Duke Dhamaka @ Bhangra Blowout 2014 (GTVHD)

[Gabroo Tv]

This is Duke Dhamaka, representing Duke University in Durham North Carolina, performing at Bhangra Blowout 2014.

Duke Dhamaka @ Bhangra Blowout 2014



Dancers:
Red: Aman Kansal, Deepika Potarazu
Yellow: Kurren Mehta, Aarti Asrani
Green: Pranava Raparla, Ritika Patil
Orange: Avinash Moondra, Namita Kansal
Blue: Ravi Mahadevan, Shalini Subbarao
Purple: Jay Rathinavelu, Raina Kishan


Songs:
Modhe Mardha (Swizzee We Own It Remix)
Aaj Kal
Ghugian Da Jora (JumpinGenres Remix)
Celebration
Pethee
Das Ja
Dilli Wali Girlfriend
Kaolo
Khushiyan
Yaaran De Kalian

 

[Aditya]

Easily the best Duke set I've ever seen. Much improved as a team. Red girl is sick and Aman, you killed it (esp Jhummar, goddamn!).


Critiques:
Get your weaker dancers (some girls in particular) to match up to the energy level of the more experienced dancers. I saw a lot of smiles dropping at different points in the routine. A lot of you have ridiculous energy but it takes away from your overall presentation if you're that much more energetic than everyone else. I would suggest maybe trying to find a happy medium where some of you tone it down a little and the others push harder.


Congrats on a great performance, really hope you guys continue to build off of this!

 

[ashvin.kapur]

100% agree with Aditya - best Duke set to date. Kurren, Aman, & Pranava, yall are some of the best guy dancers I have seen, and easily the best 3 guys to dance at Duke. Deepika & Aarti reppin it for the girls as well!! SO proud of how far yall have come in 2-3 years respectively.




Loved the choreography & the dynamic formations - it felt yall were always on the move and doing some sort of inventive choreography. I do agree with Aditya that disparity in energy was the most noticeable fault, but honestly overall this was probably the most energetic set of the night. Just learn to control that energy at moments and with certain dancers, and that will become one of the many strengths of your team.




The wardrobe malfunctions on the girls' chunnis and the saap locking were tough (and should be addressed), but the ability to dance through it and recover incredibly well (*Pranava with the locked saap*) is really commendable. Get that stuff figured out and work a bit more on uniformity; with the youth of your dancers, yall have as good a shot as anyone next year.




Finally, quick shoutout to the senior leader, Ravi Mahadevan, who has grown more in 1 year of competitive bhangra than any dancer I've seen. Sad that this is your last performance with Duke, but excited to see where you end up when you dance with the big boys

 

[sumeetj]

great stuff

quick things
-kurren pranav aman you guys are monster dancers (to be fair i didn't watch the other people on the team as closely but as a whole your team danced very well as a unit)
-you made a very smart decison by putting deepika in front center for that jugni she destroyed it probably one of best girl dancers on circuit
-you guys do real well when the choreo is faster paced, so dont foce the slower stuff (like your phumania) - feel like the "change in pace" for that segment wasnt enough to really add variety, and if it was as fast as your previous song bfeore it i think it would looked/flowed better - dont subject yourself to the uber slow coed-ish songs just because other teams make it seem like a rule - obvously no need to dance lightning fast the whole set either, but you get what im sayin - in the same sense, since you guys are so energetic and execute so well, i think a slightly longer ending would have done you well, caus other coed teams either cant or dont choose to do so - take advantage of it

okay thats my quick thoughts for now i shall probably message you via other means

 

[shahrj]

As much as it hurts to compliment anything Duke related, you guys absolutely destroyed this set! Can't add much more to Ashvin and Aditya but from years of watching you guys I have to agree that this is the best set I've ever seen come outta Durham. You guys were clean, form was on point, energy was pretty consistent throughout, and even with some of the minor mishaps I still enjoyed watching you guys from beginning to end (especially reds and yellows). I think if there's one thing that will take you guys to the next level, though, it would be to add a little more complexity to choreo and formations --- everything else is there, but a little more creativity would really put you guys over the top. That said keep doing what yall are doing, I can see big things happening for you guys next year

 

[sganesha]

I really wanted to this live and was waiting forever for this video to come out. LOVED THE SET. Red girl was BADASS. She had more energy than all of the guys at some parts.


Shout outs to Aman, Pranava & Avinash ( the both of y'all still shoulda gone to CMU). It was super fun meeting you guys and hopefully we see you guys again next year!

 

[Psant]

Best Duke set ever!
Increase the complexity of choreo and formations to reach the next level, and work on the nakhra of some of your dancers. There's a big disparity between Aman, Kurren, Pranava and the rest in terms of execution of moves as well. But overall, wow, keep it up!

 

[Basim]

The short girl in the red (Deepika - based on the GTV description) absolutely killed the set. Amazing energy and nakhre throughout the performance.

Cleanliness and uniformity of the dancers could be improved. More creativity with formations and complexity with the moves (with possibly adding your own "twist" to some traditional moves) would push this set to the next level imho.


Also, a big thing is... bhangra sets don't have to be 100% "pow" "pow" in your face explosiveness all the time. Slow things down a bit more and present the grace of executing moves (especially with some of the stronger dancers you have). Even your jhummar segment was pretty "fast" for me and while keeping energy high is important, so is varying tempo in your set.

I enjoyed viewing the performance overall, just thought that I'd throw some quick thoughts out there. Keep at it Duke!

~ Basim

 

[sumeetj]

yeah this shoulda placed

 

[Kaustubh]

Energy was awesome, looks like you guys had a great time on stage! In terms of the set, I appreciated the Pethee segment the most, think it had a lot of energy and cool formations, really played to your strengths as a team. Props for taking the risk with the Celebration jhummar, but I think it sounded a little out of place with the rest of the mix.


It was awesome competing against you guys, hopefully we'll get to chill at some point again! Pranava thanks for all your help bro, it was great meeting you, and ya killed it on stage!

 

[nmistry2]

This was a really solid set, i liked watching it live a lot. It was a great show opener and i think you guys will definitely have a great competitive set next year i am excited to see it. Your dancers had good energy throughout, its a shame that some chunnis fell off but its ok you guys kept dancing through. your red girl was sick so much energy.

 

[SGupta7]

loved dhamaal/mirza and red girl killed jugni. i liked the jhummar choreo but i wasnt a fan of celebration. thought it went on too long and was waiting for a punjabi song to come back in. if you guys can cut down on some individual mistakes, i think you'll start placing left and right. congrats on a great performance and set! avinash and pranava you guys ripped it!

 

[aneeshsahni]

Release the mix!


My fav Duke performance of all time, and guy in red killed it w/ grace, especially jhummar

 

[Jags209]

Hella entertaining! The mix was on point, and that Red Jodi tho... damn. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do next.

 

[Sid]

Aman my man - amazing how far we've all come in the past few years haha. Aditya said it right - you've taken Duke to new heights and that's one hell of an accomplishment. I won't give a full critique here since you and I have already spoken about much of the set.

So many dope dancers on this team. This means two things - 1: the newer / less experienced dancers have some really great talent to learn from and 2: the stronger dancers have a greater responsibility to bring the rest up to par. Too much disparity between strong and weak dancers for the set to hit its full potential.

I'm looking forward to seeing y'all - esp my dudes Aman and Pranny - at more competitions next year. The way this team is growing I have no doubt that will happen.