Boston Bhangra - Looking for Judges

[Boston Bhangra]

To All:
We are currently looking for Bhangra judges for the Boston Bhangra Competition 2011. We have a handful of candidates already, but we're looking to add more credentialed individuals.
If you want to be a judge, please contact us @ info@bostonbhangra.com.

Several credentials that we look for:
1) Judges must be Punjabi
2) Judges must have past experience in dancing/teaching Bhangra
3) Judges must NOT be affiliated to any other Bhangra team

Sincerely,
Boston Bhangra, Inc

 

[faizan]

[font=verdana, sans-serif][/size][/font]

[font=verdana, sans-serif]Several credentials that we look for:
1) Judges must be Punjabi
2) Judges must have past experience in dancing/teaching Bhangra
3) Judges must NOT be affiliated to any other Bhangra team[/font]

[font=verdana, sans-serif][/font]
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[font=verdana, sans-serif]This will narrow the scope of your judges to traditional, clueless judges. [/font]
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[font=verdana, sans-serif]The third requirement is near impossible, and I would hold bb to task if ANY affiliation is found. (Pashi, Govind, Atinder, all punjabi, all with experience, all with affiliations, all disqualified from judging). [/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif][/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif]The decision on judges should be made on more general, common sense considerations based on good faith and a totality of the circumstances.[/font]

 

[yraparla]

Several credentials that we look for:
1) Judges must be Punjabi
2) Judges must have past experience in dancing/teaching Bhangra
3) Judges must NOT be affiliated to any other Bhangra team

This will narrow the scope of your judges to traditional, clueless judges.

The third requirement is near impossible, and I would hold bb to task if ANY affiliation is found. (Pashi, Govind, Atinder, all punjabi, all with experience, all with affiliations, all disqualified from judging).

The decision on judges should be made on more general, common sense considerations based on good faith and a totality of the circumstances.

I think they mean active? obviously it's paradoxical to ask for past dancing experience and ask for no team ties. I think they mean that you haven't danced with a team recently and are somewhat removed from the circuit

I personally don't understand the Punjabi requirement for Boston in particular. I do think it's really important in a judge fro certain comps, but BB doesn't strike me as a comp that particularly needs it. There are a ton of really experienced former dancers that are not Punjabi that could be great judges for BB

 

[sartajjudge]

I've been a Judge since December 24, 1988.

 

[sargam627]

I've been a Judge since December 24, 1988.

You've also been a moron since then.

 

[Nikhil]

Boston Bhangra, can you please explain this:

"1) Judges must be Punjabi"

What is your rationale?

 

[Boston Bhangra]

Clarifications:
1) We've always had Punjabi judges and want judges that can understand what they are watching. Words can make a difference and how teams potentially sing bolis are important to us as that is a value a team is presenting. Punjabi judges for the most part will pick up on that aspect. We might make exceptions here, but we've always had Punjabi judges and we don't plan on changing that at this point.
2) We want judges that are NOT affiliated with any current teams/organizations that could cause a bias. If they have been removed from the affiliation for at least 1 year, then we are open to talking to that individual.

Sincerely,
Boston Bhangra, Inc

 

[HarmanSingh]

[font=verdana, sans-serif][/size][/font]

[font=verdana, sans-serif]Several credentials that we look for:
1) Judges must be Punjabi
2) Judges must have past experience in dancing/teaching Bhangra
3) Judges must NOT be affiliated to any other Bhangra team[/font]

[font=verdana, sans-serif][/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif][/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif]This will narrow the scope of your judges to traditional, clueless judges. [/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif][/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif]The third requirement is near impossible, and I would hold bb to task if ANY affiliation is found. (Pashi, Govind, Atinder, all punjabi, all with experience, all with affiliations, all disqualified from judging). [/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif][/font]
[font=verdana, sans-serif]The decision on judges should be made on more general, common sense considerations based on good faith and a totality of the circumstances.[/font]

How do you come to the conclusion that a Punjabi judge with dancing experience who is not affiliated to a team right now will be "traditional and clueless"?

