Boston Bhangra Competition Team Performances Review

[Psant]

Hello all,


Since BTF has been straying away from competition reviews for a while, I thought I'd try to instigate some discussion related to BBC. I was only a spectator for this comp, so I can't comment on organization/hotels/etc, but I'm just going to share some thoughts about the performances themselves. Overall, it was an incredible show to watch with a phenomenal lineup. Also keep in mind that this is a few hazy days later, so I might not have remembered everything completely well.



Rutgers - Great start to the competition! On an unrelated note to the set, I loved the Jinday remix used in the intro video! Saap segment started off very strong and I’ve always liked Rutger's style over the past couple of years. My favorite segment was most definitely end song, where energy was through the roof, but there were a few segments that could have been a little more clean. Of course this is a fall competition, but I think this team is on pace to be really competitive whenever they aren’t first in comp.


CMU - Just wow. CMU has gained the reputation of being innovative on both the formations and choreo front over the past couple of years and this performance showcased that super well. Consistent energy throughout - I didn’t really see a dull moment in this set. Jugni was well set up and the drop was phenomenal as usual. Don’t quote me on this, but I think you guys had that hyperextended saap chaal gimmick on your shoulders? That was a super nice touch.


Furteelay Shokeen - Just when I thought CMU was killing it, Furteelay came out and absolutely destroyed the first two props segments. The saap segment was both at an incredible speed and insanely clean. FS has a unique style that isn’t quite Canadian and isn’t quite DC/VA and I thought it was super refreshing. There’s definitely an identity that’s been established with this set. When the set was done, I knew you guys were going to place.


Cornell - Return of the bodies shaped into CORNELL letters, except at the beginning this time, and with a twist that transitioned to BBC letters. Wasn’t the strongest start to me with the rehashing of a gimmick that I've seen since Blowout '07. After that though, the set was a lot more “dance-y” than in past years. No longer is there a formulaic setup-into-magic trick/effect format and I thought it was a nice. College sequence was powerful as usual. At the end, hip hop guy was replaced by ballerina girl - which was less jarring of an ending as usual. Overall, a competitive set but was overshadowed by being in a stacked front end of the lineup.


DCMPAA - A stark contrast from Cornell’s set. There was a lot of grace and a lot of talented dancers, but i thought the routine was very safe. The level of coordination and cleanliness was on-point and I’m always impressed when I see a successful 16 person co-ed set. That being said, I’m pretty sure I heard the emcees say that no one on the team was over the age of 18 or something, but I see you Ashvin . Not a big deal, but it threw me off for a second. Like CBS in the past, I don’t think BBC is the right competition to be competitive for this team.


FAUJ - A better executed version of the TDot set minus the clown stuff. What people don’t realize about this year’s FAUJ set is the complexity and creativity of the choreography. You guys take creative liberties with bhangra moves (and often times make these variations of moves really difficult looking), yet make it look SO easy. Favorite segment was Pardi Hundi C for sure. Only issue I had at times was that people sort of chilled a little when they weren't in the front. Top to bottom, best individual dancers of the night. The fire gimmick was on point. I definitely also thought that this team would place as soon as the routine was over, but I think there are two things that FAUJ faced: 1) Themselves in the past and 2) BBC being locally-biased in a way you wouldn’t expect.


MIT - Weakest team of the night in my opinion, but it was a very stacked competition in general. There were cool ideas and I think the one thing that stood out was that dancer ability was a little unbalanced at times and that led to a lack of cleanliness for certain segments. It's early in the season though, so plenty of time to patch up those rough areas and make some segments that are a little more memorable.


BU - Very strong routine with a whole lot of crowd support, BU continued their streak of being a consistently solid co-ed team. Rohan had one of the best individual performances in a collegiate routine that I’ve ever seen and just owned the stage. Choreo was especially well executed and I always got the sense that the stage was filled really well at any given moment. I thought BU and CMU were neck and neck when it came to a college teams, with CMU having the slight edge because of creative elements.


