I said this in the Blowout thread, and I'm going to say it again. It is amazing what you can do when your entire board has dance experience (preferably bhangra experience but obviously that isn't always feasible). I wasn't a captain so I can't speak on all the pre-comp or judging stuff, but the weekend overall was extremely well-run and probably one of the best competitions I have ever attended. Props to Kuntal, Iffy, Sumeet, and the rest of CIA and Champs Board for throwing such an amazing comp. Any dancer in attendance could tell you they thought about every detail from start to finish.
Hotel: very, very nice hotel and our rooms were decorated with gear and lots of snacks which was nice. Only downside of this was that it wasn't a very ideal location with regards to the venue (was about a 15-minute car ride).
Mixer: DOPE venue. If it wasn't pouring rain, there was an outside patio area that would've been awesome to hang around in. There was self-serve Indian food, don't need to say much more about that. Mixer overall was very smooth as well, and the games they chose were fun and engaging. I personally wasn't a fan of the way they did lineup, and prefer just normal double-blind methods for randomization sake. They had this system where the winners of the games chose a random lineup spot first, and if they liked their spot they could keep it. If they didn't like it, they could pick one more time but they would have to keep that spot. It made it intense, but again I think random spots are just easier and fairest. Props for thinking outside of the box on this though.
Post-mixer practice: They had spots directly at the venue for some teams, and elsewhere for others. I think they had it where teams got the spot based on show order, so the teams with earlier tech times got to practice first, which was nice. The spot itself was alright, but any spot is better than none so no complaints there.
**I didn't really know where to put this but Kuntal (one of the directors) sat down with each team and went over their lighting cues specifically, since he was the one running the lights during the show. I thought this was really cool because it allowed teams to tell him what exactly they wanted, and since he obviously knows a lot about bhangra sets he could make those requests happen flawlessly.
Venue: Very interesting and atypical venue for a bhangra competition. It was in an arena and they set the stage up on the floor and put curtains around it and a backdrop in the back. The audience sat in line with the stage and extended pretty high upwards, which was nice as a dancer because it forced you to look up. Also nice for the audience cause you could see formations really well. However, I am not sure I liked the venue compared to a normal performing arts center (not sure if this was the top choice or a last resort). We didn't have a great space at the venue to get ready, as only some of the teams got rooms to get ready in, so we had to get ready in a pretty poorly-ventilated hallway under the stage. The stage itself was a little hard on the knees, but nothing terrible.
One of the issues with the venue was that it had a lot of windows, and since the show started when it was still light out, no one really had the option for blackouts or major lighting effects. Further, I wasn't able to watch but from what I heard, some of the earlier teams had to perform as the sun was setting, and it was shining into the venue, whereas later teams didn't have this issue. It doesn't seem like a big deal but from what I heard the venue got pretty humid during the earlier teams. Again, not sure if this venue was first choice or last resort, but a normal performing arts center may have been a better move.
Afterparty: They hosted it in the ballroom of the hotel which was awesome since we were right there. Overall, it was a pretty solid afterparty except the ballroom was split between under and over 21, and the over section ended up being full while the under section was completely empty. I'm sure they had their reasoning for it, and at the end of the day I would take this over clubs where you may or may not get in.
Judges: Again, I can't speak about the pre-comp or post-comp meetings, but I thought it was really cool how they had three levels of judges (lower, middle, upper). Each judge had a rubric specific to where they were sitting, and it allowed them as a panel to assess every detail of the performances. I've always been a fan of setups like this and hope more competitions try to emulate this if possible.
Liaisons: Our liaisons were phenomenal. All the liaisons either had some prior dance experience or went through some intense training, because it really showed that they all knew exactly what was up and what they were supposed to be doing. I felt like they were there anytime I had questions, and they were constantly asking if we needed anything and offering to help. Definitely the best liaison group as a whole that I have experienced.
Overall, extremely well-run weekend. It is hard to describe, but it was very obvious that every committee member had the teams' best interests at heart. Anytime I passed a committee member, they were always asking if we needed anything and it made dancing significantly easier. I really really hope (and urge) that more teams buy into this system and work to get a spot in the lineup because this could definitely turn into something special. Huge S/O again to the committee.
I do suggest that Champs try to change their point system slightly, however. It seems that currently, attending more smaller competitions and winning is an easier way to gain points than winning one large competition. The original lineup, in my opinion, wasn't a true championship lineup (compared to Elite 8 for example) and it seemed that a lot of the wild card teams were stronger teams (most were wild card since they only competed once). I think the current system, with some minor amends, would work well for this circuit, just to better cater to teams that either can't afford, or simply don't, compete as often. After all, there is nothing wrong with competing once a year if you put your all into that one performance.
