Duniya De Rang: Buckeye Mela 2018

[angeblah]

Duniya De Rang is proud to present our winning performance from Buckeye Mela 2018. Congratulations to Furteelay, UNC, and all the competing teams for ripping it. We are humbled to place among these powerhouses, but more importantly, we hope to continue inspiring people of all backgrounds to dance Bhangra. We hope this vision and our passion came through in our performance:

GTV Video:

Center (ish):

Balcony:

Dholi Cam (7:25...you'll know it when you see it):

Intro:

Red: Katie Harvey, Rebecca Ho Van Dyke, Brian Chang, Ryan Daley
Yellow: Ashley Espinoza, Judy Liu, Drew Harrelson, Nathan Ellebracht
Green: Alisa Quemado, Angela Luo, Brad Rosenblum, Eric McCord-Snook
Blue: Emily Chei, Sharon Castan, Khiry Brothers, Kyle Pfeiffer
Dholi, Pagh Tier: Karan Singh

Mixer Team: Teg Hans, Keshav Mantha, Mohit Kohli (saaps)
Mix: https://soundcloud.com/ksm1/ddr-bm2018

Our dancers hailed from FL, GA, NC, NY, OH, SC, TX, and VA. On that Thursday of Mela weekend, we had our first full-roster practice (bless danceapp.us for making formations 10x easier). I want to personally thank all the dancers for staying focused and working their asses off.

I'm often asked how DDR makes this long distance shit happen-- there's no hack, there's no shortcut. DDR functions through each team member's insane work ethic and sense of responsibility. I want to recognize each teammate who helped bring our vision to life:

• Choreography - Nathan, Ashley, Kyle, Khiry
• Video Critiques - Judy, Nathan, Ashley, Kyle
• Gimmick Troubleshooting - Brian, Sharon
• Ending Mela - Errbody

• Team Manager - Rebecca
• Team Merchandise - Ryan
• Intro Video Editing - Brian
• Finances - James Shen

Special thanks to our dear friends for their support:

• Vardiyan, Kainthe - UNC Bhangra Elite (esp. Tejasee & Ace), Carolina Indian Arts
• Saaps, Daangs - Spartan Bhangra
• Phuman - VT Bhangra

Lastly, our thanks to Mela for providing us a platform to share our passion:

• Liaisons - Meshora Suthanthira, Sonny Caradonna, & Prathiba Srikantan
• Judges - Reeda Saleem, Sid Pandit, Varan Rakhra
• Directors - Sanjana Naidu & Arsh Bajwa
• For dealing with me - Sheena Kothari & Nimit Desai

Until next time,
Angela

 

[sumeetj]

Immense congratulations to a very well-deserving team. Some thoughts listed below (haphazardly in no particular order, just as they come to me):

• The fact that you guys pulled off the formations you did with one team practice (and not having a core group of people in one place who could meet consistently) is crazy. Some of those concepts were really unique and required good stage awareness and for most part didn't see anyone really messing any formations up
• Most memorable formation to me was the jodiyan one while the yellow jodis came through and the other lines diagonally moved
• Rowing in the mela was cool, but the coolest was probably using saaps to wash clothes -> I don't know if anyone else has done that, but loved it (and apologies if another team has done that and I don't remember)
• Running man move (whatever that is called, but angela you know I love it) plus lehriyan was cool, especially to that instrumental
• The most messy/confusing moment of set to me was whatever move you guys did at 4:48 (in the top video) - I think if it was done more synchronized I woulda understood it, but just looked like random erratic arm movements when I first watched it
• kick out pabi bethke at end of the song post-dhamaal were really nice
• Your set was quite (or felt) lengthy, and at a couple of times I felt like some of the segments could have been condensed with less filler choreo so they lost momentum. I think that probably made it a little harder on you guys (more to learn, more to clean, stamina, etc), but just a thought for when you guys compete next
• overall i think your set had the most original concepts in terms of formation ideas and some notable choreo sequences of the night
• I have heard of some haters out there, but I firmly see it as a huge tribute to Punjabi culture that a group of non-desi dancers were dedicated enough to an art form that came from our culture to organize such a huge effort, and not only that, but do it justice on stage with a winning, high-caliber performance

As I am writing this in the middle of a night shift, I am sure will think of more things to say later - in which case, I'll edit this post. But regardless, I think DDR's performance here and how they prepared for the competition under those circumstances is a testament to how each person on every team has to work hard and pull their weight in order for great things to happen on stage. Looking forward to seeing you guys compete again very soon.

 

[BhangraSUCKS]

That is clearly not a first place routine. This is the problem with un-educated judges who are guided by dumb Bollywood principles.

Also I never knew Dance Dance Revolution made a bhangra team. Going global I suppose.

 

[JimmyJatt463]

Congratulations on the first place and an overall very good set.

I just want to give you guys mad props for respecting the culture and loving the dance form enough to establish a team and compete against some very reputable names in the scene. In addition to all of this, your dancers were from all over the place and I can only imagine how painful and stressful that must have been to manage.
The set was very creative and enjoyable to watch. I watched multiple dancers and have to say that each dancer on this team is exceptional. Nobody stood out for being lazy and moves were completed to a common standard which is impressive for a team who only first met up during the week of stepping on stage.

Despite the issues with formations, I believe the team did very well and errors were minimal. Huge props again for developing a set so well without meeting up and without belonging directly from the punjabi culture.

I hope to see you guys step on stage again very soon and keep up the great work

 

[angeblah]

Edited post with GTV video. Excited to release our Bruin performance soon.