CMU Bhangra - BIB (Burgh) & BBC (Boston) Performances [VIDEOS]

[Sid]

Below are videos from our performance at Boston Bhangra Competition 2014 & Bhangra In the Burgh 2014.

We all really had a great time at Boston. Huge thanks to Rohit for putting in so much time and heart into this competition, year after year. Shoutout to Saatvik and Shivani for helping us out.
Big ups to hometown crew First Class Beats (Amar & Ram) for a nasty mix and for working with us throughout the process.
Lastly I want to callout our alumni for constantly having our back with feedback and support.

Dholi: Tejasvir Singh Rekhi

Yellow:
Sid Sethi & Shahana Ganesharajah
Shubhit Singh & Shalini Ray [Boston]
Shubhit Singh & Harpreet Gill [Burgh]

Pink:
Shreepal Shah & Udgeetha Mallampalli
Vijay Iyengar & Sowmya Yennam

Blue:
Ankur Toshniwal & Kate Apostolou
Akshay Nanavati & Tias Sen

Mela dancers [Boston]:
Kyle Gheewala, Harpreet Gill, & Tanya Talwar

BIB GTV vid: CMU Bhangra @ Bhangra In The Burgh 8 (2014)

BBC HQ Balcony view (BEST VIEW): CMU Bhangra at BBC 2014 Balcony View
(courtesy of Hardeep)

BBC Balcony view: CMU Bhangra BBC 2014

BBC Side view: CMU Bhangra at BBC 2014

If anyone has a better vid, definitely hit me up.

I welcome any and all feedback - positive and negative. Feel free to post here or hit any of us up privately.


On the topic of feedback - I've already heard from several people including the judges that the ending jumps were off. We actually intended for the jumps to be staggered. It was a risk, and clearly did not pay off as no one understood the effect.
That said, please share your thoughts, and I hope you enjoy!

Cheers,
Sid


******EDIT - ADDED BIB GTV VIDEO******* 10/11

******EDIT - ADDED NEW HQ VIDEO*******

 

[AmanKansal]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

wish i was there to see this live, i heard y'all had the audience floored with this performance. sid and shubhit - congrats on an awesome and entertaining set, it's so obvious how much time you guys put into this all year.


one thing i absolutely love about CMUs sets are how well they use their talented roster. it seems that almost every person has an individual/jodi highlight that i can point to from memory. examples - pink jodi to pick up saaps and at 2:20ish, blue girl for kunde lehriyaan, ankur for main nikla (muuurdered it btw), etc. from 1-12, y'all have one of the most, if not the most, balanced roster and it makes for a really beautiful performance as a team.


best parts imo were the props segments. great command on both saaps and kunde really allows you guys to be fluid and have powerful choreo. thought you guys built up well for each of the four songs, i can remember what you did on each of those drops (with your first kunde drop being my favorite). energy as usual, on point through the end. ending jumps were a risk, but just gets me excited for the shit you're gonna come up with for next sem


congrats again on an amazing performance! hope we get to see you guys this spring semester, too much fun last time. and if not...carnival.

 

[AmanKansal]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

also...shreepal at 6:14 in the side view holy shit awesome

 

[shubhitms]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Thanks for the review Aman. Appreciate your thoughts. Can't wait to chill with you guys next semester!

 

[Saab]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Thanks for the review Aman. Appreciate your thoughts. Can't wait to chill with you guys next semester!

I see you shubhit.



Great performance - progression from burgh to boston was huge. Props to all the CMU guys/gals - much love.

 

[shahrj]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

I only watched the balcony view so can't judge individual dancers very well but as a team this set blew me away. Incredibly creative and honestly not a single dull moment, props to whoever does choreo/formations for you guys because this is the most refreshing co-ed set I've seen in a while and probably more entertaining than the majority of performances I've seen this year. Keep doing what you guys do, always been a fan of CMU and the intricacy of your performances is consistently on another level!