NEBC - Exceeded my expectations! There was a lot of energy for about 80% of the routine, but the 20% of the routine that was slightly messier was what put this team out of the running unfortunately in my head. Really liked the direction with choreo choices and I saw flashes of old Northeastern in there that I really liked in terms of mixing. The gimmick with the changing chaddars went pretty smoothly and I thought the effect ended up working very well. The shorter red jodi was miles ahead of anyone else on form + execution, so if everyone was up to her level, this could be a team that competes with the likes of SMD in the future.


UVa - Yet another above average collegiate set from a team that has had some stellar performances over the past couple of years. That being said, I really think the guys outshone the girls in this set in terms of stage presence. Choreography was very DC/Va and I thought that form across the board was great. I think with a little tweaking, this is a team that could go places by the spring semester.


NSG - Another wow moment kind of set - mostly because this wasn’t the NSG I was used to at all. This isn’t the NSG that we’re used to - this seemed more like a Regiment or Knightz set than anything. There were a lot of stellar dancers and I immediately thought first place or second place when I saw it in person because the command of the stage. The end segment was incredibly coordinated and powerful and really showed off the talent of the individual dancers. The saap segment wasn’t on Furteelay’s level, but the general segments were very well done. The kaato segment was a little cheesy with some suspect choreo choices, but overall I could see the crowd loving it. Shock value that this was NSG on initial watch really helped this team.


DRP - An absolutely incredible amount of energy on this team. In terms of what they wanted out of this set, I’m sure they exceeded even their own expectations. It was like a Bhangra Empire set with more of an emphasis on the choreography. The setup time was a little too long in my opinion, but they did have a pretty elaborate castle-like structure. I couldn’t tell if the emcees were delaying for them or if the team was waiting on the emcees to finish their relatively unwitty banter. That being said, I firmly thought this team wasn’t in the top three collegiate teams at this competition and highly benefitted from going last in the lineup. Overall though, a solid Cali set.


After first watch, these were the placings I thought:

• NSG
• FAUJ
• Furteelay

Best Collegiate Teams:

• CMU
• BU
• UVa

However, after rewatching some videos, I’ve shifted my opinion slightly and I’d say that my current placings afterward(which of course doesn’t matter because judges don’t get to go and look back) would be

• Furteelay
• FAUJ
• NSG

Total Overall Rankings:

• Furteelay
• FAUJ
• NSG
• CMU
• BU
• UVa
• DCMPAA
• Rutgers
• DRP
• Cornell
• NEBC
• MIT

The thoughts expressed in this post are of my own.


- Prasant

 

[siddyp]

this was so refreshing! Thanks for this Prasant!

 

[KushK]

Solid Review Psant! Thanks!

 

[Basim]

Amazing review with great summarized comments for each team. This should help everyone out a lot and I'm so glad you included your own thoughts as an audience member (before & after watching team performance videos).

Thank you Prasant for taking the time to share. Some karma love coming your way.

~ Basim

 

[ban3rg]

Thanks for the excellent review! Great to see all the teams' styles maturing. Props to every team for bringin it!!!

 

[Sid]

Since BTF has been straying away from competition reviews for a while, I thought I'd try to instigate some discussion related to BBC. I was only a spectator for this comp, so I can't comment on organization/hotels/etc, but I'm just going to share some thoughts about the performances themselves. Overall, it was an incredible show to watch with a phenomenal lineup. Also keep in mind that this is a few hazy days later, so I might not have remembered everything completely well.

Thanks for taking the time to make this detailed review, Psant. I'm glad you took the initiative, because hopefully it will lead to a more productive discussion here about the merits and demerits of each set. Such discussion has definitely been lacking, as noted by just about everyone haha.

CMU - Just wow. CMU has gained the reputation of being innovative on both the formations and choreo front over the past couple of years and this performance showcased that super well. Consistent energy throughout - I didn’t really see a dull moment in this set. Jugni was well set up and the drop was phenomenal as usual. Don’t quote me on this, but I think you guys had that hyperextended saap chaal gimmick on your shoulders? That was a super nice touch.

