*****Duke Bhangra @ Nach Ke Dikha (1st Place)****

[AmanKansal]

Hey BTF,


Wanted to share our video from NKD and mix from this semester. We had an absolutely fantastic time competing in Williamsburg and met a ton of great teams! Some shoutouts:


Shaun - thank you for being so patient with me this entire year and thank you so much for this mix. It's got a lot of my favorites and the creativity you brought on top was just great, complimented our set and our style so well. Cannot thank you enough!


NKD Commitee - thank you for a great competition! for still such a new comp, definitely was run efficiently before, during, and even after the weekend - well done. Special shoutout to Sitara for being the BEST liaison ever!


Pritpal - thanks so much for the beautiful paggan, it was such a big help backstage and also for our performance!


Ashvin - for never graduating haha, but for real even apart from the sher (which unfortunately can't be heard due to technical issues with the mic), you were such a huge help that whole weekend, really appreciated you being there man.


UNC BE - thank you so much for generously lending us your saaps! felt good to practice with a complete set, definitely helped us onstage!


Kurren Mehta - for being the best co-captain a guy could have these past couple years. too many good memories bruh love you, so happy we got to end on this note.


And finally a huge thank you to our team. We have never danced with a younger lineup (majority are underclassmen) and yet, the poise with which they handled themselves on stage was amazing. With a couple technical issues at the beginning (mic for sher not working, beginning of saap segment unable to be heard on stage) we were off to a shaky start, but this team really pushed through and delivered a performance that just got better and better. Kurren and I could not be more proud and more excited for the future of this team!


NKD official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=t_Sw4EUN9_A


Alternate side view (thank you Husky Bhangra!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Zxb65jSd0


Any and all feedback is much appreciated!

 

[Yesh]

Damn, first off major props to Aman and Kurren for bringing this team as far as it has gotten!

The intro was fire, from the video you can't hear the sher, but just the way things looked along with the music, i feel like it was a great way to start the set with some energy! Also, the fact that there was actually some dancing happening in the intro is always a plus for me!

Saaps started off a little rough with the jumps but your dancers seemed to clean it up a bit. The set starts off at a nice pace with good energy, but I think the energy dies out a little bit going into the second saap song. It definitely picks back up going into khunde!

Love the khunde chaal and the way the hand off worked! Really creative way of getting them back to side stage without the dancing stopping!

The next segment is my favorite of the entire routine. It was executed well with a lot of great energy. The choreo fit the formations which just made it feel like it belonged with that song.


Jhummar was fun to watch (it blurred a bit so I couldnt watch you and Kurren have your cutesy bromance moment )

I was not expecting what happened at 5:22 but it was really refreshing to see for a coed team....Aman and Kurren you wrecked that fast jhummar

Deepika 6:54 on was so dope. You always bring it haha definitely a pleasure to watch.

Refreshing to see the set end with other moves than pataka

Some things I noticed overall that made the set incredibly enjoyable to watch was the amount of energy each dancer had and the stage presence/nakhre they had. It looked like a majority of the dancers were having a genuinely good time dancing on stage!

With that energy and stage presence, I think things to improve on are trying to clean up the dancing a bit and getting your younger dancers up to par in terms of form!

Y'all have come a long way this year and I can't wait to see what you have in store for next year!

 

[kman58]

I was in the audience watching this and live, it had some really great moments. I'll be honest, from the beginning until end of saaps I thought you guys had it lost, but I definitely appreciate this set as a progression of energy. While most teams that night either had a downward or flat slope in terms of energy/growth, you guys definitely went up up up and ended the strongest out of all the teams, so hats off to you! I'm not the biggest fan of hiphop-y stuff during routines but for some reason I remember losing it when Deepika did the Shmoney, absolutely killed it!

Couple things I just thought I'd just throw out there: biggest things that are apparent are dancer form and uneven angles. This was most apparent to me in khunda section. Leading up to the chaal/drop, form was slacking and dancers were bending backs across the board on baitkan, and the khunda angles/body angles weren't consistent which can throw an audience member off. This could be applied across your set, especially in places like jhummar.

Overall though, great set and great execution. You guys did a lot of great things in the set and things flowed very well throughout. I remember seeing you guys at blowout last year and this is suchhh an improvement you guys are going to go far! Keep doing the right things and congratulations again, very well deserved first place!

 

[smehta313]

First off, I've been seeing Duke Dhamaka at competitions since Srujan 2012 and it's amazing how far along you've brought this team, Aman.


Congratulations on first place - wanted to just go through some quick hits.


* Despite the sher being dubbed over in the beginning, the hype definitely seemed to be there. What broke it for me was the sloppiness of the execution when the actual dancing began. From the jumps being off, to saaps not clicking together and bhetkas being missed, whatever could've been developed was lost and that's just unfortunate.


* Aman, your jhoomer is sexy af dude. I liked a lot of the ideas except the same sex johri thing because it reminded me of cornell a lot from these past few years.


* Your guys' lines are always on point. It's actually really enjoyable to see since there are top tier teams that don't do this and you guys have discipined yourselves to do this as if it were second nature.


* There are a lot of red johri moments and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think at a comp such as NKD, it goes alright because it is smaller and the moment allows for some hype, as well as maybe at a school show, but my personal preference wouldn't see this being too popular amongst other judges and at bigger competitions because it doesn't really do much (the shmurda one worked however, since it's a craze right now)


* I loved the throwback Yeah! mela with the male johri showcase.


You're leaving this team with a strong foundation. With a few tweaks here and there and with dancers improving, Duke Dhamaka will definitely be a team to watch out for in the upcoming year.