This is a good decision by Boston, at least one judge should know what the teams are dancing to/if a singer's pronunciation is correct/have a deep understanding of smaller things that are lost on non-Punjabi speaking judges. A lot of gimmicks now days play to songs, a non-Punjabi speaking judge would have difficulty understanding what the significance of that gimmick is.

 

[Apna_Virsa]

I've been a Judge since December 24, 1988.

You've also been a moron since then.

jokes.

 

[Multani]

Clarifications:
1) We've always had Punjabi judges and want judges that can understand what they are watching. [SIZE=small]Words can make a difference and how teams potentially sing bolis are important to us as that is a value a team is presenting. [/SIZE]Punjabi judges for the most part will pick up on that aspect. We might make exceptions here, but we've always had Punjabi judges and we don't plan on changing that at this point.

Exactly

 

[dheerja]

Clarifications:
1) We've always had Punjabi judges and want judges that can understand what they are watching. Words can make a difference and how teams potentially sing bolis are important to us as that is a value a team is presenting. Punjabi judges for the most part will pick up on that aspect. We might make exceptions here, but we've always had Punjabi judges and we don't plan on changing that at this point.

Sincerely,
Boston Bhangra, Inc

So are you open to non-Punjabi judges who are fluent in Punjabi? And what about Punjabi judges that don't actually speak Punjabi? These days you find a lot in either category.

 

[faizan]

well, if it's only 1 year removed, then i take my statement back...there are tons of good judges for you guys to pick...I think the judge should understand punjabi fluently, not BE PUNJABI necessarily...punjabi fluency is key, not punjabi origin.


and harman, i stand by my statement. There are like 2 judges i can think of who are credible and not backwards traditionalists that are 1. punjabi, 2. completely unaffiliated and 3. who have danced or taught bhangra in the past. But i'm sure the judges i consider to be backwards traditionalists are your favorite...and honestly man, that's fine, but you need to stop your hard-on for me bro. i get it, you think i'm wrong a lot, but you are the only person on btf who consistently tries to look for holes in everything i say, that's cool and all, but it's also kind of stalkerish and weird...

 

[HarmanSingh]

well, if it's only 1 year removed, then i take my statement back...there are tons of good judges for you guys to pick...I think the judge should understand punjabi fluently, not BE PUNJABI necessarily...punjabi fluency is key, not punjabi origin.


and harman, i stand by my statement. There are like 2 judges i can think of who are credible and not backwards traditionalists that are 1. punjabi, 2. completely unaffiliated and 3. who have danced or taught bhangra in the past. But i'm sure the judges i consider to be backwards traditionalists are your favorite...and honestly man, that's fine, but you need to stop your hard-on for me bro. i get it, you think i'm wrong a lot, but you are the only person on btf who consistently tries to look for holes in everything i say, that's cool and all, but it's also kind of stalkerish and weird...

lol when was the last time I even said anything to you? please, look through my posts and find the last topic I said anything about your arguments. There may be a handful of threads where we have even interacted. I just don't agree with a lot of your thinking and the message board is exactly for that- discussion. It is funny that when someone challenges your ideas you tend to want to stop the discussion and move on.

Also, I don't even know what a "backwards traditionalist" judge means.

 

[campy614]

Lol I'm a non-Punjabi captain and even I'm not offended by all of this.

To me-as a captain of a bhangra team-I'm going to want at least one judge who understands Punjabi (whether he/she's actually Punjabi or not-I don't care). As a non-Punjabi captain, it takes me extra work of either looking online to translate verses in a Punjabi-English dictionary or repeatedly asking all of my dancers to help translate verses so that this way I can choreograph accordingly. THIS TAKES A LOT OF WORK!!! I want my work to be recognized at least by one of the judges. I don't necessarily care about the placings, but I want at least one of the judges to think and recognize that the gimmicks and little extra pieces I put into our routine all make sense. At least one judge should be able to comprehend the WHOLE picture as well the dance itself.

I don't necessarily take offense to my lack of qualification for judging bhangra. Every team should have an opportunity to be judged by people who understand the language and the culture-as well as the dance itself. I'm fine with this.

