Buckeye Bhangra @ Bhangra in the Burgh 10 & Aaj Ka Dhamaka

[KSTATLA]

BTF,


Here is Buckeye Bhangra's performance from Bhangra in the Burgh and AKD this year! Thanks to the Burgh Committee for a great weekend and congrats to AEG, FCB, and UNC for placing. Ya'll were crazy and we can't wait to see you guys next semester.


Quick shoutout to DJ HSD for making our mix, and to DJ BAAJ for making our dhamaal segment!


Burgh Front Balcony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCSBKiqm2Oc
Burgh Side Balcony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q00mtZaBNvk&feature=youtu.be
AKD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q2ngpEosPU&feature=youtu.be


Dancers:
Ferozi - Simer Singh & Suji Baskar
Black - Akash Patel & Chandni Shah
Red - Karambir Tatla & Sheena Kothari
Blue - Nimit Desai & Priyanka Ram
Pink - Ericpreet Singh & Manisha Nezhad
Yellow - Harshil Patel & Susmitha Varghese


Pls leave lots of critiques !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


- Karam

 

[sdadoo15]

After watching you guys at AKD I was completely blown away. You all did an amazing job taking the critiques from last year and putting them to use. Set flow was on point, and the stuff in your set that hit really hit hard. Also mix was 10 different levels of fire, so sick job HsD and Baaj!

One problem that I think is still evident in your sets that was also an issue last year is the lack of formations. I feel like a lot of your formations are revolving around red and blue jodis, and I may be wrong but it seems like you are trying to find out how to have these colors in front or near front for a lot of major drops. And these dancers are obviously amazing dancers but I think it really limits what you're able to do formationally. I'd suggest for future to try and rotate colors around a little more (it has improved since last year but could still be better), and maybe find the segment that each person enjoys the most and put them in/near the front for it if it works out. Choreo is beyond fire and I think if you start adding more movement in general it'll make it easier on all dancers overall and your sets will be among the best in the circuit.

 

[UmerQureshi96]

First off really solid performance. Glad that you guys finally took home the gold way to go. Nonetheless y’all have some work to do. Nimit I really love your creativity when it comes to some of the interesting variations you put in your set, but I’m glad that in comparison to last year you’ve toned it down. It really allows a viewer to appreciate 2 or 3 per segment rather than like 50 per segment all within a short period of time.


Intro
Holy shit this was hot super high energy, very powerful, very cool. I think right now it just needs that sync to really put it over the top. For example 1:17 during punjabs Nimit you’re the only one doing looks, that’s something that has to be set at practice. Same thing at 1:23 with those bent over claps, not all of you are hitting the 90. That’s something that can easily be fixed and it’d give off a much more unified routine.


Khunda
Again god damn this is so niceee. The first half is such a nice build up don’t change anything. Okay second song is what needs to be worked on. If you’re gonna do khunda tricks you have to be clean. I should be able to pause at any beat during the trick and all your khunda should be approximately the same position and right now they’re all over the place. And I this is just a personal pet peeve of mine but when you have you khunda on your shoulder and doing dhamaka or something, keep the angle of your khunda synced. I’m gonna call you out Karam because you do this all the time but most of your team has their khunda at a 45 and yours is parallel to the ground for some reason.


Saaps
I think this is a segment you might need to rework. Maybe this is just a personal thing but saap segments that I really like are super powerful and hard hitting. Right now I don’t think it’s doing much for you. Girls need to saap bigger. Y’all have white saaps and it’s really easy to tell when you aren’t saaping big, especially when all the guys are getting solid saap extensions the girls look like they’re dead because they aren’t getting them open. Also the drop at 3:34 there seems to be some spacing issues the yellow and black jodis are weirdly aligned. Also another thing I really don’t like is hunched backs on beitkes, makes you look small. It's an easy thing to fix but gives off a much better impression.


Jhoomer
4:05 my god Karam slap your thigh. Please actually place your hand on your thigh and do the thappi. K had to get that outta my system.
Choreo wise it was solid, but I just don’t think the drop hit. Execution wise it was one of you better segments as a team.


