Preface:
First of all, FML. Yes, fuck my life. This was my fourth Boston Bhangra Competition and I will add it to the list of amazing competitions I didn't get a chance to compete at. Nonetheless, kicking it with Sher is always an amazing (and something hazardous) time and I'm glad that I spent the weekend with you guys this year as well!
Second, it amuses me that people will immediately look down on placing results without having seen performances. Different competitions have different rubrics and teams change from year to year. Watch the performances first before shooting down the results as bad judging. Even though I didn't 100% completely agree with the placings, I thought that the judges did a great job with the judging rubric that they were given.
Here's the kicker for the traditional junkies: Every single team at this competition did a variation of phumania, dhamaal, jhoomer as well as some other traditional segments. I give the modern teams mad respect for covering their asses and getting their points for traditionality. It may not have been folk execution or the teams may not have followed the traditional template, but this is Boston Bhangra Competition and I like turtles.
Competition Review:
For those who did not attend and have no clue what events went down in what order, I have created a guide.
Thursday: Pre-Pre-Party
Friday: Mixer > Pre-Party
Saturday: Competition > Afterparty > After-After-Party
Boston Bhangra, Inc., as expected, knew exactly how to run a competition and keep the teams happy, safe and entertained. Nonetheless, here are my usual critique - good and bad:
> Pre-Party was 21+ and required proper dress shoes. Perhaps get a similar deal as the afterparty for the pre-party?
> Mixer had a jeopardy game to determine which team gets to pick their spot in the show. Was definitely fun and a fair way, but I think mixing people up and playing a game (for another prize) would have been mad fun too?
> Competition was really well run and I honestly cannot think of anything that could have been improved. MCs were brief, quick the point, could pump up the crowd, were great speakers and did not tell stupid jokes. Everything was honestly on point.
> For People's Choice, you should have it displayed on the screen for voting and stuff. Voting should also begin only after the last act to ensure fairness and get a proper indication of people's choice.
> Afterparty needed a new venue. This year's afterparty does NOT live up to last year's. The venue was small.
> The after-afterparty was brilliant. I felt like I was back in highschool with an afterprom party so that no one gets drunk/drive and gets into trouble. It had a great amount of people, plenty of water as well as bhangra music. The after-afterparty was teams-only. After a stunt mishap, the security would actually step up and stop any towers in the forming. Funny for sure. The afterparty was also open past 5 AM which was clutch.
Team Reviews:
1. MIT: I missed this performance, which makes me insanely sad. Shoutouts to my Truskool boys as well as Kapil for putting together, what I heard, was an insane routine!
2. AEG: AEG WHAT. The creativity in this routine is crazy. I can't begin to descibe how many describe-worthy things were in this routine, because every 15 seconds, they were doing something badass and new and the crowd was eating it up. From the sitting jhoomer to the shirts to the tambourines, so many great things that not only stayed true to 3T (the traditional template), but was gimmicky enough to garner a great crowd response. Unfortunately, mistakes were still made and it wasn't as clean enough for a clear-cut placing. Much better than Albany and the mix, as expected, was phenomenal. It became really obvious how far Anakh-E-Gabroo really has come and how their style has developed by the end of the routine.
3. DRP: DRP is back! Same style but great choreo and great ideas. The beginning banner entrance was mad creative and well done. One thing I loved about this performance is that no one on this stage looked like they were thinking about where to go or what the next step was. The dancers looked like they were 100% confident and that they were having fun with this. A well-executed clean routine. The mix was good, not phenomenal. The beginning banner stunt wasn't executed (The D guy didn't get up). Nonetheless, the swing stunt was not only creative but well done. Also, the jump on tower was refreshing. Definitely one of the top routines of the competition and I'm glad DRP is making their comeback.
4. Texas Bhangra: This routine was much better than Texas Showdown, but a bit more messier. This was definitely your type of competition (as oppose to Showdown with traditional judging rubric). I still do believe that your traditional segments need more folk execution. Mistakes were made and the routine does need to be more cleaner. The Boston gimmicks were good and I love how you guys play to the crowd. For the prop segments, definitely coordinate those to a greater degree (ie: figure out where to hold the khundey, some dancers held it in the middle, others near the bottom). The tower during saap segment to panga was sick. I do believe your modern style was definitely much more appreciated here and the four towers at the end were well-executed.
5. Rutgers Bhangra: A well-executed routine. Crowd went wild during the "Down" segment and the mix was great. I'm glad the routine was not live (as much as I love live). Some of the segments were really creative and execution was there. (the squatting circle segment in the beginning) There were other segments that could have been a bit cleaner like the khundey segment in terms of keeping the khundeys straight and coordinated in terms of orientation. Jaggi was amazing in terms of grace, expression and stage presence. Watching Jaggi dance made me realize how much I still need to improve to become a decent dancer and I'm glad he's back in the bhangra circuit after his hiatus. Great stuff for sure. Rutgers definitely has a lot of talent (all the dancers were amazing and there was not a single weak dancer) and a lot of potential.