Thank you so much for the the kind words. It's tough to step in and match the standard which CMU's past captains have set over the last few years, but I'm happy you enjoyed the set. And yes, we did end hyperextend our saaps for chaal. Glad that was well-received.

 

[RobertoGandia]

Hi everybody,

I decided to post my opinion in regards to this competition because of the very clear and vocal out roar that occurred in the Competition that night. There seemed to be a lot of discussion relating to the placings that occurred and I would like to talk about this. In the meantime I would encourage either the judges or organizers to voice there opinion on what I am going to say as it may seem controversial and I would love to have an open discussion on this topic.

First thing I think should be mentioned is the surprise third place DRP. To be completely honest, and I hope if they read this they will take this a criticism and not bashing, they literally seemed like a classic HFD team in the Bollywood Fusion circuit where they rely on props to win and mask their flaws (messiness and lack of intricate choreography). They had a very intricate house built behind them where props like balloons where used to enhance their routine. My main concern with teams that focus on this aspects are that most of the time (see most HFD teams in the Fusion Circuit) teams that user such elaborate props forget to focus on the main reason to why they are in the competition, to dance. This teams dancing was lackluster at best and saying that its "ok" because there a Cali team and they focus on gimmicks and production is a huge insult to any team from that region. You are essentially saying that they are not capable of dancing to the same level as an east coast team and must rely on these gimmicks to try to impress judges who have not seen this before. In the end my worry is that the judges for this competition where actually incapable of just appreciating the production and look past it and focus on the main aspect of any dance competition "dance". Their actions promote teams to forget choreography and just try to do a gimmick to win.

Next to the second place team Furteelay Shokeen. A lot of people considered them a very strong team in both choreography and execution and I must agree. Definitely one of the standouts of the night. They were able to match the strong energy from CMU which was very impressive. In my opinion this team was a definite top 4 if not top 3. I was glad to see at least one team that focused on Choreography and cleanliness place in this competition.

Last but not least we have the first place team NSG. Now before I begin, let me start by saying that this team definitely brought a lot of energy and good choreography. With that said I did not believe that they should have placed first (definitely top 4 though). One of the reasons for this was that the team was very messy and the execution of the segments was changing depending on what song each person liked the most. Their Choreography while it was good it was not something that truly impressed me specially after watching teams like FAUJ who had very unique and exiting choreography that balanced cleanliness, execution and difficulty to a much higher level. After re-watching their performance I must say that in my opinion this team was not a first place team but could deserve a placing depending on what the judges where looking for.

In the end I must say that this competition left many questions in the eyes of the audience. I believe the first factor for this was that the Judging was not consistent and did not demonstrate a predominant view on what they were looking for (I would like one of the judges to comment on this comment). The placings had a very production heavy team with weak choreography, a very clean team with good choreography and a messy team with energy. This to me says that there was a disconnect in the opinions and truly worries me about the validity and integrity of the judging. The second is the notion that the organizer is present in the judges deliberation meeting to ensure that their is no biased. I believe that this throws out too many red flags from personal experience in judging. If an organizer ever told me this I would immediately believe that they do not want specific teams to win and want to ensure that the team that is most beneficial for them takes the final price. Trusting that this is not true, It reverts me back to the first point and the fact that the organizers do not trust the judges in making the right and professional decisions. This would revert us back to the validity and integrity of the judges. In the end this has left many questions in not just my eyes but the eyes of the audience. I truly wish that they discuss this further in this thread and maybe explain their views as again this are all my opinions and analysis.


Much love and congratulations to the teams,


Roberto

 

[#Harami]

This to me says that there was a disconnect in the opinions and truly worries me about the validity and integrity of the judging. The second is the notion that the organizer is present in the judges deliberation meeting to ensure that their is no biased. I believe that this throws out too many red flags from personal experience in judging. If an organizer ever told me this I would immediately believe that they do not want specific teams to win and want to ensure that the team that is most beneficial for them takes the final price. Trusting that this is not true, It reverts me back to the first point and the fact that the organizers do not trust the judges in making the right and professional decisions. This would revert us back to the validity and integrity of the judges. In the end this has left many questions in not just my eyes but the eyes of the audience. I truly wish that they discuss this further in this thread and maybe explain their views as again this are all my opinions and analysis.

