Gajjdi Jawani(Malaysia)@ BHANGRA DANCE OFF 2016(3rd Place)

[ManrajBajwa]

Hey guys,


Malaysia has successfully organised a second Bhangra competition and the one and only competition in South East Asia region.Gajjdi Jawani Malaysia competed along with teams from Singapore,Hong Kong and India as well.Sound like an uprising ASEAN circuit ya.Anyways check out our video attached below.Enjoy!




Gajjdi Jawani Malaysia : https://youtu.be/zQflsoT4_AM


Please provide any feedback as we are an uprising team and I would appreciate to listen to any critiques


Thank you.

 

[hsdeol]

manraj- what do you think your team could do to imporve?

 

[JimmyJatt]

Hi guys

Long time lurker, first time poster.
Please don't take offence to anything I mention. Most of it is my opinion and I'm just sharing my thoughts.

As @hsdeol has said, you guys need to start analysing yourselves and figuring out where you can improve. @hsdeol is part of a top tier team and I'm sure they improve by watching themselves and critiquing each other. They don't have very many other teams to watch and follow that are better than them and every team should be doing the same by improving on their own.
The first time I watched your video, I noticed multiple things you guys were doing differently to many top American, UK and Australian teams. Just to state a few:
-there were people forgetting moves
-general sync of moves
-sloppy line movement
-people starting moves on the wrong feet
-leg extensions varied. Most people agree they should be above waist height
-lacked energy and subsequent nakhra in parts
-sapp extensions varied. Faster clapping tended to be very small extensions


I also find it a little odd that your team dances with uneven numbers of girls and boys. You did this at BDU also and it took me by surprise. Not many teams choose this setup probably because of the symmetry aspect and because it limits the formations you can do with an odd number of dancers. There is a member who comes on just for the gimmick (3 people spin). Why not have him dance the whole set? This would also mean you guys can have jodis and have more conventional formations (my opinion).


Just a more general thing, I think you guys would benefit from learning other teams sets and comparing. I've done this and the differences become much more apparent. It would also help to try and choreograph more segments. This would help creativity and also give you more experience. I say this because I also noticed your music and set was very similar to BDU. You guys could have changed more choreo (I see you changed the jhummar) and changed the music up to try new things.

Overall, props to you guys for starting bhangra in Malaysia and competing. You guys are definitely improving and getting better. I'm keen to see the progress. Hopefully my post gives you some insight.

 

[ManrajBajwa]

manraj- what do you think your team could do to imporve?

Firstly I feel that their mentality is not right because they just dance bhangra without putting any effort in improving themselves even i tried to change their mindset but its tough to change people if they dont want to change by themselves.There is a lot of improvement can be make esp the energy level but like I said having a team with people who have no interest cant get you any further.After 2 years of being the captain of this team i realized that this team was never meant to go win comps and it was only meant to perform for showcase because not much people in the team that I know actually want to improve in the team to win comps.Thats why the next team that I am in.I would only take people who actually interested to win comps

 

[Prabhzy]

with all due respect i think you should put winning a comp at the least of your priorities right now. I do admire the fact that there is a bhangra setup in Malaysia and props to you guys going to BDU in the first place.


I understand that for many members of your team, perfecting the art of folk bhangra is the least of their worries and they are just doing it for fun which could only lead to being a gig team ( nothing wrong with that) You need to find people who appreciate punjabi folk and the aspects of this dance; firstly by wanting to learn how to execute each move properly. You can only do this by rinsing india college videos on youtube and by trying to imitate them. despite being in the UK i wasnt part of a top team or had a teacher, I learnt all moves myself coz i had dedication and passion to improve. Unless the basics are nailed down, forming a team and going to comps is pointless tbh. You dont want to stick out like a sore thumb do you? Unfortunately for teams in Malaysia, the UK and Aus have caught up to US/Canada standards so fast that now all three areas produce teams with top dancers with the same skill level and the teams in Malaysia/Singapore cannot afford to lag behind too long to the extent that dancers lose interest because they cannot compete at normal competition standard.


There is no right or wrong way you can change your team mindset, they either are passionate or they arent. Dont try to force something on them if its not going to happen. All i can recommend is when you do finally find a group of guys and girls who actually want to dance at the same level as top teams in the world, you need to nail the basics of dancing with them. Only then they will appreciate the dedication and passion it takes to get to this level.


Hope this helps and im sorry if Ive come across in a negative way! I do hope teams in your area come up! Make use of the Indian diaspora to your advantage! If you need any help/advice feel free to pm me

 

[ManrajBajwa]

with all due respect i think you should put winning a comp at the least of your priorities right now. I do admire the fact that there is a bhangra setup in Malaysia and props to you guys going to BDU in the first place.


I understand that for many members of your team, perfecting the art of folk bhangra is the least of their worries and they are just doing it for fun which could only lead to being a gig team ( nothing wrong with that) You need to find people who appreciate punjabi folk and the aspects of this dance; firstly by wanting to learn how to execute each move properly. You can only do this by rinsing india college videos on youtube and by trying to imitate them. despite being in the UK i wasnt part of a top team or had a teacher, I learnt all moves myself coz i had dedication and passion to improve. Unless the basics are nailed down, forming a team and going to comps is pointless tbh. You dont want to stick out like a sore thumb do you? Unfortunately for teams in Malaysia, the UK and Aus have caught up to US/Canada standards so fast that now all three areas produce teams with top dancers with the same skill level and the teams in Malaysia/Singapore cannot afford to lag behind too long to the extent that dancers lose interest because they cannot compete at normal competition standard.


