***CORNELL BHANGRA @ WBBC 2014 - FIRST PLACE***

[J-Skeet]

I'm very proud that you were able to compile all of your critiques into a nice and concise bulleted list. I enjoyed reading your composition and look forward to reading future, maturely worded comments from you.


Thanks.

lol

 

[yomamajama]

Man that guy at the end in the white vardiya who does that quick-upper body twerk type dance always kills it, can't stop watching the ending

 

[boparaii17]

lol

 

[siddyp]

Cornell, you know I love you guys so this is coming from a place of genuine "I want to see you guys get better" Here's what I think you missed and had an effect on why you didn't place at other comps:

I might be repeating what has already been said, but its the 'dancing.' NOT the style of dancing, but choreography and flow. If you designed a routine that flowed better, I think you'd dominate like it was nobody's business.

I applaud you for playing to the rubric. It doesn't matter what opinions folks hold. It's the playing field that is set by the competition.

But where you didn't place, I actually don't think you played to the rubric the way you did WBBC.

I'll PM you more info. Or have an actual personal conversation at a later time...

 

[Sue Sylvester]

Quick comment for your team outside the scope of this performance and competition.

Personal appreciation for team members and thanking them is best conveyed through actions (like throwing a good-bye party or gifting them a Chia Pet), and then through spoken words (like giving a toast at said good-bye party with said words of adoration), and then through phone calls, then through texting, then through GroupMe, then through SnapChat, then through Twitter (#StartedFromTheBottom #ButNowMyWholeTeamHere), then through a PicStitch posted on Instagram, then through a Facebook status, then through the Acknowledgement section on your Master thesis and finally, on an online forum like BTF.

I know you guys have a great dynamic as a team, but in my opinion, the PDA is tacky and hints at insecurities. You'll get a better response from the circuit without it. Just something to think about for the new team next year. And Anik, I shall see you in Boston soon. (*cough* eClinicalWaris vs. AthenaDiShaan *cough*)

 

[kazminaut]

I'm very proud that you were able to compile all of your critiques into a nice and concise bulleted list. I enjoyed reading your composition and look forward to reading future, maturely worded comments from you.


Thanks.

Man, even after he removed all traces of whatever y'all were complaining about from him, you're gonna be patronizing and rude? Substance-wise, Psant didn't say anything that a lot of others haven't also said about your routine; you Cornell folks just don't like that he's the dude saying it.

I've been hyped about Cornell for years now (the Chili Pepper mix is still my damn ringtone) cause you consistently bring amazing entertainment to the stage. But it's an entirely fair critique to call a performance repetitive and self-indulgent, if that's what it is, and come on...y'all had a surprise breakdance schtick at Blowout two years ago (which, let's be real, kicked all sorts of ass), and you're mad that someone's calling you out on it?

I thought you killed it at WBBC. But it was gimmick-heavy, it was stop-and-go, it wasn't as strong in terms of dancing ability and uniformity...you can kick ass and be entertaining and kill the show and be the nicest, most loving, big-hearted team around and still deliver a flawed performance. No need to hop down a dude's throat just cause he interrupted your Cornell love circlejerk with some honest criticism.

 

[VD]

Armaan absolutely destroyed it. Congratulations guys! Can't wait to see what you bring next.

 

[Mals718]

No need to hop down a dude's throat just cause he interrupted your Cornell love circlejerk with some honest criticism.

I personally felt that Psant's bulleted list was actually pretty helpful and I appreciated receiving his criticisms in that form rather than in a more aggressive manner that I have seen people post in across BTF many a time. That being said, I am well aware of people who have a different style of dishing out criticism and it is what it is. All we can do is take it in stride and try to extract the useful bits of information.


At the same time it is so tiring to see people continually jumping to the conclusion that we are not capable of receiving criticism. BTF is meant for discussion and discussion is a two-sided game. It's just too easy for someone to say blah blah oversensitive blah blah can't handle criticism, etc. after someone stands up for their side of the story. Not many human beings will be criticised and then just sit back and take it, rather they will stand up for themselves which hopefully sparks a healthy discussion. I personally really do appreciate the criticism and I do understand most of the perspectives that people are presenting and I definitely do feel that I have found many things that I can really work on after reading these posts, so thank you all very much for that.

