Nachde Nashville 2015 Competition Reviews

[Nachde Nashville]

For anyone who was at Nachde Nashville this past weekend, the Nachde Nashville Board would love to hear your thoughts on the competition. We invite everyone to post a review on this thread and look forward to hearing your critique!

Thanks,
Vrinda
NN Judges' Chair

 

[Howie Magz]

Re: Nachde Nashville Competition Reviews

I would like to thank the Nachde Nashville committee for having us this year as it was a wonderful time for a brand new competition. The competition ran very smoothly as all of the MBT family had a great time this weekend. Now, let's dive into what everyone really wants to find out; the logistics of the comp.


Mixer
-The mixer was an awesome time as the venue was gorgeous. It is nice for the committee to have random seating so teams are able to mingle. The mixer games were a nice touch to foster new friendships at these tables as they required everyone to mingle with one another. I am also glad that the committee was able to serve Indian food as most of the comps I have went to this year have been going with Italian cuisine. Show order was picked randomly, about which none of us complained.


Tech Time
-It was nice to have a 25 min tech time as this was extremely helpful to us. The only complaint in which we had was the stage as mentioned below. It was very small and confusing as the dimensions seemed to be off from what they reported to the teams.


Competition and Show
-The show started on time with a decent amount of people in the crowd to keep the teams going. Everything ran smoothly throughout the show as the committee tended to every single one of our needs whenever we needed them. The only complaint I myself and a lot of the other teams had was regarding the space dimensions. The stage was very small to perform on as we had to change formations on the day of the show to accommodate to them.


Judging
-I want to thank Mariam, Reeda, and Kuntal once again as they were very helpful and took time to provide excellent critiques and suggestions. Each judge told us something fresh and different from the others. This proved to be extremely helpful as they all seemed to catch something. I appreciated how much time each judge took to give constructive criticism. They all seemed to genuinely care about how we can improve for the future. Overall the judges were very fair and honest. After the judges meeting they were very approachable as well. When I asked after the judges meeting, they all offered additional critiques as well. They all have provided their critiques outside of the comp which is something that is very much appreciated by MBT.


After Party
-This was the only downside of the weekend as there was no after party for this competition. All the teams were provided with a list of bars and clubs, but the only issue was that a lot of the 18+ bars were actually 21+ bars. I suggest the committee solidify an after party venue next year as a lot of them teams wanted to hang out with one another, but had a difficult time doing so. Since there was no official team hotel, this made it even harder for everyone to find one another.


-Lastly I want to shout out Buckeye Bhangra for helping us tie not only ours, but a lot of the other teams' paghs as well. Shout out to Money from Buckeye for doing such a great job with all of them as you are a life saver. Also to our liaisons Lekha, Tushita, and Emmanuel for being so responsive and tending to everything. Once again congrats to Vtech for 2nd and Husky on 3rd.

 

[scaplash]

Re: Nachde Nashville Competition Reviews

Hey,
On behalf of Husky Bhangra, I also wanted to thank the Nachde Nashville Committee for an overall enjoyable weekend. Before diving into the details of the weekend, my overall impression of the comp was one run by a competent,responsible and organized committee. They worked to listen to team concerns and made the best of out of any setbacks. They were very lenient with us in terms of our mix , which I really appreciated as we had some last minute changes we put in. However, as a first year comp, I think there is some room for improvement which I am sure will come.
Pe-Mixer:
We were told on arriving that the liaisons would only be able to drive us to and from the airport (not from the venue to our hotel or anywhere else). I wish this had been told to us earlier as opposed to when we landed. (Initially the committee said via e-mail that there will be no transportation, but then later said that the liaisons would take care of transportation, which I assumed had been for the whole weekend, not just when picking us up from the airport and dropping us off). Because there was no official hotel, the hotel we booked was about a 10 minute drive (the SEC tournament was the same weekend in nashville so affordable hotel rooms were not easy to come by). However, we got a rental car which really helped us and one of the liaisons met us with a plate full of fresh chocolate chip cookies-definitely a plus.

