Your scene has had its time of pushing the envelope in making sets, making them hype/creative, having interesting and conceptual formations/segments that see dancers pushed to their limits. Put all of these things together and inevitably you have some level of messiness. I’m not saying being messy is a prerequisite, but when you think of performances that had people talking - that’s is in part what you’d see. These performances were mainly by the Canadian teams that I mentioned earlier on the other thread.
Please don’t take this as “being messy is a badge of honour” - the truth is we’d love to be Aston/UoB clean with a GCC set and we try, but it doesn’t happen due to complexity and we’d prefer not to sacrifice choreo for it. Playing it safe is what we did at our university teams when we couldn’t control the calibre of dancers. (The same guys who captain and choreograph for GCC have also done so for Aston and UoB - some of the cleanest teams in the UK, So don't come out and say we can't clean sets.)
What I put in bold is something I, personally, applaud ya'll for. Something that we've strove to do. But I'll tell you, judges more often than not, on this side of the Atlantic reward simpler/safer over complex/messier, regardless of how much more entertaining it may have been. Growing up as a young dancer here, judges always said "your sets are too complex" "simplify and focus on dancing." Yeah, we were not as good at dancing/cleaning back then, but I think the circuit would be different if judges just said: become better dancers, clean your stuff, and left out the "too complex/simplify." And actually judged the creativity/complexity and offered how to make it better.
A few judges have done this, but the majority don't. We've had judges tell us "during this part, I couldn't figure out what was going on" when the mechanism had only 2 things going on: half the stage spun on 1/2, other half the stage spun on 3/4. We did crazy formations during an ending segment and a judge said: "Why? Why not just stand there and rip bhangra in 2 lines." So to me, judges over here look for excellence in the dancing of bhangra first, and if that's not really really really good, nothing else matters. We have always tried to balance that but its rough man. It's rough to hear the judges say that stuff when in my own heart, I just wanna put out crazy choreo/formations. Ultimately, I'm a bhangra dancer, a competitor, so to win, we gotta play the game. But to your point of since 2012 where did it go? I think that's why. What's been rewarded hasn't been the team that takes the most risk/brings the most entertaining set while still maintaining a decent level of cleanliness. < that still loses to the "cleaner" team here.
Part of it is also the rubrics, and a sentiment of what's easiest to create a consensus on a judging panel. Which is cleanliness. It's the most objective aspect of team dance. It's very rare where you find a rubric that pushes creativity/risk/choreo/formations to a higher degree than cleanliness/dancing. Even bruins now is almost 50/50. Ultimately, I wish our circuit pushed it more. But the cleanliness, and excellence in the execution of bhangra is whats rewarded more.
If you care to spend more than 20 minutes watching UK sets you’ll see most teams have a different style.
Can you post a few videos with different styles for me? I just don't know who to watch. I'll dissect it myself cause I'm interested.
How many times did a US team win against the top Canadian teams when they came over to compete? It’s still the same today - SPD showed up and won Bruin recently. NJJ won Circle City.
Soormay went to 6ix and beat NJFL. BDS beat an NJ team (forgive me for not knowing which one) at Boston. FS beat NJFL at Motor City. FS beat NJJ at circle the year prior. Back in the day? VCU beating NJ and SGPD at E8 2010. ABC winning Idols 2011. JJ beating NYPD at VPD. AEG and Virsa back in the day have gone up to Canada and beaten some teams when Masti was still around. DCMPAA too maybe? Cornell won Tdot once I think. Fauj won Tdot. << these two I'm not sure who or if they beat any of the "top canadian teams."
All in all, US teams have and can beat the top Canadian teams. But yeah. Not as often as they beat us.
The USA scene has regressed, I think it’s time to get out of your bubble and really see what’s happening.
The regression in set design, has created a progression in the execution of bhangra. Dancers today are significantly better than they were back in 2012. It's not close. Better posture, modhe, extension, energy, you name it. But to the first thing I quoted you on, yeah. I'm sad about the set design regression. Was hoping the JJ E8 2015 win would spike it, but it kinda didn't.
P.S. Stop saying come over here and compete. There’s nothing left on your side of the Atlantic.
Come bang heads with whoever you feel are the top teams over here. All true competitors are up for a challenge. If logistically possible, why not? come rock the teams who you feel are the best over here so the world can shut up. While you're at it, do what BASS did and make it a trip with your families too. Hit NYC, Vegas, LA, etc. pre or post comp.