 

[sumeetj]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

very few co-ed teams have the ability to perform a set so full of energy and hype - thank you for continuing to be one of the few teams on the circuit that does this and hasn't reverted to the "ballet bhangra" that has plagued the circuit, especially the coed teams.

formations were really good and engaging - the changes you made from burgh to here were very nice additions to set.

sid/shubhit you guys make a boss jodi, both of your amazing dharis plus being big guys in general gives you awesome presence on stage. you keep up great energy in the entire set and it looks like you are leading the team really well.

shreepal is probably one of the most explosive dancers ive seen - i feel like not many people can pull off the air time he gets on bethke and such whilst staying on beat, but he somehow is still dancing clean at the same time.

ankur you killed your solo and energetic as always

i think in terms of things you guys could make better:

emphasize your pink jodis flip into the saap segment - if this was a semi-last minute add i understand changing mix up a tiny bit just to showcase it would be tough, but for next time. it looks like the lighting kept them slightly in the dark too unfortunately.

i think few coed teams can do powerful jhummar choreo as well as you guys - perhaps the "lovey" part of your jhummar can be "bouncier" or "poppier" and not as flowy just because i think it will set you guys further apart. twirling the girl and all that look nice but i think you guys can incorporate it in a way and with some creativity that will make that segment stick out more for you, it seemed a little more generic than alot of the other segments in your set

id get rid of the criss cross legs in saaps and the between the legs claps at end - though tons of teams have done these move variations now, i still think you guys can come up with stuff that doesn't even look slightly derivative. it would be simple fixes that would just multiply your authenticity.

oh your khundey breakdown with tejas walking down the center looked sick as hell. like you need to find a solid picture of that because it looked amazing. tejas looked epic.

 

[aaarti]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

I've been a big fan of you guys and was so I was super excited to finally watch you live! That said, this performance blew me away. All your dancers are incredibly good imo. That combined with creative choreo + exciting stage movement and clearly a very well thought out set with multiple awesome moments in every segment, make for an amazing performance to watch. Few things that stood out to me:

• Hyerextended saap on shoulders was cool
• Movement was awesome. I especially loved in khunde where guys run to one side and then girls run to the other (3:19 in side vid) Actually, I loved all of the khunde segment
• Jugni drop was dope. I liked that the jugni song was 'me nikla o gadi leke', led nicely into the next segment. Also, loved that song choice, it was so fun
• [font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]So much power at 6:14 in side video![/font]
• The staggered jumps didn't register to me at the time, but props for trying something different

Congrats on an incredible performance and hope to see you guys again!!

 

[Sid]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Aman - My brotha. Thanks for the love. Next time we're at a comp together .... yes. Can't wait.

Raj - Thank you so much man. That's some very high praise and it really means so much to have our work recognized and appreciated.

Sumeet - Thanks for the feedback homes. Love you sacchi.

emphasize your pink jodis flip into the saap segment - if this was a semi-last minute add i understand changing mix up a tiny bit just to showcase it would be tough, but for next time. it looks like the lighting kept them slightly in the dark too unfortunately.

Yeah the lighting did not match our cues for this part, which really took away from the impact.


Aarti - Thank you for listing out which parts of the set hit hard for you. It'll be very helpful when we tweak the set for future.

 

[Mr. Mankiran]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Based off of watching all the vids (and being a little biased to co-ed teams), I really feel you guys should've placed.


Formations and choreo were top notch for a collegiate team. Saap segment was very nice. With regards to the jumps at the end, I caught the effect and actually really liked it (I didn't read the disclaimer about how people thought it was off before watching the video). Khunde segment was refreshing. Very athletic dance and every dancer did a great job - regardless of who the stronger dancers on the team were, you could not really tell. Very high energy start to finish which I think is VERY important for collegiate teams.


The only thing I didn't like was the short chaal/jugni segment and the song choice for that particular portion of the dance. Dude in red got hella low though lol.


Honestly, fav BBC set and overall set for this academic season thus far (maybe tied with furteelay BBC).

 

[Sid]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Finally HQ vid from balcony: CMU Bhangra at BBC 2014 Balcony View
Thank you Hardeep.