Mixer:
The mixer was fun-food wasn't too bad. The venue, as Howie said earlier, was beautiful and spacious. The mixer was truly geared to have the teams mingle and get to know each other. I wish more time was given to just an open dance floor with some music. Lineup order was completely random, and while we didn't get the best spot in the lineup, its certainly nothing to complain about.


Tech Time:
No breakfast was provided by the committee, which hopefully is something they cando in the future (maybe even just bagels and cream cheese or something)-our team had no problem because our hotel had complimentary breakfast, I am not sure about other teams and if they had any trouble with breakfast. Tech time went without a hitch-the committee organized everything very well, there was an area to keep our saaps and khunde which was backstage so we didn't have to lug all of it around.
The stage was a bit smaller than ones we have danced on in the past, but with the tech time we had time to adjust.
For the remainder of the day, we had a "dressing room" which was more or less a classroom and it was awesome. The room was really really big-we were in fact able to run a couple of formations, it had built-in speakers and projectors so we could play music and relax as it came time for comp.
The Show:
-Performance went fine
-There were no real lighting cues- which isn't a big deal because at the end of the day its about bhangra, not a light show-but I think some would have been a bit more fun.
-The MCs weren't bad, but their premise of a "Bhangra Genie" (I think?) was a bit of a stretch
-The crowd could have been a bit bigger and bit more hype, but I imagine that there isn't much of a bhangra culture yet in Nashville, so that is probably out of the committee's control.
-Everything went right on time and it was in fact probably the fastest run bhangra comp I have ever been to.

Judging:
-The judges I think did a good job judging this comp, staying true to the rubric and giving teams really helpful feedback. Kuntal, Reeda and Mariam did a great job of not just pointing out small mistakes, but also giving critiques on set design that really helped us in re-evaluating our set moving forward.
-Some of the judges even reached out after the competition to give a much more in-depth critique which was much appreciated.

Afterparty:
-There was unfortunately no afterparty, so many of the teams organized a makeshift one at one of the hotels that some teams were staying at-others went to the 18+ clubs/21+ bars

Overall: I think with an official hotel/better transportation, a lot of the problems of not teams needing to figure out their own transportation could have been solved. WIth an official hotel, one shuttle could have been established- we could have seen our liaisons more often and teams could coordinate better. However, for a first year comp, the judging was fair, the show ran on time and committee stayed organized- so for any other teams I highly suggest you guys apply next year!

Also-Congrats to MBT for the First place-you guys looked awesome! Congrats to VT on second! Shout out to Buckeye for tying my pagh and like Howie said, so many other paghs!
Best,
Sonny

 

[Mr. Mankiran]

Re: Nachde Nashville Competition Reviews


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Positives:[/font]
- Mixer was amazing. I couldn't stay for its entirety but heard only good things and a lot of people said it was the best mixer they've been to hands down. For a first year comp that is impressive. Food was good.
- Show ran pretty smoothly, started on time and also finished at a reasonable time.
- Liaisons were great. Mine were Ramsi and Nicole, and they were incredibly friendly, helpful, and everything you need for the weekend. Great job for first time comp.
- Venue for both the mixer and the show were nice.
- Trophy was COOL. Different from the usual trophies: it was a small guitar on a normal trophy base.


Negatives:
- We were not given the right stage dimensions (it must have been less than 17 feet deep which is tiny). Our team had prepared to the specified dimensions and it made tech time and the performance a nuisance. If possible, get rid of the rigging and use the entire stage because teams would much rather have a full stage than an intro video.
- I personally dislike having the teams sit in the audience - put us up in the balcony. Filing in and out of the auditorium for whatever reason and before performing was a bit awkward.
- Afterparty getting canceled (not the committees fault at all, was just a timing issue with the Kentucky game being in Nashville/St. Patty's Day) and having little to no guidance for what we should do. Waffle house was awesome though!


GIANT NEGATIVE:
- Our team was performing last and the show had an intermission. Therefore, I was willing to help other teams with tying their paghs. At one point, someone from the NN board came into our dressing room and yelled at us and told our boys (none of which had their paghs done) to get into the auditorium immediately or we would be disqualified, etc. Our response, "We aren't dressed so I'm not sure what you want us to do...". We ignored them, finished getting everyone ready, and then we took our seats in the auditorium during the intermission. I frankly didn't see how us not being there for the entire show was a problem and it was extremely off-putting for both our team and a few guys from other teams. However, our liaisons (god bless them) supposedly handled the situation.