However, simply repeating the same things over and over that we can't handle criticism and that our set wasn't that good/shouldn't have placed, etc. isn't constructive. WBBC is over and the judges decided that we were the winners (their completed rubrics can be found on another post and is pretty insightful, if you haven't seen it already!) and saying that we didn't deserve it doesn't change anything and is certainly not helpful to us as a team looking to improve. If you are really interested helping us and giving us constructive criticism it might be better to just send more detailed critiques in a private message to our captain, Anik, which he would then translate to us in a way that would help us improve, but that's just my feeling on the matter.

All said and done, I'd like to thank everyone who has watched our video/s and has taken the time to post their likes and dislikes of our set. It's obviously not perfect and yes we maybe did "recycle" previous gimmicks, but at the end of the day we had the time of our lives performing it to an audience of over 1000 people who loved it and in the end, isn't that all we want as performers? That's at least what I live for as a dancer!!

 

[Armaan Kapoor]

Thank you everyone who has given constructive criticism so far. We truly appreciate your thoughts!

Prashant, we know you're a smart guy and know how to analyze a set - you in fact have brought up valid points in our previous sets that we have taken into consideration. As others have stated, there's a better way to do so, and I'll leave it that.

Let's move forward with constructive criticism and disregard video angles and harsh-call outs - tell us what you liked about our set and what you didn’t like about our set. Be specific! That is, don’t just say you’re not a fan of our set or style – tell us what worked and didn't work!

Thank you to those who have personally messaged Anik, Taisu, and I regarding their thoughts on our set. Feel free to PM me with any other thoughts you'd rather not post online.

On a lighter note, watch 6:10 - 8:30 of this video. Anik is the funniest man I know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1kdkkT4wso

-Armaan

 

[hsdeol]

great job cornell. i thought energy/enthusiasm was solid but choreography was lacking. The gimmicks really carried this routine and ended up being the only things i remember from the set (which is a bit of a problem when you think about a bhangra team's performance being remembered for pulling confetti out of their kurtha sleeves instead of dancing). I would like to see as much creativity in the choreo as the gimmicks and i think by doing this your set will have a much more complete and universal impact.

More comments (dont know if you guys are competing anymore this season or not):
Saap segment needs to be cleaned a bit,
jhummar was awkward
1 of 12 of your dancers bounced shoulders <-- try to get people bouncing!

Overall i think you guys had a great performance at WBBC and an amazing season. Ive been seeing Cornell all over the place this year and have seen you guys get stronger with each performance. This is definitely a group that is driven both by their love for bhangra and the competitive spirit of the circuit, and **********

 

[jfried]

And Anik, I shall see you in Boston soon. (*cough* eClinicalWaris vs. AthenaDiShaan *cough*)

World's Best EMR Vendor Bhangra Crew doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?


Sleep on BhangraEPIC at your peril. Only a matter of time before KLAS releases a "Best in KLAS Bhangra Crew" category for us to win.

 

[Anik915]

And Anik, I shall see you in Boston soon. (*cough* eClinicalWaris vs. AthenaDiShaan *cough*)

World's Best EMR Vendor Bhangra Crew doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?


Sleep on BhangraEPIC at your peril. Only a matter of time before KLAS releases a "Best in KLAS Bhangra Crew" category for us to win.

Wait these posts are hilarious!

 

[Taisu Kumar]

I would like to ask everyone as a community, us Cornellians included, to let this whole criticism stuff go so we can actually have a conversation about the set for once. I've been heavily involved with the set this year and I'm very intrigued by some of the comments. I feel like further discussion would be very helpful.

I might be repeating what has already been said, but its the 'dancing.' NOT the style of dancing, but choreography and flow. If you designed a routine that flowed better, I think you'd dominate like it was nobody's business.

Sid, as always thanks for the love and much respect to you as well! This isn't necessarily directed towards your comments as many people now and in the past have commented that our set doesn't flow. But I've always wondered what everyone actually means by "flow". When I think of flow I think dynamics; there should be build ups, hit, take it back down, etc... You should tell a story. Nothing should be forced; the set should invite the viewer in. Looking at the routine in this light, I feel like its the best flow we've ever had!

For example, right after the shoot down of the banner, we keep the hype of the gimmick alive but deescalate at the same time. We put the saaps away and no beats are wasted going into another build with bedi (which I thought matched the milky instrumental quite well). The music builds and you can feel that something is coming and we hit it with college. I felt like this part of the routine kept the viewer engaged and the transition from saaps was achieved without a break.

Would love to hear others' opinions about what "flow" really means and its relevance to the set!

• Reduce gimmicks that interrupt - This one is controversial, but here's the general idea. In a bhangra routine, which is a dance routine, it's generally favored when a high percentage of the set is being danced to. Thus, by having an excess of gimmicks, you are reducing dancing time.

