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Fire Missing From the Circuit
- Thread starter Howie Magz
- Start date
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- 1,459
Hi Yesh - I am sorry that your dancers feel this way.Yesh said:
Why don't you get one of your dancers to start a topic specifically for new dancers.. and request only newer dancers post in it.. they can even throw up a few videos in the topic & critique them as a group.
Honestly, there really is no way for us to identify new dancers vs dancers with a little bit of experience vs dancers with a lot of experience.. heck, some people that register on BTF don't even dance on any team! I mean we have the "Team" section that you can fill out in your profile, which people can put whatever they want in there.. but other than that, it's next to impossible.
Anyway, let me know if I can help out in any other way to make your dancers or all newer dancers feel at ease.. nobody is out to get you on here.. it's just a place to ask questions, discuss, and share knowledge. I've mentioned it before, but nobody is born with bhangra dancing knowledge/the ability.. it's an acquired skill through lots of dedication/practice/research/etc. So feel free to post anything & everything.. we sure could use the fresh topics & opinions!
~ Basim
Harman
Member
- Messages
- 189
Pumping life back in to the north american bhangra scene starts with the dancers. You need people who genuinely care about the dance, who strive for the competition, and welcome the challenge of going up against the best. I remember when AEG started all those years ago in a members living room, every man at that practice thought we were going to rule the circuit. The first time we went up against some big name team we practiced for hours everyday thinking every little thing helps. And every time we got our asses handed to us we went back to the drawing board to prepare for the next one. What made this possible was our captain who cared about the team just as much as the competitions. He emphasized that the bonds we built during and after practice meant more than those 8 minutes on stage. Before you knew it we were family, and we used that to push each other to become the best. Quit worrying about what the circuit is going to think of your set. Focus on building a unit, a family, bonds that set the foundation for your team. The circuit has its own way of shaping our sets, naturally the innovation and spark will come on its own. My biggest peice of advice is to tell all the bhangra scholars on this website to fuck off, they honestly make shit worse. People got enough problems trying to put shit together, and now your telling them they have to be perfect? In the wise words of Faizan Ghaznavi, "just shut up and dance." Your job now is to find people that care, and if you seem to be the only person who cares. Its up to you to inspire others to care as much as you do. If one person does this, then maybe we may get one superstar team every few season. But if that one person can inspire two more then we slowly start to rebuild the circuit and return it to its former glorly. The more individuals we have doing this, the sooner the fire returns to the circuit.
ps. I meant every grammatical error in this paragraph
ps. I meant every grammatical error in this paragraph
- Messages
- 1,928
I've thought about creating a forum section that is only visible/writeable to people with, say, fewer than 50 posts. In the end though, we really just need these people chiming in towards the community discussion as a whole. Just gotta get over a hurdle about not being a 1000-post member. Those 1000 posts didn't write themselves and besides it doesn't matter. Just speak up, it's all good.Basim said:Hi Yesh - I am sorry that your dancers feel this way.Yesh said:
Why don't you get one of your dancers to start a topic specifically for new dancers.. and request only newer dancers post in it.. they can even throw up a few videos in the topic & critique them as a group.
Honestly, there really is no way for us to identify new dancers vs dancers with a little bit of experience vs dancers with a lot of experience.. heck, some people that register on BTF don't even dance on any team! I mean we have the "Team" section that you can fill out in your profile, which people can put whatever they want in there.. but other than that, it's next to impossible.
Anyway, let me know if I can help out in any other way to make your dancers or all newer dancers feel at ease.. nobody is out to get you on here.. it's just a place to ask questions, discuss, and share knowledge. I've mentioned it before, but nobody is born with bhangra dancing knowledge/the ability.. it's an acquired skill through lots of dedication/practice/research/etc. So feel free to post anything & everything.. we sure could use the fresh topics & opinions!
~ Basim
If there's strong backing for this junior members' "safe space", though, we can consider it.
SimratG
New Member
- Messages
- 16
i joined as bhangra was "dying" in 2011/2012. after seeing nypd and jj and bk i wanted to dance more than anyone else. just the sheer passion of the dancers on those teams is what got me. the focus back then seemed predominately on dancing and less on gimmicks, and if they were used they seemed fused into the set without ruining it or the flow. since then, lol. coming from rutgers, our focus was dance dance dance, actually do bhangra. for so long it seemed everyone just wanted to do something game changing because comps put "creativity and out of the box ideas" on their rubrics. and thats where it all seemed to get lost. to me it seems everyone only cared about doing shit like that. we lost a lot of focus on "bhangra." it seemed no one cared about being the better dancer, just seems everyone only cares about the next big gimmick, cause thats what would help you win. thats the fire that we need. i still to date am only worried about improving as a dancer and being better than any other dancer to set foot on the same stage as me that night. no one cares about improving as a dancers, just seems like oh hey lets be clean and execute this gimmick and we will win. yeah i mean sure go ahead take the easy way out win feel good about yourselves, but at the end of the day, did you really do better bhangra than the other team? idk. its all fucked. one team will have better choreo better dancers better drops but theyll lose to a clean slow dancing team who focused on gimmicks and was cleaner. oh well cant blame them. this is the circuit. god bless the uk and all those teams that actually dance.