I also want to shoutout a few people/teams. First of all, every single team was super friendly and it was a positive competition and weekend in general. I've never been to a competition where every team had so much camaraderie and the MBT chant at the end was pretty cool. I had a chance to interact with a few people on other teams so I just want to give them a shoutout: Howie, you're a cool ass dude and your team was super chill. Sonny from husky, thanks for tying my pagh, saved me a ton of time cause its never fun doing it on yourself. The guy from Texas Bhangra, can't remember your name, my bad, but you saved us a ton of time by folding all the turle. And finally, Jayveer on my team. Wouldn't have been able to get all those paghs done without you helping out and you are by far the greatest team manager in the history of bhangra.


Overall, it was an awesome experience and hats off for a well run comp.

 

[JGandhi8]

Re: Nachde Nashville Competition Reviews

Hello, on behalf on Buckeye Bhangra, I wanted to give a shoutout to the Nachde Nashville board for an extremely well run weekend. I can't believe it was a first year comp, you guys ran it like pros.


Positives:
Mixer: The food was great, the layout was spacious, and the activities were so chill and well coordinated. Each group leader from the Nashville board was really engaging and made it a point to allow everyone in our group to get to know each other.
Tech: We were given 25 minutes of tech time which was absolutely phenomenal. There were no problems at all and was ran smoothly.
Show: The show ran very smoothly with little or no problems or delays. The show started and ended on time and the board was available throughout to answer any questions we may of had before and after we performed.
Judging: Thank you to Mariam, Reeda, and Kuntal for all of the thorough feedback. They broke down each of our segments and gave us specific areas where we could improve on for our remaining competitions. They took the time to answer any questions we had and even asked us to contact them incase we wanted to further discuss our performance.
Photos and Videos: The board was able to send us the photos from the competition within a couple days and videos shortly after. This was unheard of for me seeing as most comps take weeks to send out the performance material.

NEGATIVES:
The few problems I had were mentioned above by Money. The stage dimensions sent to us were far shorter than we had been practicing on so we had to make adjustments during the tech rehearsal. Also, the fact that a member of the board came in yelling at us about helping other teams out was absurd. Our team was quickly over it and various members of the liaison team and board were extremely apologetic. Also, we had an issue with the technical aspect of our judging sheet. We were docked a large amount of points because our Sher was apart of our intro video and not right before we performed. According to the technical sheet, we went over our allotted performance time by three minutes. We had made the board aware of this during the captains meeting but I'm assuming the information was not transferred to the people in charge of the technical judging. The situation had to be cleared up during the judges meeting and the board was extremely apologetic after. My only recommendation is to make sure all of your board members are made aware of specific scenarios so there isn't any miscommunication or incorrect judging.

Overall, I want to congratulate the Nachde Nashville board on an extremely successful weekend. I hope the competition continues to happen for years for come. Vrinda, thank you so much for being on top of everything and so transparent with all of the teams. Shoutout to Husky and UIUC for being cool as always, and it was great to meet and become friends with members of the other teams; especially MBT and Spartan Bhangra. Congrats to all of the placing teams and good luck at future competitions!

 

[sajan250]

First off, I would like to congratulate MBT, VT, and Husky on their placings! All of the teams completely killed it on stage!


Arrival: Our experience is pretty much the same as Sonny’s. We weren’t told until we were dropped off at Vandy from the airport that we would be in charge of transportation. If we had known this ahead of time, we would have planned for the additional transportation expense (and we would have considered a rental car). Shoutout to Harini for giving us a ride from Vandy to our hotel on Friday and to Emily for using her van the morning of the comp! Having one hotel for the teams would have been nice, but I understand that was not possible. That being said, since teams were on their own for hotels, having transportation would have made everything a lot easier.


Mixer: As the other guys mentioned, the mixer was fun and the food was good. I think the committee did a great job. Show order was a double blind - simple and fair.


