Prabhzy said:
I hope that was an exhibition act.. cause WTF did i just see.
1. The main guys were good, but i dont know what the purpose was of the guys with alternative vardiyan. They seemed like beginners and had very little coordination and sync with the main guys. If it was just to give them exposure then fair play but this was deffo not a competing performance.
2.Too many pointless gimmicks and who was the guy in the monkey suit ???
3. i know Cornell are a modern team but why so little bhangra songs in the mix?
Sorry to say it was a downward spiral after watching WBBC
Going to respond to all your points
- This was an exhibition act made in one week. In case you didn't know, Cornell puts on Pao Bhangra, and it just had its 13th year! Cornell hosts the exhibition teams, and puts on an all guys performance, an all girls performance, an alumni performance, and a mixed team performance (which is usually similar to the team's competitive set). So, not only was this an exhibition act, but all the performances were exhibition acts.
1) You're right, many of the dancers in the performance are beginners. Cornell Bhangra usually consists about ~30 dancers, even though we usually compete with 12. Pao is an awesome opportunity for our newer dancers to get awesome stage exposure (Pao audience is comparable to the biggest South Asian Dance shows in North America), as well as perform in front of their own professors, peers, friends, and family. Once again, you're right, this was definitely not a competitive performance.
2) Haha - this performance is almost solely gimmicks - and it's 100% intentional. Whether we like it or not, we've realized that our specific Cornell audience responds favorably to entertainment value, and in this case, it is often gimmicks that they can find funny, or exciting, or cool! It's difficult for them to appreciate bhangra choreography, intricate formations, folk segments, etc. We love to entertain our audience, and that's just what we did. Many Cornell students came up to us saying how they absolutely loved this performance, and how they were screaming the whole time. So, to clarify - all of this was on purpose. This entertainment value could be one of the reasons why Pao's audience numbers are growing every year, and it's the biggest show on our campus, and why other shows that don't embrace this concept might have diminishing numbers (whether we like it or not) - just a thought. The Monkey is Pikachu, a popular animated character from the show Pokemon, and played by Abhishek Goel, a first year dancer from Maryland. He helped immensely with the show, and we honored that by giving him such a hilarious moment on stage!
3) Sure, lets base this off the premise that Cornell is modern. The reason why we had such little bhangra music is related to the above point. We've noticed the trend that students at our school respond greatly to us dancing to music they can related to - the audience gets more into it and in general is much happier. It's true - it's unfortunate that the normal, American person can't completely appreciate traditional punjabi music all the time, but this is the case; we do our best to get them interested in the art form, and for that, we make concessions.
From your perspective, this was a downward spiral from WBBC. It's formations were simpler, it was less traditional for sure, it was MUCH messier as it was prepared in 1 week, and more than half the dancers had no competition experience. However, from the perspective of audience members at Pao, many of them told us they enjoyed this performance the most of the entire night (and the Co-Ed team performed the WBBC set at the end of the show). It's important (to us at least) to know your audience, and adapt to that.
Obviously there is a balance to this which we are still striving to achieve. How do you entertain someone who is not innately entertained by traditional bhangra, while maintaining traditional elements - what's the perfect balance? This is another discussion to be had.
Regardless, I hope this sheds light on the background of this performance, and Pao in general.
Much love,
Anik