nehabatra
New Member
- Messages
- 5
I think the root of the problem here is a lack of confidence among new dancers and teams. When watching teams like SGPD and NJW from 2010ish, what stands out is the amount of confidence they exuded on stage. I rarely see this same drive and nakhra in performances that I watch today.
When dancing with Gajjdi Jawani a few years ago (a primarily high school, independent team), we often felt like we weren't good enough to dance at a competition that more “big name” teams like Furteelay or VCU were at. Like someone said above, instead of accepting that we were worthy of our spot and trying to focus on winning, we just felt lucky to even be there. Now that I dance with UNC, I don’t sense the same type uneasiness, but it's not completely gone either. I've heard dancers question how they made the team or why they were chosen for a competition roster. People don’t want to join a discussion on BTF because they’re “not good enough.” This attitude is what needs to go. Granted, I’m not quite there yet either, especially considering I've been dancing and following the circuit since 2010, but this is my first post on BTF. But acknowledging the problem within teams, and attempting to eliminate this attitude among dancers will definitely help bring more fire to the stage.
And while starting a thread for new dancers is a great idea in theory, I don't think it would solve the problem of "new" dancers feeling alienated from the circuit. I think it'll only further the divide between so-called "new" and "experienced." Instead, I think teams should instill more confidence in their new dancers by discussing the circuit as a whole and exposing them to things like BTF and videos of India teams, instead of expecting them to find these themselves. When “new” dancers feel like they know more about what is going on in the circuit, they’ll be more likely to feel confident enough to make themselves fully a part of it.
When dancing with Gajjdi Jawani a few years ago (a primarily high school, independent team), we often felt like we weren't good enough to dance at a competition that more “big name” teams like Furteelay or VCU were at. Like someone said above, instead of accepting that we were worthy of our spot and trying to focus on winning, we just felt lucky to even be there. Now that I dance with UNC, I don’t sense the same type uneasiness, but it's not completely gone either. I've heard dancers question how they made the team or why they were chosen for a competition roster. People don’t want to join a discussion on BTF because they’re “not good enough.” This attitude is what needs to go. Granted, I’m not quite there yet either, especially considering I've been dancing and following the circuit since 2010, but this is my first post on BTF. But acknowledging the problem within teams, and attempting to eliminate this attitude among dancers will definitely help bring more fire to the stage.
And while starting a thread for new dancers is a great idea in theory, I don't think it would solve the problem of "new" dancers feeling alienated from the circuit. I think it'll only further the divide between so-called "new" and "experienced." Instead, I think teams should instill more confidence in their new dancers by discussing the circuit as a whole and exposing them to things like BTF and videos of India teams, instead of expecting them to find these themselves. When “new” dancers feel like they know more about what is going on in the circuit, they’ll be more likely to feel confident enough to make themselves fully a part of it.
ampal
Member
- Messages
- 43
I'm one of the dancers on Alamo city Bhangra and I think I'm like the only one who has an actual btf account on my team. But I never posted anything because I used to think that btf was all about people who had nothing better to do and just talked shit about everyone and brought everyone down (some of the comments felt that way).
I also used to to think that no one cared about the new teams and their performance on btf (although I'm not even sure if we are a new team, we've been dancing a while, but we never get a comment (maybe I should post more and get some in return)). But I just annoy Mariam until she responds lol and all the judges that judge us so thanks guys (I guess I'm just thinking out loud here).
But what is this platform for? Discussion?
Then I think we put up a great performance at burgh and we didn't even place and according to this thread, apparently we all need to learn the fundamentals of Bhangra first and how to dance first, and I believe we have some of the best girls on our team and our boys aren't that bad either who do actual Bhangra. But it's sooo hard to place at these competitions. Being a coed team, you already know you're at a disadvantage because all boys teams and all girls team are going to look aesthetically pleasing to the naked eye. Random story: We go a r2b2 every year, won first twice, and got 4th in 2015 and went to the judges meeting only to come out realizing that we did Bhangra, we had everything but the rubric didn't have a place for them to give us any points, oh and we didn't have passion (I guess you can judge passion now w/e). That hurt the most. First time I saw myself in tears because I just didn't understand why. Then I saw shahrukhs post under his JJ video saying how it doesn't matter what people think, at the end of the day, if you're happy with your set and you're happy with your video, that's all that matters (or something like that) and ironically I was happy with what my team put up and that moment gave us fire and I think was the only reason we were able to improve so much and have the same judge at burgh last month say we had "fire".
