segment should have a purpose and one little thing to make it that much more memorable. On a personal note, I would say please take out the Malwai Giddha. I think it really did not add anything to your performance except the fact that you guys integrated another folk punjabi dance into your set. Excited to see this momentum continue into the Spring and once again Congratulations to @kman58 and thes rest of BDS.

 

[vishwassodhi]

BDS's primary goal is to incorporate a lot of bhangra from beat one till the last beat. We are a bunch of shokeens who just wana do pure folk bhangra and have a baller time while doing it. That's all we wana do, call it creating safe sets, but it's really just simple pure folk bhangra

 

[Ritesh Kashyap]

^ I think you guys definitely accomplished this goal. I agree with everyone else in the fact that yes the set could more difficult, but all in all it was still a beautiful set that was simple yet different from what we see nowadays in the circuit. Refreshing to watch, but I do think moving forward, since you guys have such a high level of dancers on your team, you should make harder choreo, remain super folk, and then keep the cleanliness. Some specifics I noticed were (based off BBC video)

- Luddi was so hot, loved it
- Saap jumps were cool, but again given the raw talent on your team I feel like you can come up with something harder and more folk than a bunch of saap jumps in a row in diagonals I know your captains are clearly very talented in terms of set construction just believe in your dancers!
- One thing i said to vsb was to chill their energy a little; for some of your dancers (specifically tall blue) you just gotta bring up the energy, in transitions I don't think you rose your feet at all. Orange and red jodis were at the perfect level of energy the whole dance, with high knees and good form but not overflowing energy to the point where they were unclean
- 3:52 orange look at each other before the squat was the sexiest thing ive ever seen, in general orange jodi nakhra was fire in jhummar
- front six dancers on chicken wings in dhamaal killed it, back six could've picked it up a little but overall great execution of formations
- general moddhe movement of the team was fire, except jhummar was a little weak for this
- one of each of the jodis red orange and blue got so damn low during jugni that was so hot; vsb had all their dancers getting this low, you guys should standardize this
- girls killed it throughout, darker yellow girl could be more clean when getting tired near the end but in general very powerful dancers both of the girls
- ending segment before malwai you could tell the energy was dead/quickly dying in green and some of blue and yellow; watch orange and black kick into high gear near the end and put in that extra energy which you need for an ending to really sell it
- malwai giddha was kinda funny tbh (nice touch with non traditional props like dandiya had a nice laugh at what you guys decided to do with em), it was a really fun way to end a set, but I think going into the spring it'd be best to take it out since everybody has seen it in this set and it reduced your actual dancing time by almost a minute, but it was a great idea for the fall set.

I hope you guys continue to innovate in your set and keep killing it at competitions; your team has the talent to really make a dent in the circuit this year just focus on more innovative choreo and I hope to see what you guys have in store for the next comp!

 

[etoteja]

Not to sound like a broken record, but I agree with the majority of the points already stated:

1) Have fun with creativity, you guys are a solid fun folk team to watch and that's something you should showcase
2) In my opinion, yellow girls killed it but weren't highlighted enough as their own entity in the set to warrant not dressing them up as guys, but this is 100% up to what you guys want to do!
3) Energy is good throughout, but don't sacrifice cleanliness (which ties into my most important point)
4) Clean your set less and your dancers more! Focus on keeping backs straight, legs wide, chests out, arms extended, consistent prop extension/placement and energy usage, etc. Whatever you guys decide on standardizing, set it so that everyone looks the same. The worst part about the performances for me is that everyone is doing the same move, but everyone is doing it differently.

TL;DR
Well done! Have fun and clean.