Warning: Pseudo-treatise on judging incoming =P (Not really, but sorry for the long post haha)
Ya'll ripped this set. I'm trying to speak objectively here, but of course I have danced with you all before =P
Seriously though, this was by far the most entertaining set of the night in my opinion. (and still very clean)
I'm really surprised you guys (and 2 girls) didn't place to be honest.
It was clear that the judges that night were looking for a lot of synchronicity, but I feel like they didn't quite respect the very nice balance of entertaining/folk you guys have.
This set could win anywhere imo when executed to it's max. I guess my only advice is that the dancer skill has to be more equal, but I wish that wasn't the number one priority of so many judges.
Sometimes I feel as though most judges are really just scouring the stage constantly looking for the weakest link at any given moment, instead of looking at the set as the team is trying to present it. It reduces the emphasis placed on entertainment factor simply because the judges aren't looking to be entertained, they are looking to judge everyone first, and be entertained only when they can't find anything that's off.
This isn't fair to teams who make entertainment their #1 priority (like yours). Ideally I feel like judges should judge teams as teams try to present themselves, and then make a holistic comparison of which team executed what they were trying to bring to the stage with more overall value. Perhaps that is too hard to quantify or even qualify, but it should be what they aim for imo. It doesn't make sense for any one style to just constantly trump other styles in every circumstance.
When a team decides that they want to create a highly entertaining and fun set as their FIRST priority it automatically makes cleanliness priority number two. This makes them lose every time to a team that decides cleanliness is priority number one, especially nowadays when most judging has become about cleanliness.
It encourages teams to play it far too safe. This has been said in the past in many threads, but when judges do this it stagnates bhangra as an art form imo.
Bhangra needs teams like you to keep doing what you do, and that won't happen if you all aren't rewarded at all for doing so. Luckily you guys love dancing enough to keep it up.
An example of some solid judging would be at Elite 8 last year. Ignoring any controversy over who should've won first, the top three teams were NYPD, UNC, and JJ according to the judges. These teams had three very different styles and all three executed their sets as they were meant to be executed. The judges still were able to respect all three different styles and recognized that those were the best three teams of the night. It was not purely about some one ideal style that trumped all others.
Sure some teams showcase certain dancers more at the front for certain moves because they are significantly better at those moves, but why constantly punish a team for having a few weak dancers in a really challenging set? This weakest link judging is far too harsh in some cases. Obviously some teams are trying to put their best foot forward as they push the envelope. Instead of punishing a team for having to do that, why don't you acknowledge it and just treat it as an overall negative factor, but reward them for pushing the envelope. Furthermore, reward a team who was able to rotate all their dancers through more evenly, so long as that other team's set as a whole was still close to the same level in other respects.
Judges always say bhangra is a team dance, so everyone should dance together, and that's the excuse for focusing so much on everyone dancing as one. However, obviously we know bhangra is a team dance. We are dancing together...everyday in practice, and on a stage. At the end of the day though we are giving a performance. Some teams want to showcase how clean they can be, that's their strong suit. However, a lot of all-guys teams like you have a lot of individual talent to showcase at certain parts, but judges are no longer into individuals as dancers (which I can understand, but don't agree with 100%). I guess you will have to make everyone dance even more similarly to win in the current circuit.
For some reason judges are still happy to see the same kind of formations and moves just executed simply and robotically, and have no respect for the stamina/creativity it takes to execute/invent these harder sets. I'm not saying there isn't value to the former, but I do think things are very biased towards the former right now in the circuit, instead of a proper balance of judging (obviously this is a gross generalization on judges, but I do have to speak in general right now to talk about the circuit as a whole).
Usually "folkness" is cited to discourage the lack of what some all-guys teams find to be entertaining, and I generally agree with that. I'm not a fan of stop-and-go/rehashed gimmicks from other teams and hip-hop performances, really modern styles, etc.
However, I feel like the entertainment in this set was really tasteful, unique, flowed well (no stop-and-go gimmicks), and the set was still very folk. Dancer skill was incredibly high, and energy was so high for a such a hard set. I had so much fun watching you guys have fun dancing.
Sure I have to admit other teams were more uniform in their dancer ability, but is that really so great? Are you all not doing the move close enough to each other? Can you all not have some fun on stage when your whole purpose of dancing in the first place is to entertain? Did you guys really deserve 4th behind all three of those other teams? Is their style (which were all really similar) actually just better than yours? I don't think so. I think cleanliness and dancer synchronicity were over valued this year at VPD, and at the end of the day it really only hurt you guys specifically because clearly your style was not equally respected by the judges for whatever reason.
At the end of the day, we have to respect the judges opinions because they have much experience and probably have many reasons for why they feel the way they do. Personally when I talked to the judges after the comp they seemed incredibly open, honest, and I agreed with everything they had to say about our set at least (UNC), but I know you guys were disappointed, so hopefully ya'll take this set to another comp and it goes better for you. (TAKE ME TOO!) Perhaps you guys just had to be a little bit cleaner to place, but I feel like in other comps, this would've gotten first. (First by a long shot even)
Hopefully this post makes people think a little bit. I have nothing against clean well executed sets, I dance for UNC for god's sake, lol. I'm just saying the folk all-guys style really is underrated in the game, when it should be on a more equal footing imo. Respect it for what it is, don't just make comparisons of form and formations without equally fair and critical comparisons of creativity and difficulty etc. A lot of all-guys teams are being forced to go to a more modern style now just to clean up more and still have challenging sets. It's detrimental to the circuit and they still lose too (unless they go to a "modern comp") because it becomes less folk...
These are just a lot of my thoughts on the matter, I still want to give a big congrats to the placing teams. I know you all deserved to be in the top three, especially because I was incredibly happy with how the judges evaluated us (UNC), I have NO complaints there.
However, hopefully no one is offended in my saying KPGD was definitely on your level last night for the reasons stated prior. I think the judges just happened to have a very predetermined mindset of what to expect/look for at this comp. KPGD's style probably caught them off gaurd, and they didn't make the best evaluation of KPGD specifically given the situation imo.
Should a pretty clean but unique and challenging set beat a very clean although much simpler set? Well clearly there's no way to know without watching them.
But should the only such former set at a competition lose to 3 of the latter sets?? Highly unlikely imo.
tl;dr
You guys had the best risk to execution ratio last night and ya'll were on the podium for me. <3
