Boston Bhangra 2016 Results and Reviews

[Boston Bhangra]

[SIZE=medium]THANK YOU to all of our teams, liaisons, volunteers, judges, friends, family, sponsors, and special guests Amar Sandhu and PRANNA, for making this year's competition a HUGE success! Congratulations to all of the participating teams for putting on a phenomenal show! [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=medium]Special shout-out to our winners:[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=medium]1st place: JVD[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]2nd place: MIT Bhangra[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]3rd place: Furteelay[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=medium]We hope everyone enjoyed the show and look forward to hearing any feedback. See you all next year at Boston Bhangra Competition 2017![/SIZE]
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[SIZE=medium]-Boston Bhangra Executive Board[/SIZE]

 

[Howie Magz]

^^ That is what I was talking about a year ago in terms of my fire back in the circuit post. Calling people out where they need to be called out. Honesty is the best way to go about these things and not hold personal resentment towards people and being passive aggressive about it. Props to you man for speaking your mind.

 

[Armaan]

Being my 8th time going to Boston Bhangra (...wtf)... this was the first time I left this comp with the following question eating away at me:

"What happened to the bhangra circuit?"

To keep it short - this was the fist time I left BBC feeling unsatisfied. Hear me out. The BBC committee this year kicked ass! They put in tons of effort and it showed from every angle.

- The great mixer venue and setup
- the close proximity of the hotel (not to mention the incredible location being that it was a 2 minute walk to a target, makeup store, food, bars, liquor stores, the works)
- the timeliness of the show to makeup for lost time (there was some half marathon which closed some key streets and unfortunately a fatal incident near the venue right before the show. These were all things out of their control and they handled it the best they could.)
- the after party and after after party ::thumbs-up::

HOWEVER... in terms of the actual performances put on by ALL teams... much lower than I anticipated. Every year I go into BBC looking forward to killer memorable performances... To be honest though, across the board I think all teams in general did not bring the fire thats expected at this competition.

Think the circuit needs a shakeup... and I dont think that means some crazy new team that dances at 200mph. Think we all need to think about how we handle everything from not posting videos for months to never actually seeing judging scoresheets. Mature dancers always respect the ultimate decision of judges, but everyone should be able to get an understanding as to why a judge thought this vs that.

We are the biggest competitive South Asian dance circuit, let's not forget that. We can all play a part in possibly working on this. Open to suggestions. Nonetheless, congratulations to all the teams and those who placed

 

[Armaan]

lol agreed, I have noticed it for a while. It's always been a part of the discussion, but will definitely say this is the first time it hit home for me at Boston Bhangra. I still used to leave BBC amped up every year. This year's performances had a much bigger piece missing.


How do we incentivize teams to focus on fundamentals? I've struggled with getting our girl's team to stay focused on learning form either. I know they love bhangra but it's hard to get them focused on fundamentals and I know they're not the only team with this issue. Is it a generational difference? How do we correct it?

 

[hardeep_singh]

my placings for bbc 2016:
1st - jvd
2nd - alamo
3rd - furteelay

if furteelay didn't have any errors i would place them higher. There were things i disliked about all 3 of these performances but these three were the only performances deserving of placing. DCMPAA had a well executed set and kids deserve proper recognition for putting together a good set but definitely not on the same level of complexity as those 3 sets.

i know there will be negative response to the fact that MIT placed and that's completely understandable but at this point it's par for course for bbc. bbc will always surprise you with some completely bs placings, such as NEBC placing last yr or MIT tying for 3rd in 2007. i'm assuming that the two judges with actual circuit experience managed to be the voice of reason to prevent this yrs placings from being complete bs.
my placings for bbc 2015
1st - virsa
2nd - dcmpaa
3rd - kpgd
watch the videos

 

[hardeep_singh]

lol agreed, I have noticed it for a while. It's always been a part of the discussion, but will definitely say this is the first time it hit home for me at Boston Bhangra. I still used to leave BBC amped up every year. This year's performances had a much bigger piece missing.


How do we incentivize teams to focus on fundamentals? I've struggled with getting our girl's team to stay focused on learning form either. I know they love bhangra but it's hard to get them focused on fundamentals and I know they're not the only team with this issue. Is it a generational difference? How do we correct it?

you can start by not using songs like "tere gate ch jatti ne" in a mix, especially one for an all girls team

 

[Mr. Mankiran]

Ya'll should've went to burgh. Solid lineup, solid dancing. Overall enjoyable, besides all the random exhibition acts including TWO acapella groups *yikes*.

