MCB Competition Review

[yraparla]

Did I time travel to 2009? Wth is going on. #missthedrama

 

[hardeep_singh]

every team should just build/buy plastic saaps that way broken saaps would never be an issue again

 

[imsunnysingh]

every team should just build/buy plastic saaps that way broken saaps would never be an issue again

Shameless plug FTW I see you Hardeep

 

[MotorCityBhangra]

Hello Everyone,

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their kind words for me and my committee. We really appreciate all of your feedback positive and negative because that is what is going to make our competition better next year. As I have said before that in no way our competition was perfect and I am a strong believer of the saying that there is always room for improvement. We thank everyone on BTF to come up and provide their reviews for our competition and special thanks to those who appreciated our effort in bringing back traditional Bhangra to North America. We know this very well that it is a tough task because we are going against what the mindset is of today's generation about what actually is folk Bhangra? I know a lot of people here think that we should evolve Bhangra as the time changes and not stick to the same old Bhangra that was generated back in India. We want to make sure we make it very clear to everyone here that we STRONGLY support that as an organization and have absolutely no problem with ANYONE who is organizing "MODERN" Bhangra competition because not only it brings the creativity out of the teams but also is keeping the culture and tradition alive.

WE DO NOT EXPECT THE TEAMS TO DANCE LIKE THE TEAMS IN INDIA. We just want them to bring a traditional set that is full of just "folk" Bhangra and less of "modern" Bhangra. I know you all might have some questions as to what is considered folk and what is considered modern. Even I am not fully sure when it comes to this but I think our mentality of folk Bhangra is the Bhangra that is performed in India which I believe as an organizer of this competition is not true. When I started this competition I had only 1 mindset and that was to show the kids and the audience a dance that is folk and traditional with a touch of creativity and full of energy and take them back to their roots. I know there are 100 other competitions out there that would love to have teams bring the best gimmicks because that is what the crowd wants these days and that is perfectly fine. The only difference is that our competition does not give that much priority to the gimmicks as it does to the traditional elements in the routine. We just want teams to bring something different to our competition that they are not known for because they go to so many competition in a year that are modern or traditional/modern.

I know a few people had some questions about our rubric not being hardcore traditional. One of the reasons why it is not hardcore traditional is because if we make it hardcore traditional then we will be expecting teams to dance like teams in India which is not fair to any teams in the circuit. So we made a rubric that gave the teams a little bit of freedom to show traditional Bhangra to our audience and at the same time present something new on stage hence the traditional elements points were only 65 points not 100 points. All the teams according to me was able to create that magic on stage hence no team was disqualified according to the rubric and every team was judged the same way.

There are some questions regarding judges and judging criteria. As an organizer when I selected the judging panel for this year I felt like they are the most suitable judges according to the rubric and the context of our competition and I will stand by my decision because according to me they made the decision that they thought was the best decision after watching the teams. Now as a process of getting better every year we will make sure to continue to bring the people that we feel have the experience and knowledge to judge this competition. Also I have heard a few people talk about the inconsistency in what was told and what was judged upon. I would highly suggest the teams if they have questions on what the points were deducted on that made them ineligible for placing at the comp. I have all the judges notes and I have reviewed them and they are consistent throughout the board regardless of what team they judged. So please let me know if you need them I will be more than happy to send you the notes.

At the end in order to conclude this conversation about judging and placing and competition itself I think you all are more knowledgeable than me when it comes to Bhangra. I am just following my passion in bring back what I learned when I was a kid and danced for Khalsa college Amritsar with the elements that I learned when I came here from India. I think when you mix both of these you get something that people have never seen before and that is the magic I am trying to create with this competition. So I will kindly request everyone that regardless of which team did what on stage at the competition in our eyes and all our audience that was present at that time they were all winners. We as a committee were privileged to have such a great line up and will be happy to have all of you back again because regardless of what anyone else think to me all of the teams did heck of a job to show the audience and everyone present there that traditional Bhangra is still alive and THAT IS WHAT WE WANTED and will continue to bring back every year with all of your love and support.

I apologize for the long message and if I said anything wrong. I am just a guy that can't see people who share the same passion towards Bhangra fighting for something that can be easily resolved. We are a great community and I am proud to be a small part of it.