This is all out of order and makes so sense and maybe that's why I shouldn't post things lol but I guess what I'm trying to say is that every team has a different story, and a different journey and a different opinion and we might think we were doserving of a place but that doesn't mean you will and vice versa. Just like you might not think there's fire and we might. If we sat here pleasing everyone, our set would never be done. So I like that my team doesn't have btf. We watch videos, we get inspired, and we dance. And I love that.
I also used to to think that no one cared about the new teams and their performance on btf (although I'm not even sure if we are a new team, we've been dancing a while, but we never get a comment (maybe I should post more and get some in return)). But I just annoy Mariam until she responds lol and all the judges that judge us so thanks guys (I guess I'm just thinking out loud here).
But what is this platform for? Discussion?
Then I think we put up a great performance at burgh and we didn't even place and according to this thread, apparently we all need to learn the fundamentals of Bhangra first and how to dance first, and I believe we have some of the best girls on our team and our boys aren't that bad either who do actual Bhangra. But it's sooo hard to place at these competitions. Being a coed team, you already know you're at a disadvantage because all boys teams and all girls team are going to look aesthetically pleasing to the naked eye. Random story: We go a r2b2 every year, won first twice, and got 4th in 2015 and went to the judges meeting only to come out realizing that we did Bhangra, we had everything but the rubric didn't have a place for them to give us any points, oh and we didn't have passion (I guess you can judge passion now w/e). That hurt the most. First time I saw myself in tears because I just didn't understand why. Then I saw shahrukhs post under his JJ video saying how it doesn't matter what people think, at the end of the day, if you're happy with your set and you're happy with your video, that's all that matters (or something like that) and ironically I was happy with what my team put up and that moment gave us fire and I think was the only reason we were able to improve so much and have the same judge at burgh last month say we had "fire".
This is all out of order and makes so sense and maybe that's why I shouldn't post things lol but I guess what I'm trying to say is that every team has a different story, and a different journey and a different opinion and we might think we were doserving of a place but that doesn't mean you will and vice versa. Just like you might not think there's fire and we might. If we sat here pleasing everyone, our set would never be done. So I like that my team doesn't have btf. We watch videos, we get inspired, and we dance. And I love that.
Jaskirat Multani
New Member
- Messages
- 13
Nobody teaches bhangra anymore. People are teaching sets. Memorizes actions and sequences as opposed to steps and beat. Teaching someone a "set" vs actual bhangra is the reason why no can tell you the difference between a pataka and a phulka. Sets are compromised because we want a level of synchronization and for the moves to still be easy enough for new dancers to come aboard. A lot of teams have first time bhangra dancers as well or they have too little dancers and bring on extras from other teams. Thinks of how much a choreographer has to conform to in order to make sure that his team is able to stay alive. New teams that come out die out so quick its ridiculous. There aren't very many comps for new teams to apply to either. Theyre some kids out there who are damn good, but have never competed because they cant join a reputable team or they live in no mans land. I honestly think the only way to get this "fire" back is if the vets step up and start getting the new people involved again. Pass on what you know, or give these new people an oppurtunity.
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turbanatah
YEe
- Messages
- 12
Whattup BTF,
I've been feeling this way for a while as well. As an avid bhangra fan/dancer for 15+ years, I remember feeling the most hyped about performances when the big dogs like Sher Foundation or Khalsa Junction took the stage. After that, the innovation brought forth by teams like DRP, Gabroo Shokeen, and VCU kept that momentum for some time.
Judging by how many people have contributed to this topic, you don't have to see any statistics or data to see that yes, we here at BTF feel like the fire has been lost. Teams just don't have that true "hype" or have that fire, not only as performers, but as DANCERS, to innovate the game and leave a long lasting impression.
I can't speak from a dancer's point of view, but as an audience member and more importantly as a DJ, I think a large part of what will bring about this change is the music.
How many of you guys remember when Sher Foundation came out with doing quick medleys instead of dancing to only 3-4 songs? And the infamous Sher Bass Drop?? Ohhhweee, that shit made the performance infinitely more memorable and really helped solidify Sher Foundation's legacy. How many teams are doing that today? Many teams have been using the same "hoy"s and sword "shwings" and "BOOOMS" since they first emerged.
We need to create new and more innovative types of mixes and cultivate a more progressive sound for the bhangra circuit. That's where I think I can help.