Phum
So choreo wise, I don’t quite like it but I can easily see someone really enjoying it so more up to the person judging. Sync wise I think this is another segment that could have been better received if you synced some things. On beat 2 at 4:40 yellow girl gets really into it and bends at a 90 but no one else is doing it making her seem way off. Same thing with random looks and angles everywhere. Another pet peeve of mine is chickens. Chickens should always be wrecked. If you’re gonna do a chicken drop do them right. Not trying to be mean but y’all look like you’re doing sexual acts to two dudes. If you need a reference do it like Akash as black jodi here
https://youtu.be/YwvGpLOgnI8?t=2m13s or like Sumeet (red/black jodi on the right) here https://youtu.be/qZhZquLEpCA?t=6m38s


Dhammal
Okay so in general I didn’t really like this, mainly because I just don’t think that drop was anything. But other than that black red ferozi yellow guys if you’re in the front trying to kill this don’t hunch your back on those beitkes it doesn’t look as powerful as it could be.


End
I don’t like it when teams take really unnecessary breaks. I don’t know why you turned off the lights. I don’t know if something was supposed to happen but that just seems to me as an attempt to hide a transition or take a breather. 6:11 okay yo if you’re gonna do barrel rolls, do them well there’s not a single beat during these rolls where more than four of you are facing the same direction. Either cut it or clean it up. Also I think across the board y’all need to work on stamina. Your end segment is intense and if only top jodis are remotely getting through it there’s a serious problem. Your facials also dropped as a whole. During the end segment I like to see the highest energy and facial expressions of the set, don’t look like you wanna be done with it.


Overall
Some segments probably need to be reworked. Start syncing angles, looks, and all those little things. It’s those little things that really set teams apart. Energy after the first half was really low and if with the set you all have, it has gotta improve. Nonetheless it was definitely fun to watch and a definitely one of the better collegiate sets I’ve seen.

 

[mrchicity]

First off, you guys really seem to like Skrillex, huh?


The good:
-Execution is for the most part really good, and choreo complexity is definitely there.
-You do a great job of framing exciting moments, which is definitely important for getting the crowd and judges into your performance


The bad:
-Learn how to hold khunde properly, most of you are holding them way too high, they should also be flat against your chest when you're holding them in
-Formations are a real let down, there isn't anything exciting about them. Imagine how much you would crush everyone if your formations and mechanisms were equal to your choreography.


Congrats on the first place at AKD, I remember judging you guys last year and you took a real step up.

 

[R_Sharma]

I've been a fan of Buckeye since your Burgh performance last year--was expecting y'all to take home a trophy at some point last year and I was surprised when it didn't happen. Glad you guys were able to start the season off with a first place!


(From the Burgh set)



Positives:

• I think you guys have some of the stronger individual dancers among collegiate teams right now, 1-12--your red and blue jodis are a lot of fun to watch (Nimit & Karam both have great stage presence). Also really appreciated yellow girl's energy throughout
• Your choreo has a loooooot of hot variations
• Intro through khunde was super hype
• The mix accentuates the routine really well so I wouldn't make many changes there
• Ishq tera tadpave segment is sooooo dope

Negatives:

• The negative of having a strong top 2 jodis is your formations and jodi rotations start to become really stagnant. I'm not saying you shouldn't stack your stage to have the best dancers front and center a lot but Red and Blue seemed to be always next to each other. Try switching it up and having them split up to be next to other jodis as well
• After the first 3ish minutes, the set lost a lot of its impact. When you start off with so much hype you are kind obligated to maintain that throughout and that didn't really happen
• The ending just didn't hit for me...seemed like a lot of unnecessary movement to keep getting back into two lines--wish there was more formationally here
• Energy/form dipped a lot as the set progressed--gotta keep working on the stamina
• Gotta stay realistic about what you can do--the barrel roll was a majoooor detractor from the routine in my eyes. If you guys had hit this it would have been awesome but almost everyones angles are different. If you can't clean it then you should definitely cut it.

Overall, you have a good set and good dancers--something thats not easy to have. Working on the small details and adding some more dynamic formations will take you a long way. Excited to see more from you guys next semester!

 

[Nimit]

Appreciate the feedback from all of you. Formations have been an Achilles heel for us for a while but we are working to try and pick it up for future sets. We really wanted to highlight choreography in this first semester and so I think formations became a bit of an after thought.