Thank You

Gary Khehra[font=]
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[Robby Benipal]

World's Best Bhangra Crew Match-Up 6 should be posted shortly tonight…. if you real hahah


But good point on both sides. In my opinion, it comes down to entertainment and getting people interested and more involved in bhangra. Not everyone out there knows bhangra well enough to enjoy completely folk sets. Reality is, kids out there want to see something fun. It could be a 3 man tower, laser daangs, hydraulic car, LED mela(self pump), or projector effects.. without these things.. i doubt any of the younger generation would click on another bhangra video on youtube. and these things were definitely not present if you go watch old competitions in 2006-2008. So overall… bhangra has evolved.


Just my opinion on things. I could be wrong. Feel free to add on but if you gonna get booty hurt you can continue scrolling lol. 8)

 

[disharma1317]

World's Best Bhangra Crew Match-Up 6 should be posted shortly tonight…. if you real hahah

you never know. hypeeee

 

[satinder]

Hello everyone . I have read a lot about MCB judging issues . I was one of the judge . I dont understand why everyone is making so much fuss about it . If the judgement Was wrong how come the teams which performed well which everyone agrees won. Just explain me this . One thing more judging is always subjective not objective. Also the main element and core was traditional and I am sorry the teams which didnot have that element or lagged in one or the other aspect didnot win . But again that doesnot mean they are not good teams , infact they are excellent teams with lot of skill but at the end of day out of ten teams there has to be one winner.so my request is I am okay with banning tha judges as we might be too folk or traditional for some people who think they have mastered everything and have no room for improvement. Also If I sit for judgement again I will do the same thing and I will still stress on folk elements because its hard for me to quit what I have learnt over years from actual people whose name some of you might not even heard of . I want to congratulate all the teams but I feel this is not a way to go.

 

[Saab]

Please post more feedback of the competition. The interplay has been...interesting, but when you have a competition as receptive to feedback as Motor City, it's best to utilize the review tool!


#BringBackReviews

 

[SunnyS]

This site has made bhangra soft. Bhangra aint what it used to be and that's simply because everybody wants to make friends and hate seeing healthy competition. Ofcourse when two teams have a rivalry going on they're not going to sit and eat cupcakes together. A war of words and the whole industry starts pissing themselves. I applaud AEG and Virsa. Keep talking shit to each other and hopefully that'll ignite the fire back in bhangra. Nobody kills each other over bhangra so stop getting your panties in a bunch and let the teams do their talking.

P.s Im sorry since this is somewhat irrelevant to this post.

 

[sumeetj]

This site has made bhangra soft. Bhangra aint what it used to be and that's simply because everybody wants to make friends and hate seeing healthy competition. Ofcourse when two teams have a rivalry going on they're not going to sit and eat cupcakes together. A war of words and the whole industry starts pissing themselves. I applaud AEG and Virsa. Keep talking shit to each other and hopefully that'll ignite the fire back in bhangra. Nobody kills each other over bhangra so stop getting your panties in a bunch and let the teams do their talking.

P.s Im sorry since this is somewhat irrelevant to this post.

+1


also, what matter to one person may not matter that much to another - some people want quantity of trophies, some want impact on the circuit. safe to say many teams have a good combo of both, but some tip more on one side than the other (which doesn't make it bad in any way, and i dont think one is worth more than the other as long as that team's goal is fulfilled)

along with that, people seem to forget that bhangra is an artform - and art is meant to be a way to express something. if people express bhangra in slightly different ways, how does that make one way WORSE than the other - of course if ones less aesthetically pleasing, you can argue that, but thats also very subjective. not even all the india teams look the same, i bet i can find a group of great dancers here, put up a slightly blurry practice video of everyone wearing wife beaters doing a basic folk set to dhol and say its some team from jalandhar or ludhiana and people would probably believe it and get all turned on about how "folk" and "pure" it is.

 

[jasraj93]

This site has made bhangra soft. Bhangra aint what it used to be and that's simply because everybody wants to make friends and hate seeing healthy competition. Ofcourse when two teams have a rivalry going on they're not going to sit and eat cupcakes together. A war of words and the whole industry starts pissing themselves. I applaud AEG and Virsa. Keep talking shit to each other and hopefully that'll ignite the fire back in bhangra. Nobody kills each other over bhangra so stop getting your panties in a bunch and let the teams do their talking.

P.s Im sorry since this is somewhat irrelevant to this post.

+ 5000

 

[sunnyd48]

I have all the judges notes and I have reviewed them and they are consistent throughout the board regardless of what team they judged. So please let me know if you need them I will be more than happy to send you the notes.

Please post/email them to us. Thanks in advance.