Once again these comments aren't necessarily directed towards Psant as I would love to get many opinions on this. We've been knocked for not integrating gimmicks well for quite a while and we have put a lot of effort into placing them strategically in the set to avoid reducing dancing time.

An example where I thought the gimmick was well integrated was Brennan's Wushu (thats what we call the blue guy twirling a saap like a demon). Everyone behind him was dancing and buiding up the hit as he started twirling. When Aashiq hit everyone is smashing double saaps forward with him. We continue to dance as he twirls and he gets a new saap and goes right back into choreo with us. No stoppage in dancing, no beats taken away to continue the dance forward after the gimmick. Isn't that well integrated?

I know people will allude to the "ejaculation on stage" gimmick as taking away from dancing time but that was a sacrifice we had to make. The concept was a fakeout of the magic khunda gimmick last year. To create that effect the dancers behind the blue and yellow guy had to be in that pose. Everyone thought they knew what was happening and BAM we hit you guys with quite the surprise.

I think we made up for it, however, when the girls are doing the neckspin. As they are getting ready everyone is squatting which highlights the prep to the neckspin but doesn't stop the dancing. As they are spinning everyone is jumping behind him. Those jumps are strategic - everyone says we take it easy behind the gimmick but we were literally jumping as the gimmick is happening.

Please don't take these comments as me defending the set. Anik, Armaan and I have put in a lot of effort thinking about criticisms given to us in the past and have taken steps to correct them. Further discussion would really help clarify what you guys mean by some of your comments and enable us to create something better the next time!

 

[yraparla]

Would love to hear others' opinions about what "flow" really means and its relevance to the set!

This is an excellent question, and the best response to comments. Some comments are critical, some are simply criticisms. You have to sift through and take what you feel will help you be the best Cornell you can be. Ignore the rest. It's ok to simply say xyz isn't for us, but we understand what you're saying and are making a conscious choice to go a different way.

That's not being defensive, it's being practical. Don't just block the noise, filter it and improve.

Keep it up Taisu, expecting big things from you and the rest moving forward. Hit me up on email and include other cornell folks. I've seen you a few times this year and I'd love to talk some more.

 

[Psant]

Taisu, I applaud you for using specific examples when it comes to defending your set versus defending your win or the team as a whole. That's the discussion I wanted to have all along and was frankly a little disappointed by the previous backlash.


If you still want them, I'll post my opinions on "flow" in a set soon.

 

[faizan]

There are two flows:

1. Set flow
2. Dancing flow

Set flow is if your set is balanced and has appropriate build ups and build downs.
Dance flow is whether or not your dancing fits together and whether it is made choppy due to stops and starts (caused by gimmicks or otherwise).

 

[Anik915]

There are two flows:

1. Set flow
2. Dancing flow

Set flow is if your set is balanced and has appropriate build ups and build downs.
Dance flow is whether or not your dancing fits together and whether it is made choppy due to stops and starts (caused by gimmicks or otherwise).

This is a very good point, and provides organization to this discussion. I believe Sid, previously, was discussing Dancing flow - how we flow from move to move, especially in between segments. This is something huge for us to focus on/improve, and I appreciate the analysis that Sid sent to me.


Set flow is actually very distinct now that Faizan points it out - we focus A LOT on this and are always trying to perfect this.


We're definitely optimistic in trying to balance out our skill set and work on all "types" of flows.


~Anik

 

[Gabroo Tv]

Also, a huge Thank You to Ash (from AEG) and Jessie (who drove out from Philly) for operating additional camera's this weekend for me. They're the ones who deserve the credit for the pre and post performance clips you're seeing. They were by my side the entire weekend and without their help, all this additional footage would not have been possible. Love you guys!

 

[Kaur]

I thought you guys were sick! Dont fix something thats not broken. Ppl have made very similar points with Empire performances too. But if you keep succeeding then keep doing it, no need to make anyone else happy but your team. Take criticism to tweak your sets but never to change your style. The day you arent getting the results you are looking for anymore ( personal satisfaction, placings or whatever it is) then re-format. Other then that keep doing what youre doing

 

[venividivici]

I thought you guys were sick! Dont fix something thats not broken. Ppl have made very similar points with Empire performances too. But if you keep succeeding then keep doing it, no need to make anyone else happy but your team. Take criticism to tweak your sets but never to change your style. The day you arent getting the results you are looking for anymore ( personal satisfaction, placings or whatever it is) then re-format. Other then that keep doing what youre doing

+1