This review is from the perspective of an audience member/guest of judge. Though I did not have as significant of a role throughout the comp, as an ex-director/board member of several competitions, I would like to offer my feedback.
Mixer:
Did not attend, but from what I saw on snapchat/heard from various dancers, it was dope. Shoutout to GBC staff for getting Insomnia cookies + milk, and Kushali for apparently going out to get Taco Bell for teams at 1 am :O
Pre-Show:
As mentioned earlier, I was a guest of one of the judges, so we were given a call time of 5 pm to be at the venue. Due to some delays during tech time everything was pushed back, and despite how busy she must have been dealing with everything, Kushali messaged judges ASAP letting them know of the situation and how much wiggle room they had. Once the judges + us guests got to the venue, we were welcomed by several staff members including Kushali, who pointed us in the direction of lots of yummy food and some VERY cute gift baskets for judges (shoutout to judges' liaison Genni for the extreme customization hahaha)
Show:
+ seating area for judges was marked and roped off very well. Guests of judges were permitted to sit right behind them.
- the area sectioned off for dancers was directly behind where the judges were sitting. I could tell that the judges felt very uncomfortable with teams staring straight at their laptops/comments sheets. I will mention this point again in my note to the teams later on.
= For the first 3 teams who performed, the music in the auditorium did not sound good at all. It was either too loud/ muffled or way too quiet for most of their sets. I'm not sure whether this was a result of the teams having poorly made mixes or because the auditorium had bad speakers, but it did get fixed from the 4th team onwards so that was good.
+++ Emcees: In general, my favorite type of emcee is the god mic type (aka the non existent one). HOWEVER, Gundeep and Dansen did an amazing job! Emcees are usually either extremely extra about their bits, or just read team blurbs off an index card, but these two really made an effort to convey relevant and interesting information. [SIZE=small]Gundeep specifically was extremely well versed, and I loved that he gave the audience a great history of Bhangra with a couple jokes thrown in. Y'all made sure to keep the audience entertained, and focus the attention on the teams and the competition rather than yourselves. Awesome job! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]After party: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]+ Getting in: shoutout to Shivali for keeping the line moving fast [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]= music was pretty decent, song selection was ~interesting~ [/SIZE]
+ Totally get the lack of clubs in Harrisonburg, but kudos to y'all for getting a space exclusively for GBC people. In the future, maybe get those pool tables moved out? They were getting gross and I could tell that the staff was annoyed at people leaning on them
NOTE TO TEAMS:
Look, I know that you guys put in hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to compete. That being said, so do the directors and staff of the competitions that you attend. If they are expected to show you warmth and hospitality, it is your responsibility to respect them, the venues, and use common sense. If you are asked to submit a props list or a gimmick summary, be honest. Don't under-emphasize the magnitude of what you're going to pull onstage just to get the green light from the organizers. I can guarantee you that opening flame or pouring baby powder all over the stage is NOT going to gain you points on a rubric. However, it will jeopardize the organizers' relationship with the venue, not to mention the safety of everyone in attendance. To the teams that did that, you guys should know better, and I think you owe GBC staff an apology.
On the topic of respect, the judges deserve privacy and confidentiality in their scoring. I witnessed multiple dancers take their phones out, and try to zoom in on the laptops/scoresheets that the judges were using during the show. Seriously?
While I definitely think that the area allotted for the dancers should not have been directly behind judges, I think the dancers should have used better judgement/common courtesy.
For anyone else reading this, please consider the integrity of the staff and the judges at any competitions you attend in the future.
Overall:
Congratulations to the staff for hosting such a successful competition, despite all the setbacks that you encountered along the way. I can confidently say that GBC achieved a level of hospitality in its first year that has far superseded that of other competitions which have been around for longer. Kushali, you were amazing. You handled everything with so much grace and warmth, and I am so impressed at your attention to detail.
Congratulations to all the teams for putting on some amazing performances, and a special shoutout to the placing teams, FCB, AEG, CMU- y'all were a pleasure to watch!
. Shouout to CMU on their placing as well and especially to Kavin and Tanya for holding it down at this competition especially with how difficult the dancer turnover rate every year for every collegiate team and trust me I've been there haha. You all danced well and trained your dancers very well. We can't wait to come to Pittsburg for Bhangra in the Burgh in 11 days and experience that real steel city hospitality. Congratulations to the Got Bhangra committee for putting together an awesome weekend.