 

[Basim]

This site has made bhangra soft. Bhangra aint what it used to be and that's simply because everybody wants to make friends and hate seeing healthy competition. Ofcourse when two teams have a rivalry going on they're not going to sit and eat cupcakes together. A war of words and the whole industry starts pissing themselves. I applaud AEG and Virsa. Keep talking shit to each other and hopefully that'll ignite the fire back in bhangra. Nobody kills each other over bhangra so stop getting your panties in a bunch and let the teams do their talking.

P.s Im sorry since this is somewhat irrelevant to this post.

So even though I might be a moderator here, I would still respectfully disagree with what you stated above. Some may think I'm "biased" with my point of view, but I would form this opinion regardless. I don't see how BTF made the overall circuit "soft." The biggest difference between what BTF provides now in comparison to what we had in the past is transparency - this prevents one person from a team (or even a random person/fan) making 10 anonymous accounts to talk shit against someone's view or dance.

Just because you may know who a person is shouldn't make your team's rivalry any less. Trust me when I say that we (the moderators) try our best to NOT interfere with any discussions and let conversations/thoughts/rivalries transpire as they would naturally. As you can see from this topic - we didn't prevent it from happening (lock the topic), we simply asked for the personal attacks to stop. Attack each other's team, style, dancing experience, execution, stamina, gimmicks, "folkness," etc etc in any way that you choose.. just don't bring non-relevant junk (i.e. personal beef) into it. Additionally, when an opposing team releases their video here, critique the shit out of them - nobody is going to stop you from doing that.

I'm all about rivalries and love to see them just as much as the next person. I think many other factors that have led to the circuit getting "soft" (as you put it), not just that things are a bit more transparent now. Also, as much we would like it, not every member from the circuit is an active member here.. so it's hard to judge the entire circuit based solely on the people that actually post here/stay active.


I'm sure many may disagree, but this is just my two cents.


~ Basim

 

[amancheema]

AEG wins best legacy ever for introducing the circuit to Notorious Jatt

 

[amancheema]

 

[Sukhdip S. Chhina]

Hello everyone,
I am a member of Virsa: Our Tradition and would like to comment on the “drama” that occurred in this post on the behalf of my team. Everyone knows that Virsa and AEG has drama/beef/love/hate with each other and I would like to acknowledge that it is true that we don’t like AEG or plan on liking them. I personally think there is nothing wrong with this and that it only keeps things interesting and fun for us. We like creating drama on btf/facebook/instagram and reading everyone’s responses which makes it even more hilarious to read. I agree that one of our members kind of went overboard and would just like to say that sometimes youthfulness gets the better of you. Also to all the younger people on this forum that we have “corrupted” I would like to say that this “drama” we have with AEG makes us want to improve as bhangra dancers and as a team. Without it Bhangra probably would not be fun for us. We go to Bhangra Competitions to show our love and passion for Bhangra and also to compete.
P.S. We will put up our video when we have a few things figured out.

 

[amancheema]

We like creating drama on btf/facebook/instagram

 

[hardeep_singh]

every team should just build/buy plastic saaps that way broken saaps would never be an issue again

Shameless plug FTW I see you Hardeep

u know me bro, just trying to help solve some problems. every time a saap breaks god(pammi bai) kills a kitten :'(

 

[sgrewal30]

This site has made bhangra soft. Bhangra aint what it used to be and that's simply because everybody wants to make friends and hate seeing healthy competition. Ofcourse when two teams have a rivalry going on they're not going to sit and eat cupcakes together. A war of words and the whole industry starts pissing themselves. I applaud AEG and Virsa. Keep talking shit to each other and hopefully that'll ignite the fire back in bhangra. Nobody kills each other over bhangra so stop getting your panties in a bunch and let the teams do their talking.

P.s Im sorry since this is somewhat irrelevant to this post.

I don't post much anymore, but what Sunny said is true. There's nothing wrong with a little healthy competition. Teams used to work harder to prove themselves. Although it digresses from MCB's review. I'd like to say this was the first comp that had teams like Virsa, AEG, SGPD, NJ, and others back in the game. They had some amazing teams. I would pay to see a comp with a line up like this. Congratulations to MCB for having these teams this year and I hope to see these teams coming out to more comps. I miss seeing these legit teams (not that current active teams aren't) going head to head. And they were all fantastic. You saw the passion they had. +1 Sunny "Nobody kills each other over bhangra so stop getting your panties in a bunch and let the teams do their talking." Oki doki Well done MCB!! And all the teams who won and competed!

 

[hardeep_singh]

To be folk, or to be modern, that is the question

Whether ‘tis nobler in mind to folk

The shikka and daang of outrageous fortune

Or to take lasers against the sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To luddi, to chaal

No more; and by a sleep, to say we dance