After reading your review this part in particular stood out to me the most. Having been apart of BBC in the past and watching the show for the last several years I have always had questions about some of the placings. I wonder if it is possible for the judges to put up their comments and score sheets on this thread so that everyone can view them. I feel as though that would help out all the teams that performed as well as people who disagree or agree with the placings at BBC. Lastly, not so sound biased, but I have always wondered why a Boston team has never placed first at this competition. I feel as though Boston has always had strong school and independent teams, especially the last few years. Very curious as to why FAUJ didn't place this year, but a very big congrats to the teams that did place!

 

[siddyp]

Would love to foster some discussion Roberto:

[size=1em]In the end I must say that this competition left many questions in the eyes of the audience. I believe the first factor for this was that the Judging was not consistent and did not demonstrate a predominant view on what they were looking for (I would like one of the judges to comment on this comment). The placings had a very production heavy team with weak choreography, a very clean team with good choreography and a messy team with energy.

If anyone can post up the judging rubric, it 'should' give more insight into why teams placed. I'm not surprised that teams that may have won different sections of the rubric are the ones that placed. - furteelay being clean, DRP's production/entertainment/gimmicks etc./ and NSG brought it hard. At the same time, I haven't watched these teams yet. So I can't offer an opinion. Just going off of what you're saying.

The rubric matters a lot to me, because FAUJ is getting a ton of love and I've heard nothing other than they should have placed. I bet we could find the reasons why they didn't if we looked at the rubric. And I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but we're all looking for an explanation as to why the placings came out the way they did.

Sidenote: This is why we applaud E8 and WBBC for putting out judging scores every time because while people may not agree with the placings, it shows why teams placed and others didn't.

We've seen numerous times in the past where a performance that had un real choreo with sub par choreography place/win among 2 other teams with easy/simple choreo and were extremely clean or vice versa. It's a matter of how the points end up stacking up.

This to me says that there was a disconnect in the opinions and truly worries me about the validity and integrity of the judging.

To me, it's a good thing when you have a panel of judges that don't think the exact same way. It forces teams to offer a complete performance so they can win over the WHOLE panel. If you have 5 folk judges, and the only way they think is folk, who are the 3 teams that are going to place? The 3 most folk teams regardless of anything else. So validity and integrity in all this could truly be really good because of how the points may have been tallied.

The second is the notion that the organizer is present in the judges deliberation meeting to ensure that their is no biased. I believe that this throws out too many red flags from personal experience in judging. If an organizer ever told me this I would immediately believe that they do not want specific teams to win and want to ensure that the team that is most beneficial for them takes the final price. Trusting that this is not true, It reverts me back to the first point and the fact that the organizers do not trust the judges in making the right and professional decisions. This would revert us back to the validity and integrity of the judges.

The organizer very well could have been there, and just kept quiet and listened the whole time. I actually think that's the best thing to do. Allow the judges to do their thing, receive the placings/deliver the message to the emcee, and make sure this doesn't happen: If we go back to Blowout 2012, I remember that folks found out that judges did what they wanted regardless of rubric/points which lead to a pretty strong uproar. So from that experience alone, I think it's fair to say that an organizer should be present to ensure that doesn't happen...

All in all, everyone will have varying opinions. Ultimately, what matters in who places and who doesn't is the rubric, and how the points get tallied and how the deliberation (if there is deliberation) will work.

And I too would love to see any of the judges/organizers come on and offer some insight to the discussion!