Post Mixer: Shoutout to Emily and Samvruta for getting us a nice space to practice. Having areas already designated for teams to practice in would have been helpful, but I’m sure the committee had already considered this. Again, transportation back to the hotel sucked.


Tech Time: There was a bit of confusion for our tech time between our liaison and us. We were told that the assigned time was wrong and to be at the auditorium about 25 minutes later. We got a text the morning of saying that the info was incorrect and we had to be there at 11:25 instead of 11:50. If we hadn’t planned on being at the auditorium an hour before our tech time, we’d have lost all of our tech time. Tech time itself was smooth and efficient. 25 minutes of time was really helpful. Stage was the biggest issue we faced - exact dimensions were not communicated clearly to us at all and because of this, it became more of a hassle modifying formations and figuring out exact spacing on the stage. I personally think it would have been better to scrap the intro video backboard and replace that with extra stage space (I know this is possible on some stages - not sure if it was for this one).


Lunch: I know the committee said lunch was supposed to be provided, but by the time we got there it was almost all gone (and we were only the second team to go). We ended up getting our own food, which was a bit disappointing. If something cannot be provided, that’s fine, but having advanced notice is helpful.


Show: We really liked how each team had their own room.
WATER! I wish we were given more water throughout the comp, especially during the day of the comp. We were provided with exactly 1 bottle of water for each team member and that’s a little ridiculous. Also, requiring teams whose show order was in the second half to be completely ready (in terms of paghs) was a bit of a push. We were third, so it wasn’t an issue. But I think having teams rushing to have paghs ready isn’t a big deal as long as they’re ready on time. MC’s were quick and to the point and the show was fun.


Judging: Thanks to all the judges for coming out, we really appreciated the feedback we received after the show. Looking forward to the full, in-depth notes!


After Party: Not having an after party sucked, especially since all the teams were spread out in different hotels.


Overall: For a first year comp, it ran pretty smooth. Up until the comp, it seemed like the only people who knew what was going on were the directors. Although the head liaisons were very informed and helpful, I don’t think all the liaisons were as effective in helping out all the teams. There were several instances when the liaisons had to direct our questions towards the directors simply because they didn’t know the answers. In the future, the duties of the liaison should be clearly stated. My advice would be to try to get some of the school’s dancers to be liaisons. This is quite effective because they would know what the team needs throughout the competition. Transportation and communication were the two biggest issues in our opinion. I cannot stress enough the importance of effective communication. At the least, captains should be completely informed of any debilitating conditions that could affect the competition experience. Timing for the comp could have been better - given it was such a busy weekend, not having a central hotel caused a bit of unnecessary chaos and stress. Besides those things, we really enjoyed the comp. We had a blast meeting all the other teams! Shoutout to Money from Buckeye for tying my pagh (doing your own is such a bitch haha). Also, shoutout to Sonny and Bhavana for wrapping up my knee and helping me out after the performance! Lastly, shoutout to my bro Varun for helping me tie our team’s paghs and stepping in to help me this weekend, couldn’t have done it without you!
- Anish

 

[Raghavtrip]