 

[Armaan]

lol agreed, I have noticed it for a while. It's always been a part of the discussion, but will definitely say this is the first time it hit home for me at Boston Bhangra. I still used to leave BBC amped up every year. This year's performances had a much bigger piece missing.


How do we incentivize teams to focus on fundamentals? I've struggled with getting our girl's team to stay focused on learning form either. I know they love bhangra but it's hard to get them focused on fundamentals and I know they're not the only team with this issue. Is it a generational difference? How do we correct it?

you can start by not using songs like "tere gate ch jatti ne" in a mix, especially one for an all girls team

Great point. Before this turns into a he said she said... Why don't we touch upon the core of this issue which some teams face whether you like it or not...

Bhangra teams have dancers from all regions of South Asia, let alone the world. We all know teams that at some point didn't have any punjabi dancers, sometimes not even any South Asian dancers (rare but it happens). They love the dance, they love the music, but they don't understand the lyrics. Yes, I agree they should be proactive about understanding what they're dancing to, but I'm interesting to find out how deeply this issue affects the community?

@hardeep also you emphasized that an "All Girls" team specifically should not be using "Tere Gate Ch Jatti Ne." From your perspective can you explain why? Is it the reference to alcohol? Is it something else? Should guys teams also NEVER be using a song with similar meanings?

Not making any accusations or assumptions. I'd rather hear why that's your opinion and how others think as well.

 

[mafzal]

Think the circuit needs a shakeup... and I dont think that means some crazy new team that dances at 200mph. Think we all need to think about how we handle everything from not posting videos for months to never actually seeing judging scoresheets. Mature dancers always respect the ultimate decision of judges, but everyone should be able to get an understanding as to why a judge thought this vs that.

Good point. Working on it. Sent you a PM. More soon

 

[mafzal]

How do we incentivize teams to focus on fundamentals? I've struggled with getting our girl's team to stay focused on learning form either. I know they love bhangra but it's hard to get them focused on fundamentals and I know they're not the only team with this issue. Is it a generational difference? How do we correct it?

I think the #1 thing you can do at this very moment is instill a sense of pride in your team for taking the time to practice the fundamentals and learn as much as they can about Bhangra. Sometimes we focus too much on what other teams are doing and external rewards (like trophies). You have to build an internal motivation for your team to want to dance well and have good form and be clean, and for them to enjoy it and take pride in it so much that it becomes the incentive... I know it's easier said than done

Also, I personally look at quality of dancing FIRST before anything else and have fought multiple times in deliberation to reward quality of dancing (form, synchronization, shoulders, energy, etc) over pure entertainment. I believe I'm quite transparent about that and will continue to push for it whenever I can.


** Sorry to go off topic from your post, BBC! Mods please feel free to move wherever appropriate ***

 

[hardeep_singh]

@hardeep also you emphasized that an "All Girls" team specifically should not be using "Tere Gate Ch Jatti Ne." From your perspective can you explain why? Is it the reference to alcohol? Is it something else? Should guys teams also NEVER be using a song with similar meanings?

yes, gator's use of "Gal jithe chalay rangle punjab di" was equally stupid. i've called out teams in the past for using songs improperly, VCU for using a lembher song (kanjri te kohtay ni pyaar milda, dukhan bina jag te ni yaar milda), CMU's use of a dharmik song, RVD's use of a dharmik song along with a chamkila song in the same mix. i was even slightly bothered by the fact that jvd decided to use a tangentially dharmik song (bakshi billa - tamasha) in a mix with songs that would be considered love-ish songs.

i stated "you can start by not using songs like "tere gate ch jatti ne" in a mix, especially one for an all girls team" which implies that there is no proper situation to use such a songs in a bhangra mix.

i also disapprove of the use of the song mittran de junction te by diljit, the song rips off melody from a well known dharmik song, i could be completely off base and wrong about the song jagowale jatha - sheran de deryan te being the original source of the melody.

i'm glad you decide to highlight this topic because it just shows how big of an ignorance problem the circuit has.

maybe the circuit deserves to die so only those who are really passionate about the culture can resurrect it.

 

[hardeep_singh]

also i guess its only proper that i should be the one to make this statement since i got a sense of enjoyment every time it happened but fauj got screwed multiple times by bbc judging

 

[Rooohan]

Hi All,

I just wanted to get on here and let you know the user Rohan_Vaswani is not me. Although he/she is using my name and picture, the account doesn't reflect the opinions of me, BU Bhangra, or FAUJ.

I'd like to think the user can find something better to do in their spare time. Congratulations to the winning teams and the BBC committee for a job well done, hopefully this doesn't distract from their accomplishments.

-Rohan