 

[Boston Bhangra]

We appreciate all the feedback. Judgement is never an easy thing, especially with such a great and diverse lineup. People will always find fault in judgement, but we came to the right decision the correct way. We take great integrity in our judging process and would never do anything to jeapordize this competition. We've been running it for too long to do that. With that, we will answer some of the questions stated above:
1) We always look for teams that stick out from other teams and do things that make them be the best team on the stage that night. That can come through many different means. This competition had 5-6 teams that could have easily vied for a spot in the top 3. Not many competitions can say that. Most competitions also normally have a clear winner, which this one did not. This is the great thing about having many diverse teams showcasing different elements.
2) In general, when it comes to judging, the top 3 are decided through discussion, not points. Points are just an indicator as to how that team is doing, but the discussion results in the real winners. The organizer is simply their to facilitate, not provide any feedback or direction.
3) The rubric is on the website as are the names and descriptions of each of the judges. We have nothing to hide guys. We never have and never will.
4) As for the scoresheets, that is something we don't publish to the general public. We send that to each of the teams to evaluate for themselves. Again, the scoresheets are meant more for the teams to learn and grow rather than to evaluate themselves against others. That is not the point.
5) As for the discussion of Boston team and FAUJ, all of them did very well. We're not here to bias for or against Boston teams. It's shameful that anybody would say that we'd do that as we represent the city of Boston and all of our board members have all danced on teams based out of Boston. If anything we would bias for them. However, our roles are not to bias for. We let the judges make their decisions. That is their choice and we do not intrude on that. It is completely up to them. If the judges don't think they are worthy, they are not worthy. This applies to any team at the competition. We don't bias towards any team. We simply want the best teams to win and we stick by the word of our judges.

Keep in mind guys, we're here to put on a show and represent the many different aspects of Bhangra. We simply want the best teams to win based on that. Many teams this past weekend had PHENOMENAL performances and many of them could have ranked. However, only 3 could. It's up to you to determine who you think could have won. However, our judging panel of both modern and traditional judges came up with a good decision. You can review each teams video a 100 times if you want, but the judges get one shot. That is the reality. They do the best they can, just as we, as the board do the best we can. We're all volunteers in putting on a great show, and that is what it's all about. We have the utmost respect for all the teams and judges, and any questions any teams have, we are more than willing to address. We have already spoken to many teams about both positives and negatives and we look forward to improving upon them next year.

 

[Sue Sylvester]

Since you stated that you’re open to feedback, I would hope that BBC can benefit from the following constructive suggestions in the future:

1. Refrain from comparing yourselves to other competitions as some sort of not-so-subtle way to defend shortcomings, difficulty or obstacles. A lot of competitions these days do in fact have competitive lineups and very few of them, in recent past, have had clear cut winners. Boston Bhangra Competition, in the past, has had some of the best dance performances, but competitions like World’s Best Bhangra Competition, Elite 8 Bhangra, Bruin Bhangra, amongst others are still able to get teams to come back year after year without the laissez faire attitude in regards to judging and placings.

2. I like that you posted your judges on your website but having 3 judges who have competed with competing teams in the past is not ideal. Please ensure next time that if you want them on your panel that they have at least judged in the past (my personal recommendation is 5-10 competitions at least, especially if you are aware that you know that you’re bringing in good teams, the judging will be difficult and there could be concern for bias) to ensure they have proved themselves as unbiased, capable judges. I’m not claiming that your judges were biased, but having most of your judges being new to judging just handicaps the entire process and invites doubt to the results, especially when the feedback ends up being a bit amateur. Having a panel of judges with different backgrounds and opinions on bhangra is very nice, but they all need to be able to evaluate the many objective aspects/criteria (like synchronization, difficulty of choreography..etc which is independent on opinion) of the performance consummately, which newer judges may not be able to do as effectively, as you said, on only one watch of the performance. Too many new judges on a panel is just risky business.