Hey everyone! Below is our review for Nachde Nashville 2015. The weekend was a great experience for us—with how well it was organized, it was hard to believe that it was a first year comp. Most of this information I have relayed directly to the competition organizers as well, so I won’t go into too much detail.
Mixer
Mixer was held in a very large venue, and involved teams splitting up into tables (e.g. group 1, 2, etc.) for the majority of the activities, with one liaison per group directing the activities. Show order was randomly decided throughout the night. Food was great (more than enough for everyone) catered Indian food, which everyone on our team really enjoyed. Overall, the mixer was excellent—can’t really think of any flaws.
Tech Time
Tech Time was amazing—they gave us 25 minutes for Tech Time, which allowed us to do two full run throughs and go over with issues with certain formations. They didn’t provide lighting cues for this competition, but we were able to pick a lighting color for the entire set (saved us a lot of trouble!). The only hitch with tech time was that the stage dimensions they gave us weren’t the actual dancing stage dimensions (the actual room we could dance in was much smaller than the area we practiced for). This didn’t end up being too big of a deal for us, but I understand that it was for other teams. In addition, Tech Time was very late in the afternoon for us, which allowed us to sleep for a long period of time before the competition (always a bonus for us). Essentially, they gave us a minute-by-minute schedule the night before the competition (Friday after the mixer), which was followed almost to the minute. This was very useful for me and the rest of the team, as there was no confusion as to where to be and when to be there. One small issue was that lunch was supposed to be provided, but unfortunately there was none left for us when we got there. We ended up getting lunch within walking distance anyways!
Practice Space
Unfortunately, there was no practice space provided. That being said, however, there were a lot of areas to practice in on campus—we found a space in one of the dorms (a large room with mirrors), so this wasn’t really an issue for us. It is always hard for university competitions to have practice spaces available for the weekend, so I completely understand.
Competition and Show
The show itself was run very well, nothing was changed the day of, and there were minimal delays whatsoever. The lighting was good, the volume and mixing in of the dhol was good, etc. Again, hard to believe it’s a first year comp! Dressing rooms were provided well ahead of time, and were very nice. One thing was that it seemed the organizing committee really wanted us to be ready by 5 PM, even if we were performing very late at night. It is difficult to tie all pagha before then, and it sucks to have to wear the pagha for that long of a time if you are performing at the end of the competition--we ended up just walking between the show and our dressing room anyways (since they were directly connected--another huge plus), so this didn't hurt us too much.
Judging
Judging was absolutely fantastic. Our judges were Kuntal Shah, Mariam Afzal, and Reeda Saleem. Not only are these some of the biggest name dancers in the circuit, but I can safely say they put at least as much into the competition as the dancers. They gave us so many critiques it was hard to understand how they could write so much during our performance, and they had feedback on every single part of our set. More importantly, it appeared to us that they genuinely wanted to see our team improve They went above the time allotted for judging critiques to help us out with any questions we had, and beyond that, they all volunteered to help us out after seeing our video after the comp. As an example, Kuntal messaged me afterwards with his detailed critiques (before I even asked) and was very eager to help out with improving our team in the comps to come (as were all the judges). They even let us record the feedback!
After Party
Unfortunately, there was no after-party for this competition. I understand that it’s hard to clear an afterparty with some universities due to liability issues, but it still was kind of a let-down (of course). That being said, it wasn’t as big of a deal for us as it seems—honestly, we had just as much fun roaming downtown Nashville, and we got together with some of the other teams downtown as well. It may be a good idea for the NN organizers to explore doing what PCS Chicago did (see my other review), in booking a venue that is not downtown that is not necessarily a club. This may avoid some liability issues and allow the teams to have more time to mix with other teams in a personal setting. Moving forward, having a team hotel would also be great!
Overall
Overall, we had an excellent time at Nachde Nashville. There are some slight hitches, but this has to have been the best first year competition we have ever been to. Like I said before, it was hard to think of this comp as a first year comp, and we definitely would love to come back in the future. Special shoutout to our liaisons (Natalie and Mihir) for being excellent hosts, and the entire organizing board for making this an amazing competition for us! This competition provided us with pictures the day after the competition and the official video within three days of the competition--great turnaround time, especially considering that we wanted the video to prepare for more competitions.


Sincerely,
Raghav
Spartan Bhangra, Case Western Reserve University

 

[Reeeeda]

Hey guys! Thanks for all the kind words on the judging. I think I can speak for all three of us when I say we want to see teams do well. That said, for anyone who hasn't reached out to me already, you can feel free to find me on Facebook or message me here for additional feedback! Happy to help in any way I can

 

[anishl15]