Completely get where everyone is coming from when talking about rotating dancers. A very valid critique and something I was fairly confident someone would point out. When designing the dance we tend to get nervous about who can kill what step in the front but I think that we will be better off spreading the love a little.

And as for the ending spins, sometimes risks don't pan out lol. It was Something that we have hit in practice but unfortunately didn't hit on stage.

Thanks once again for the feedback. I hope we will come out second semester with an even more entertaining set!

 

[Bajwa99]

I remember telling y'all that you're almost there you just have to take a couple steps forward last year. Look back only to see how far you've came. Couldn't be any more proud of the Buckeye Fam. Y'all are doing a lot of great things but there are definitely some negatives to work on, which i'm 100% sure will be fixed next semester.

Always here to help y'all in any way it may be.


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]If y'all want critiques definitely never hesitate to ask
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Much Love to the Buckeye Fam<3

Baaj

 

[Howie Magz]

[SIZE=small]Much improvement from last year in all honesty. You guys continue to get better every year. From a first place at AKD to one hell of a performance at Burgh my hats off to you guys thus far this year. However, there seems to be things that I have seen with your sets over the years that need to be addressed for you guys to become a huge threat in the circuit. I really like this set, but i will get into the nitty gritty of what I did not like about this set.[/SIZE]


Nimit (Pratik) and Karam y'all kill it as always, but you guys need to put some other dancers in the front too. Also the energy your team exhibits like I told UNC needs to be controlled. Going buck wild may appear to you that wow we are killing it, but from someone who knows bhangra and watching it, I would say that the dancer exhibiting this is out of control and not in sync with the teams energy level. I get it because I use to have the same problem until Sahab pointed it out last year and told me that it really didn't look good at all. Like I said. You are only as strong as your weakest dancer. There is nothing with going a little extra when you are dead center, but not going completely buck and sacrificing your form. Also your yellow girl is nasty man. Hella energy good nahkra and she should be in the front a lot more. Also I would say feature your girls more. All co-ed teams should start doing this. When I captained MBT last year with Sahab and Pratik we always tried our best to put the girls in the front a lot more. For blowout we brought all our girls to the front for ending because they had better energy than all the guys haha. You guys have some strong girls man work with them to make them better. They are all already pretty good as is.


The formations do not sell your choreo well. It appears that the blue and red jodi are always in the front at all times. I would rotate the dancers and put them to the front for segments you know they can murk it at. The formations are the biggest weak point for this team. They need to be more dynamic and involve a lot more movement that makes me want to say "woah where is that dancer moving?" From these formations I see that oh... that person is coming up now and its the same people over and over again. The introduction and the khunday segments were my favorite. I would keep those and fix the formations and work on making those better. The ending was hype. Having a strong beginning and ending is always a positive thing in my book.


Your saap segment needs to go. I honestly did not like a lot of it whatsoever. I would say that there are ideas in there that are great, but the execution of the saap segment was not there. Saap and khunday always has to be hype. If they aren't, your bhangra segments have to make up for it which it did in your case, but why not make everything amazing right?


Good job once again and I expect a lot from you guys moving forward guys. Karam, Eric, and Nimit keep up the good work dudes.

 

[Armaan Kapoor]

Great to keep seeing you guys improve each year and congrats on winning AKD, it was well overdue!


I'll keep it short because I think a lot of other people said most of the things I was thinking. But one main thing I think you guys need to do is slow down your set. Simply put, imo, there was a lot of times where things just didn't hit for me because execution wasn't there due to dancers not being able to keep up to the mix/not fully completing moves, spins not being in sync, etc which ultimately lead dancers to get tired. I think to take it to the next level, you guys need to slow down your set so you can execute it cleanly (it wasn't there for me at Burgh compared to UNC, AEG, and FCB) and revamp formations. The choreo and dancer quality is pretty much there - good luck and reach out if you have questions!

 

[naishp95]

First off, congrats on a strong start to the season! I've been following you all since burgh last year and every performance, you all seem to bring fire choreo and ideas to the table.