3. Be transparent. Boston Bhangra Competition judging has been a huge wildcard in the past few years. This is not an opinion - this is a fact. The competition has been known for years to be one of the most modern competitions but in recent years placed more folk routines without any sort of augury. The lack of transparency on what the judges are looking for is what’s a bit frustrating. The rubric may say one thing, but as you said yourself, judges decide top 3 through deliberation and rubric criteria/points don’t matter at that point. As someone who has some experience with both competing and judging, teams need a sense of closure that comes from knowing what the judges are looking for before going into the competition, recognizing that the judges were capable in evaluating and appreciating their final product that was their performance and then understanding the placing results in regards to what other teams brought to the table. In the future, as a competition, be explicit with what you’re looking for and make sure teams are on the same page. Expecting teams to show up to the competition and do their “best” and be happy with whatever the judges arbitrarily deem to be the “best” the day of may have been fine back in the day, but no longer.

4. Be willing to release all judging sheets in case of concern. It forces judges to be held accountable and strive to be better. If judges know their sheets will never see the light of the day, they can simply just give teams 100s or judge however way they seem fit and then give vague feedback like “Y’all messy” or “Y’all could have been better”. Getting back just your team’s judging sheets doesn’t paint the entire whole picture of how your team did relative to the rest of the competition, which is the entire point of judging. Honestly, this is just good competition practice. I understand you guys may be doing it your way for years, but if you want to be recognized as one of best competitions, judging being accountable to dancers, teams, your competition and the circuit is what, in my opinion, differentiates an elite competition from a tier-2 competition.

5. Be consistent. In the future, be fair to all the teams and be consistent with competition rules (ie: confetti on stage, longer setup times..etc). Teams clear their gimmicks with you before hand but if a team asks and you tell them that they will get disqualified but then don’t penalize others, then teams may simply stop taking you seriously in years to come due to empty threats. I’m not saying you should disqualify teams, but if you’re letting one team do something, everyone should have the same opportunity, if they ask.

Hope the feedback helps and best of luck to your competition in the future!

 

[Boston Bhangra]

Thank you for the feedback. We will take all of this feedback back and evaluate what needs to be done. Just to quickly address your points:
1) We're not defending shortcomings. Many lineups are very competitive in other competitions as well as we know there are great competitions out there with great lineups. We don't use that as an excuse. We know where there were shortcomings this year and we will address them.
2) We've seen all sorts of judges on panels. We've had experienced judges, new judges, intermediate judges on our panels in the past. Each judge has their own personality in the way they judge. We still believe the panel we had this year was effective in determining what needed to be done. We can promise you that there was no bias. There is a reason that Rohit was in the judging meetings every time to ensure that everything was fair for all teams.
3) Teams consider us modern, but we are not. We are "open." Teams must understand that ANY team can win Boston Bhangra. Doesn't matter if you're modern or traditional. Look at our history and you will see that. We don't care what style you bring. Just do it at the highest level and you will do well. That is the way it has been from year one of Boston Bhangra. We have told judges that and teams that.
4) We give judging scoresheets to the teams themselves. Teams are more than welcome to exchange if they want, but we feel that scoresheets could embarrass teams based on what judges may state, and we're not in that business. We want teams to improve and that is why we give them the scoresheets. Being compared to one another after the competition is a futile task. It's more about the improvement not where everybody stacks up against one another.
5) The confetti thing was a gray area. This will be corrected. As for the time on stage, this is something we will make even more clear with teams in the future.

Again, we appreciate the feedback and we will work to correcting issues and making the competition even better next year.

 

[SGupta7]

3) The rubric is on the website as are the names and descriptions of each of the judges. We have nothing to hide guys. We never have and never will.
4) As for the scoresheets, that is something we don't publish to the general public. We send that to each of the teams to evaluate for themselves. Again, the scoresheets are meant more for the teams to learn and grow rather than to evaluate themselves against others. That is not the point.

That's a contradiction in itself. If you have nothing to hide, release the scores. I'm not saying you have anything to hide or anything to gain based on the placings. But clearly in this instance there is confusion amongst members of the bhangra community about the placings. Sue, hit this point on the head. This is an opportunity to put the discussion to rest by releasing the scoresheets and letting that be the end of it. Saying you have nothing to hide is different than actually showing everything you have.