There is no right or wrong way you can change your team mindset, they either are passionate or they arent. Dont try to force something on them if its not going to happen. All i can recommend is when you do finally find a group of guys and girls who actually want to dance at the same level as top teams in the world, you need to nail the basics of dancing with them. Only then they will appreciate the dedication and passion it takes to get to this level.


Hope this helps and im sorry if Ive come across in a negative way! I do hope teams in your area come up! Make use of the Indian diaspora to your advantage! If you need any help/advice feel free to pm me

I appreciate your opinions is really grateful of you. Yes the reason why we went for BDU was never to win but was to learn how they do things over there(how they host comps and gain experience).What me and some of my friends from Singapore have decided to try to start a circuit.The major problem we face is that the bhangra scene has been in Malaysia since the 80's and maybe in Singapore in the 90's(if I am not mistaken) so the existence of bhangra has been there but only for gigs and for competitive.The gig teams do not want to compete because they are afraid that their business will be bad if they look bad on stage neither there are good.Just last week I was a gig bhangra team did a performance and they did a giddha,bollywood and bhangra in one whole set and its not that they did segment by segment,its like one step in bhangra and the next step was a giddha step and the following was bollywood....We are trying to start of teams step by steps but I think its much harder here because we have to not only resist the existing bhangra scene but we need to get the attention of the community that we have competitive bhangra groups and we need support.So far we have one comeptitive bhangra team which just open to the community and we do get lot of passionate and talented people who came for our try outs.So I really hope there they will be a compeittive scene in ASEAN in the couple of years.I do thank you again for your suggestions.

 

[DjPunjab123]

Very Good!
These kind of competitions encourage taste of youth culture of Punjab and our cultural dance Bhangra. I appreciate their efforts.

 

[hsdeol]

@ManrajBajwa

so i let the convo brew a little before chiming in again. here are my thoughts:

the performance was really nice! i enjoyed the performance and glad you guys stuck to the basics and doing those well.
areas of improvement:

• energy (as youve already mentioned).
• Jodi interaction! you ran a co-ed set but didnt utilize having a mixed team. watch a co-ed team like CMU Bhangra and see how much they use having guys and girls to their advantage.
• Jhummar segment needs a revamp. it was a low point of the performance
• I really liked the band involvement for the last bit of the routine! 2 comments on this tho
  • you should have them involved throughout the set. a dholi would have brought more life to the set.
  • you need to choreo this. having the band come out and then just having people fiddle around on stage isn't the best presentation you can put out there

In terms of your comments on mentality of the team. there are a few things you can do as a captain to get your teammates more involved

• give them roles and responsibilities that contribute towards the performance. it can be simple things like, "can someone find cool stage markers for us to use for the performance" to more elaborate roles such as choreographing segments.
• ALWAYS invite your whole team to choreo sessions and encourage participation.
• get them on BTF. give them some videos to watch that youve seen or find out what teams out there they like watching
• realize that people join bhangra teams for different reasons. find out why your teammates joined and make sure that their experiences are meeting their expectations
• run team activities and bonding sessions. people dont want to let down people they feel close to.

you have to be patient. it seems like your teams hasnt been together for that long- you have to give yourself some time to grow and develop. it also seems like a bhangra circuit around you is very young also. dont get down, and never let your teammates get down. you guys are doing a great job. keep working hard and youll see the team grow into a powerhouse

 

[ManrajBajwa]

@ManrajBajwa

so i let the convo brew a little before chiming in again. here are my thoughts:

the performance was really nice! i enjoyed the performance and glad you guys stuck to the basics and doing those well.
areas of improvement:

• energy (as youve already mentioned).
• Jodi interaction! you ran a co-ed set but didnt utilize having a mixed team. watch a co-ed team like CMU Bhangra and see how much they use having guys and girls to their advantage.
• Jhummar segment needs a revamp. it was a low point of the performance
• I really liked the band involvement for the last bit of the routine! 2 comments on this tho
  • you should have them involved throughout the set. a dholi would have brought more life to the set.
  • you need to choreo this. having the band come out and then just having people fiddle around on stage isn't the best presentation you can put out there

In terms of your comments on mentality of the team. there are a few things you can do as a captain to get your teammates more involved

• give them roles and responsibilities that contribute towards the performance. it can be simple things like, "can someone find cool stage markers for us to use for the performance" to more elaborate roles such as choreographing segments.
• ALWAYS invite your whole team to choreo sessions and encourage participation.
• get them on BTF. give them some videos to watch that youve seen or find out what teams out there they like watching
• realize that people join bhangra teams for different reasons. find out why your teammates joined and make sure that their experiences are meeting their expectations
• run team activities and bonding sessions. people dont want to let down people they feel close to.

you have to be patient. it seems like your teams hasnt been together for that long- you have to give yourself some time to grow and develop. it also seems like a bhangra circuit around you is very young also. dont get down, and never let your teammates get down. you guys are doing a great job. keep working hard and youll see the team grow into a powerhouse

Yea thank for the support and the critiques. yeah even the judges gave about the same critiques on the jhummar doing some routine to improve the chore.Yes the circuit is too young and more team are blooming up.Yea i figure out on the interaction for the jodi where the jodi has to be fixed in all performance so over time they would know how to interact more natural.Thank you very much really appreciate the feedback.