 

[mafzal]

Exactly how do you define being Punjabi? Must be born in the state of Punjab, India... both parents raised in Punjab (India and Pakistan btw? An enourmous portion of the Pakistani population is punjabi speaking)... Having a Punjabi last name? Self-identification... what?

 

[Saab]

To All:
We are currently looking for Bhangra judges for the Boston Bhangra Competition 2011. We have a handful of candidates already, but we're looking to add more credentialed individuals.
If you want to be a judge, please contact us @ info@bostonbhangra.com.

Several credentials that we look for:
1) Judges must be Punjabi
2) Judges must have past experience in dancing/teaching Bhangra
3) Judges must NOT be affiliated to any other Bhangra team

Sincerely,
Boston Bhangra, Inc

1) At least one judge should be punjabi, I dont know about the board. I can't understand punjabi, but I understand the relevance of gimmicks. You just have to listen to the crowd(they go wild). Gimmicks shouldn't be measured by there relevance to the lyrics, but on crowd effect. Every judge judges with that somewhat in mind(usually this goes hand-in-hand). I can see where it might be necessary song selection, but I dont see this as a competition favor live boliyan or live teams.

2)Nice. This is a huge plus. You should also consider the relevancy of when they danced(Captain of College team, 1967-1971 Polytechnical St. Marys College whatever whatever) and there views of past topics of relevance(OMG WOMEN DANCE...OMG OMG OMG) and newer topics(I saw that gimmick before. Comparing all-guy vs all girl(OMG THEY DANCE) vs coed).

3) This is slightly ridiculous. I commend you for trying, but by asking btf, your asking a group of people who have danced within the past four years or are affiliated with some team in that time span. You would have had better results on craigslist. There are VERY few people here that could fill all three, as this place not only pulls people together, but your already exposed to prior team content. Have you seen rosters these days? There are like 29 people on them from 6-7 different teams, and potentially 2-3 countries.


What I am taking from this is not that your asking BTF, but are rather telling us thats what your looking forward and are trying to get. Honestly, there might be the odd lurker here who MIGHT be able to fill your request....

On a side note, all the "Great" bhangra dancers from back in the past are usually associated with some academy, or get asked to guest teach. Established teams usually use these resources. So even if you wanted to get the dude doing 64 beats of jugni and in that grimy youtube video from '69, hes probably apart of some academy too.

Good luck.

 

[faizan]

It must be all in my head! How silly of me!

It is funny that when someone challenges your ideas you tend to want to stop the discussion and move on.

When that "someone" is you, for sure, i definitely don't wanna bother, and definitely do wanna move on because I understand it's coming from somewhere other than your mere desire to discuss (which everyone's favorite b.s. justification for their actions to on btf). I could spend the six more minutes it would take to respond to your misunderstandings and queries, but I choose not to, not because I can't. Don't think it's because I can't.

 

[Saab]

Exactly how do you define being Punjabi? Must be born in the state of Punjab, India... or both parents raised in Punjab (and India or Pakistan? An enourmous portion of the Pakistani population is punjabi speaking)...? Having a Punjabi last name? Self-identification... what?

Probably the understanding of the spoken word is what they are going for. That, or you can add "Touchiing a punjabi in the past 24 hours" or "What if you sing moorni over and over again?"

 

[mafzal]

Have you seen rosters these days? There are like 29 people on them from 6-7 different teams, and potentially 2-3 countries.

LOL so true, rosters are gettin crazy these days

On a side note, all the "Great" bhangra dancers from back in the past are usually associated with some academy, or get asked to guest teach. Established teams usually use these resources. So even if you wanted to get the dude doing 64 beats of jugni and in that grimy youtube video from '69, hes probably apart of some academy too.

LOLLLL

 

[faizan]

Saab bhai, the organizer already mentioned that the dancer must be 1 year removed from dancing in order to have no conflicts of interest. 1 year is fair. It keeps out the current dancers, and recently retired, but keeps in the good judges who stopped dancing or being strongly affiliated with any one team. Like govind, pashi, etc.