I've been putting out a lot of tracks this past year and have had the pleasure of being asked to do team mixes, however, I don't really have the time and prefer not to work with teams who I haven't connected with on a personal level. As someone who takes his music and art very seriously, I like to create alongside passionate choreographers, as well as to reinvent the music of traditional Bhangra/Punjabi songs by creating mixes that could enhance a performance and that works with the team to deliver their best performance. I truly think they both go hand in hand.
That being said, starting in 2016, I will be offering songs to the bhangra circuit (via BTF and Soundcloud) for a fee to use in their mix (homie's gotta eat y'know). I won't be doing full team mixes as I don't really have time to meet and talk to every team who wants a mix, but I can definitely offer my advice and my services to some extent. I really think that a true dancer is influenced by the music and that's what I want to offer you guys: a song that will be unique, designed with you in mind, and a certified BANGER.
Peace and best of luck to everyone who wants to take this art to the next level,
Baysikhz
I've been feeling this way for a while as well. As an avid bhangra fan/dancer for 15+ years, I remember feeling the most hyped about performances when the big dogs like Sher Foundation or Khalsa Junction took the stage. After that, the innovation brought forth by teams like DRP, Gabroo Shokeen, and VCU kept that momentum for some time.
Judging by how many people have contributed to this topic, you don't have to see any statistics or data to see that yes, we here at BTF feel like the fire has been lost. Teams just don't have that true "hype" or have that fire, not only as performers, but as DANCERS, to innovate the game and leave a long lasting impression.
I can't speak from a dancer's point of view, but as an audience member and more importantly as a DJ, I think a large part of what will bring about this change is the music.
How many of you guys remember when Sher Foundation came out with doing quick medleys instead of dancing to only 3-4 songs? And the infamous Sher Bass Drop?? Ohhhweee, that shit made the performance infinitely more memorable and really helped solidify Sher Foundation's legacy. How many teams are doing that today? Many teams have been using the same "hoy"s and sword "shwings" and "BOOOMS" since they first emerged.
We need to create new and more innovative types of mixes and cultivate a more progressive sound for the bhangra circuit. That's where I think I can help.
I've been putting out a lot of tracks this past year and have had the pleasure of being asked to do team mixes, however, I don't really have the time and prefer not to work with teams who I haven't connected with on a personal level. As someone who takes his music and art very seriously, I like to create alongside passionate choreographers, as well as to reinvent the music of traditional Bhangra/Punjabi songs by creating mixes that could enhance a performance and that works with the team to deliver their best performance. I truly think they both go hand in hand.
That being said, starting in 2016, I will be offering songs to the bhangra circuit (via BTF and Soundcloud) for a fee to use in their mix (homie's gotta eat y'know). I won't be doing full team mixes as I don't really have time to meet and talk to every team who wants a mix, but I can definitely offer my advice and my services to some extent. I really think that a true dancer is influenced by the music and that's what I want to offer you guys: a song that will be unique, designed with you in mind, and a certified BANGER.
Peace and best of luck to everyone who wants to take this art to the next level,
Baysikhz
I'm pretty sure this has already been said but I'd like to reiterate it. The one thing I find wrong with the circuit (leading to the lack of "fire") is the lack of critiques provided to teams when they post their videos. Big name teams that'll post their video like JJ Elite 2015 have a bajillion comments whether its trolls or just even a congratulations but a new collegiate team has 0 comments. How can we expect things to get better in the circuit from a creative perspective when teams have nothing but what a judge tells them in a 5 min post-comp meeting and themselves to really comment on what their set did. The fire isn't the lack of competitions (although we could use more comps in the circuit), or the mixes(yeah they all sound the same, but its because we all love using the same songs that everyone can find on a youtube search "Punjabi songs 2015".), its the level of criticism a team gets from a performance. I've seen a team post 4 competition videos in one thread for their whole year and have had 0 comments but the views are at 1,000+. The view to comment ratio is a big fat 1,000:0. That needs to change.
Sorry if this has already been said. The thread is too long to wrap my head around on all the discussion haha.
Sorry if this has already been said. The thread is too long to wrap my head around on all the discussion haha.
HouseOfBhangra19
New Member
- Messages
- 11
DownManjot said:
Howie Magz
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 454
We hear this complaint from a lot of new teams that "hey you are not looking at my video" and "why is it that old teams get all the comments." Make your sets better.....You see what it takes to win from all the teams that place at these competitions. If your set is boring no one will comment on it. If your set is exciting and people can see it form the video, then someone will make a comment. I'm sure a lot of new teams see what it really takes to win by watching youtube videos and should be incorporating those formulas when making their sets. Overall get better and you will get respect and comments.