+ choreo complexity

• a lot of awesome choreo including but not limited to your first khunde song

+ intro segments (not purp lamborghini)

• your first two segments are super engaging (the first one is a little too fast for my taste, but it does the job)

+ overall energy level

• there were close to no dancers who were noticeably tired and everyone seemed to keep a huge smile on their face which is awesome
• however, there was close to no shoulders unless planned as part of the choreo...this is a crucial part of executing moves fully so I would work on this a lot since it's not easy to pick up

+ mix

• HsD killed it

+ sukhbir

• loved it, but it did go on for JUST a little too long...trim the fat maybe

- formations (if you didn't know already lol)
- control

• a lot of the energy put into this set is in the form of flaily arms and over the top body nakhre which really detracts from the performance since not everyone does it

- choreo fitting to the song

• this was one of the things that really bothered me...many times throughout the set there would be moves like the random foot tapping in jhummar or the 500x cock-back in jugni that just didn't fit imo; try and make sure all the variations you incorporate into the routine actually fit the song and don't seemed forced

- dancer rotation (also if you didn't already know)

• as many have said red and blue jodis with a lot more time than others...this doesn't mean you didn't highlight other colors because you did, but you need to even out the percentages so it doesn't seem like you're hiding dancers

- dynamic

• set is way too fast...there were many times during my first time watching where I was like, "what just happened"
• if you want to sell your dope choreo variations, you need to give the audience time to process it and not just have a go-go-go set (you did a great job of this in the first khunde song, which is why I think it hit so well)
• slower segments are harder to make look good so if you can execute it, it will only help
• all fast/hype makes nothing fast/hype

One big set-creation suggestion I have would be to make sure every segment has a purpose. Don't just add in a general song just to have it...have the segment showcase a particular strength of your team and give the audience a feeling of enjoyment. I always believe that if a team can make an audience member want to jump out of his/her seat and start dancing, they have succeeded. Theflow from segment to segment was pretty awesome in my opinion, definitely did not feel like I was watching segments just strung together so awesome job with that.[SIZE=78%]


I think you all have serious potential going into next semester, and it's great to see college teams giving independent teams actual competition. It's been a while since multiple college teams have brought the heat to compete with independent teams and hopefully we as a college sub-circuit can bring it this year.


[/SIZE]

 

[Shahrukh]

The khunda chaal is fire.

 

[Mr. Mankiran]

The khunda chaal is fire.

One of my fav khunda segments in a while

 

[Nimit]

Thanks again for the replies. I think in designing the set we may have been too fast and asked a bit too much of our dancers, but we also wanted to develop a distinct style. A powerful, exciting co-ed team that breaks the usual cutesy, collegiate mold.

I guess the major point is that a lot of this was intentional. Formations were made primely as a supplement to choreo as we tend to do a lot of things that are difficult to move drastically with. Set pace was kept high in order to artificially increase intensity and try and let people know that we can try and compete with an all guys team in terms of "hypeness."

All that being said, I think it is clear to see after taking a step back that in order for us to be competitive we need to start bringing the full package. You guys are doing a quality job pointing out that we are relatively one dimensional still and that is a good thing to realize early in the year. Thanks again and keep the critiques coming.

NOTE: Any judges we had at AKD and Burgh, feel free to post your judging critiiques here. I have no problem with our scoresheet or feedback being public as I'm sure others can learn how a set like ours is judged.

 

[Yesh]

NOTE: Any judges we had at AKD and Burgh, feel free to post your judging critiiques here. I have no problem with our scoresheet or feedback being public as I'm sure others can learn how a set like ours is judged.

This would be sweet if teams/judges posted rubrics/feedback

 

[naishp95]

I don't think teams even got sent feedback, let alone posted here haha

 

[Howie Magz]

We (AEG) got our feedback/scoring sheets via email today. Check yours dude. It was early this morning too.

 

[mafzal]

Holy moly this was sick!! So many creative twists and such an overall well crafted set. Your energy was beastly. I couldn't take my eyes off the video!

I loved the opening pose --> single chaffa jumps. So simple yet so sick and it really set the tone for the rest of the performance. Shykka opening at 3:01 was sick too...there was ton of really fresh choreo

I haven't read all the feedback you've already gotten but when I get a chance I'll see if I have anything to add

Congrats on AKD!

 

[Sawhill69]

Link to the mix?

 

[ericsingh3]

Link to the mix?

We'll post em at the end of the season! Glad you liked it tho!