Mankiran - I'm very happy to see that you enjoyed our performance so much and rank it so highly. And also glad that you were able to catch the ending jumps effect.

 

[nkrishnan]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Thought this was awesome, agree about all the jodis having some highlight in this set. Seeing you guys in Boston also agree about the major improvements. Highlight for me was that jugni drop, the pink jodi went crazy. I think the daang run was much cleaner this time too since you split it up into two groups. I personally wasn't a huge fan of the ending jumps split, but everything else was fire excited to see what you guys do thi year

 

[dkaks]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

I've been a huge fan since BATB 2013 and this is yet another top notch performance from you guys, CMU gets robbed placings-wise at too many comps. I see a bunch of new dancers too, props for maintaining a high level. Everyone has already said it, but you guys dance with a level of energy and hypeness that is impressive to see from a co-ed team, across the board you have strong guys and girls and it is a pleasure to watch. Shoutout to Shreepal, mixer team 7!


Just a few comments:
For saaps, yall hit hard with choreo and execution, only thing I'd love to see is some more dynamic formations here to take advantage of movement using the whole stage.
Jhummar was probably the only segment that didn't feel like it had something strong and distinctive to make it feel like CMU, you guys still executed it well, it could just use a little something extra.
At 6:42, I think the you guys could have benefited from a more pronounced drop in the music.
Personally, I LOVED the staggered jumps at the end, I thought it was creative and it definitely isn't easy. I'm a little confused that anyone would tell you that they were "off". Clearly they were on the offbeat but it was also clearly by design seeing as you had two separate lines of guys and girls doing it. I'd hate to see you guys completely abandon it, my suggestion would be to maybe not put it right at the end (because people expect jumps there and most judges aim to find the people who are off) or to change the formation for it. I think if the stagger was a left stage group and a right stage group as opposed to a front and back line it would be much more evident.
Finally, part of it is that I've watched your sets before, but I'd just keep an eye out for where you guys repeat things. You guys have done cartwheels before in your sets which is dope and I loved that you upped it at the beginning by grabbing the saaps, but you guys have done cartwheels with khunde and cartwheels into the rotational segment (realizing now that I don't know what that's called...damn). Although here you guys combine the khunde and the rotational segment which is different, my point is just that cartwheels are pretty distinctive so I'd avoid doing it multiple times in a set (I prefer the saap one). Also, you guys did the nakhre walk in saaps and in ending, they both look dope but again I'd avoid repeating things.


Feel free to take or leave my comments! Either way, you guys definitely deserved to place IMO and I can't wait to see what CMU does next semester!


-Derek

 

[kman58]

Re: CMU Bhangra - Boston Bhangra Competition [VIDEO]

Sid, this was a hot set, I don't want to reiterate anything people have already said, but I wanna make a note that I did NOT expect you guys to pull off those staggered jumps so well in the end, especially with having just busted through an entire set. I agree with Derek, you can definitely make it pop more by doing Left/Right groups, but all in all it's an awesome effect. Great job guys, surprised you didn't place, but you've set yourselves up for success down the road!

 

[Sid]

CMU Bhangra - Bhangra in the Burgh 2014 GTV vid: CMU Bhangra @ Bhangra In The Burgh 8 (2014)


Details in top post of this thread.


Thank you Harjot!

 

[KironMizanur]

I'm from Bangladesh and i approve of the song 8)
I don't know which one is my favourite now... CMU @ WBBC or BIB :
Anyway, my dad likes bhangra and you guys know because you used main nikla gaddi leke ;D

Any plans on firstclassbeats releasing the mix soon? <<<i need it asapppppppppppppppppppp

One thing i'd like to point out to you guys is that you seem a bit too relaxed at some points when doing the set, stopping for things like tape stuck to your toe (i think) or missing betkes for ankle supports falling out of the chadre? (i think)
Set was amazing, roster full of amazing talent, just remember that whether it be an exhibition perfomance, gig, or a competing set; always give your best and don't get easily distracted by things e.g mentioned above!

then again, allow me if i'm bullshitting again because safety comes first