[SIZE=medium]To start off, I would like to give props all the teams that performed at Nachde Nasvhille 2015. Everyone brought their A game and it was certainly a pleasure to share the stage with you all. Congratulations to MBT and Husky Bhangra on their placings. [/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Committee:[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium] The 2015 Nachde Nasvhille committee chairs were certainly a cordial and understanding group of individuals. Although it seemed that they had little experience in terms of what all goes into a Bhangra performance, they took all team's concerns into consideration. For instance, Tech was scheduled to perform 5th (7:40 PM) in the show, after intermission. Originally they had required all teams to be ready prior to the beginning of the show at 6:30, however, after expressing the concern of having individuals wearing potentially painful paagan for 2+ hours, they made accommodations to their original requirements and allowed teams to be ready 2 performances before. This is just one example of their willingness to accommodate based off of other's experiences. [/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]One flaw that I experienced was their inability to convey the new accommodations to the rest of the committee. In the above mentioned example, one of the committee members, who was not told about the new accommodation, came into our dressing room at 6:30 and started yelling at us in a disrespectful manner because we were obviously not ready. Personally, things like that don't bother me, however, one of our dancer's parents were also in the room and they took his gestures very offensively. Committee chairs made sure to have that committee member apologize to the team and the parents after hearing of the gesture.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Our liaisons were not very informed and up to speed with some competition details which did cause some confusion and delay in terms of tech time. Don’t know what the cause of that was, but the committee chairs reached out to me personally, gave me their contact information and suggested that I directly reach out to them if any further confusion occurs. Although our liaisons may have not been up to speed with the competition details at all times, they were very hospitable and did much more than they could have to accommodate our needs.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Judges:[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]The 2015 Nachde Nashville judges were very constructive and fair in my opinion. As far as judging went, they definitely went by their word of deliberating top 4, where top 4 was determined by the rubric. They did not waste time pointing out mistakes made in the performance, but rather suggested points of improvement in terms of set and performance. They all genuinely wanted to see the teams at Nachde Nashville prosper in the future. All were very open to discuss the performance in more detail down the road as well. Keep up the good work, I believe you all are paving a good judging foundation for the Bhangra circuit. Shout out to Kuntal for bringing his computer to the show to take notes! Could see your face glowing in the audience the whole night.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=78%][/SIZE][SIZE=medium]Points of improvement:[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=78%]
[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]I understand how all of the following points can be thought of as supplementary when considering a first year competition, nevertheless, I want to list them for Nachde Nashville’s interest.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]H[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium]ave one team hotel [/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium]à[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] makes things easier for the teams in terms of obtaining last minute performance resources and allows for a more enjoyable after party[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Organize practice space for teams after the mixer and after tech time -->[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] on a Bhangra team there is always something to practice and last week changes are countless. being said, avoiding the hassle of finding a practice space will be appreciated.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Accommodate transportation from the hotel to the venue for tech time -->[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] since teams aren’t familiar with the city, it becomes a hassle to find the correct parking lot and navigate through the campus/city to the correct venue while carrying bags and props.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Accommodate a stage with better lighting -->[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] lighting can truly enrich a performance - the only lighting available was a backdrop; try to add flashing lights, spotlights etc[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Have a few competition paag tiers -->[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] as a paag tier myself, it is a hassle to tie for a whole team, find a tier for yourself, prepare for the performance (stretch, walkthrough etc) and actually perform.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Accommodate an after party and transportation -->[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] having been in the circuit for some time now, this is not a really big deal for me. we all know how to have fun and meet up with the other teams without organization. when considering younger kids in the circuit, an after party is certainly one of the thrills associated with a competition and gives an opportunity to make new connections within the circuit.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]All of these will require an additional cost, however, I am sure most teams will be happy to pay for these amenities in the registration fees.[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Overall Competition Experience:[/SIZE]
[/size][SIZE=medium]Mixer[/SIZE]: Was not able to attend the mixer but it seemed as if the team truly enjoyed it. A lot of team members mentioned that it gave them an opportunity to mingle with other teams and helped them get over the stress of the competition.
[/size][SIZE=medium]Tech Time:[/SIZE] Tech time was 25 minutes long, which is plentiful. The committee made sure to give us constant time checks. Some members mentioned that the stage felt a little weird due to the rounded shape. Stage crew seemed to have lighting correct and did not waste valuable practice time.
[/size][SIZE=medium]Show:[/SIZE][/size][SIZE=medium] Show was not delayed significantly. Was a very average show in my opinion, MCs were not very entertaining, think that could that could be a point to improve upon in the future. May want to look into a performer as well.[/SIZE][/size][size=medium]