 

[jattkharku]

Why don't you guys just each release on this forum your team score sheet that was given to you. I am sure if great top teams like yours (CMU and FAUJ) release your score sheet, the rest of teams will follow. And if a top placing team refuses to post their scores, they will make themselves look bad like they have something to hide.

 

[SGupta7]

If I still went to CMU I would haha. The reason I say BBC should do it is is because it's a lot easier for them or the judges to release all 12 scoresheets at once vs. each team individually releasing their own over some undetermined period of time. I don't necessarily care how the scoresheets get onto BTF, so long as they do.

Also, i'm not THAT heavily invested in BBC releasing the scoresheets in particular (as mentioned, I didn't compete nor do I have any current dancing affiliation with any of the teams that did), but I think that it's good general practice for competitions to be transparent in judging and results and this is one way to keep both organizers and judges honest.

 

[jattkharku]

I like you also believe it is good practice. BBC will never release it. That is why I say that teams who feel slighted should post them on their own and that will possibly get the rest of the teams to post their own. If we all believe it should be a good general practice for competition to do this, someone need to be the first one [peer pressure].

 

[tigerstyle]

Lol... Relax people. The BBC committee does not owe us anything (score sheets.)

 

[Boston Bhangra]

As we've stated, we will release the scoresheets to teams, and it's up to them to post the results on the forum. Scoresheets are a personal thing just like videos. We won't release videos just as we don't release scoresheets. If the teams choose to do so at their own discretion they are more than capable of doing so. Again, please keep in mind even if the scoresheets are released, points are just an indication of what that specific judge thought. The discussion with the all the judges is what comes to the final decision. Points are a relatively good indicator, but not the final say. As long as everybody understands that, there should be no issue.

 

[amrinder13]

Great feed back Sue!

I was extremely disappointed with the way the organizers ran the weekend. I agree with Sue when it came to the committee needing to be more transparent with all the teams. This is something that was brought up by multiple teams.

I know for a fact that two of the judges were highly qualified and that was noticeable in the judges meeting. They provided great feedback and on my teams positives and negatives. As for the committee openly admitting that they have had “new judges, intermediate judges” on their panel is a huge concern for myself as I’m sure it may be for other teams as well. As a committee you need to make sure your judges are qualified and all understand the rubric that you provide. They must collectively come to a decision on placing’s and when providing feedback be on the same page. In our judges meeting we had two judges tell us that we have the best facial expressions and right after one say we had very dull facial expressions, again just an example on how the judges needed to be on the same page.

As for Boston Bhangra being considered a modern comp, I couldn’t agree anymore. You are NOT “open”, when accepted last year and this year the committee stressed how our dancing style would need to change in order to cater to the comps rep. To a certain degree I understand and even accepted this but don’t state you are open to traditional Bhangra. Last time I saw traditional Bhangra on that stage was when VCU coed performed or when Duniya All-stars brought a live set.

The Confetti, set up time, show order, teams practice slots, paper work and much more was all grey.

Just as the committee, teams work hard to put on a show. There needs to be more transparency and better communication. No hard feelings just some constructive feedback.

Amrinder

 

[Danny]

Watched FAUJ's video and man, straight fire...literally. As a bhangra fan, a routine like that not placing (especially at BBC) is kind of annoying. Looking forward to seeing some of these judging sheets and hopefully hearing from them as well. Congrats to NSG and FS, killed it!

Does anybody have DRPs video? I personally dig that style and think major props/set designs are a big plus, great way to stand out. As for the "HFD-ness" of it all you can hate all you want, but teams forget to realize that some of the best ideas in the past decade got filtered from Hip-Hop teams to HFD, then bastardized and beat to a pulp by us bhangra teams. Glad they stuck to what they do best.

It'll be really tough for teams applying to BBC next year. What the heck will your plan of attack be?

Go high energy, balls-to-the-walls but less risky - NSG
Clean, engaging but "fun'n'folk" - FS
Stunts, props, gimmicks-heavy (historically what BBC's known for) -DRP
or, IMHO a good combination of it all -FAUJ