6. VCU Bhangra: The new fits are essentially PANJ Boys for co-ed. Not a fan, way too much of one color. The routine was MAD clean and execution was great. Nonetheless, not as creative as previous years. The Michael Jackson routine, in my opinion, flopped. It was executed fine, but the concept itself wasn't that great. The new dancers blend in really well and the team is far from crippled from losing dancers. The talent is still there and with more creative choreo, can bring VCU back to last year's baller level. Shahrukh was boss (I loved how he would occasionally look down at various audience members near the stage when dancing - too sexy). One of the guys in blue definitely needed to smile because he stood out against everyone else who was rocking with great expressions. Mix was great. Very clean performance, but not as creative as the VCU we saw last year.
7. Northeastern Bhangra: -Biased Point of View-
8. APD: It came out of nowhere. The KJ three man tower (with board), near the beginning of the routine, was set up in like 20 seconds. It came out of nowhere and it was fucking awesome. The routine was clean, the choreography was great and the expressions were orgasmic. Often times, it's difficult to watch the team as a whole, because you get caught in just watching one of the dancers with expression. Any dancer because they all had great expressions. The new routine is hott but it can be a bit cleaner. The Kanye gimmick was nicely done and the KJ tribute parts of the routine hit hard. However, as a team trying to be called their own and not KJ Juniors, the performance was a step back from creating/maintaining that impression. APD has their own style - more expressive and more graceful than KJ. The routine with the KJ/Kanye Gimmick simply reminded everyone how similar the team truly is to KJ. At time, the dancing did seem filler for the gimmicks and stunts, but the new routine has more dancing and definitely more creativity. Hands down top two performances.
9. Cornell Bhangra: This routine was 5x better than last weekend's routine. If this routine and this execution transpired in Albany last week, then Cornell would have placed in top 5 for sure. They took last weekend's routine and took things to the next level. The stunts were a good return for the boston crowd and the amped-up gimmicks were awesome! Choreography and execution were both there and Cornell definitely proved themselves with this perfomance. There were a few mistakes including an unfortunate fall. I felt that the other pink jodi's pagh (not Arjun) was tied really high on his head (a lot of his forehead was showing) and it was a bit distracting. The blue jodis were amazing and the girls in this team really shined at parts of the routine. (which was a great change from last year where I felt the guys were in the front most of the time). A lot of the dancers on this team have great folk nakhre (sometimes the eyebrow action is overdone though) but props to Arjun for training his dancers well. See you mofos next weekend.
10. Bhangra Empire: A great routine with so many surprises! Execution was flawless. The intro was a bit fusion-like. Stunts were great. As I said before, we saw much more traditional segments in choreo but they were still executed with the Bhangra Empire style. The Michael Jackson routine was AMAZINGLY well executed and there is no way any team can top it. (If any team is thinking about doing a MJ gimmick, think against it - You will not be able to top a professional MJ impersonator). I honestly believed that Empire had revived MJ from the dead - he looked, danced and behaved like MJ. Hell yeah! The routine had surprises every song and the performance was insanely entertaining. I could not tell that Empire had new dancers coz they definitely hit hard.
11. BU Bhangra: I feel that you guys went backwards by going from having more colors to less colors. (I think you guys had a color for every 2 guys and 2 girls and now have 1 color for all guys and 1 color for all girls). I say this because often times teams become more rangla as oppose to less. The fits were pretty dull and reminded me of fits from back in 2002. (Last year's fits were better). Even with the home crowd, I feel that the BU Choo-Choo gimmicks didn't hit well with the audience. The choreography and execution do need work, especially for a competition of this calibre. BU did two jhoomer segments which was unfortunate because their dancers definitely need to work on being more graceful with the segment. Chaadres do need to be properly tied. The chimta player was showing off his nice black shorts during the entire routine. Some dancers had great expressions, others were still had bulging eyes and I wish they would just smile. Nonetheless, props for more traditional choreo and the MJ gimmick would have been okay only if Empire didn't bring MJ back from the dead.
12. Sher Foundation: -Biased Point of View-
Placings:
APD and Empire had hands down the top two performances for a competition with a more overall appearance judging criteria. While both were modern teams with their own distinct modern styles, they both had traditional elements. In the comparison of the two, APD had executed two 3 man towers and great crowd-pleasing gimmicks. Empire had gimmicks that were more incorporated in their routine. For example, APD would stop, do their thang and bust out again, while Empire would pull a surprise out while dancing. Empire, as usual, had sick stunts (girls flipped, spinning on shoulders) but APD hit harder with their mix and their expressions. Honestly, a close match-up according to me, but APD came out on first in my opinion.
My third place would be a showdown between VCU and AEG. AEG was creative and had more unique choreography while VCU was cleaner and executed flawlessly. AEG did have some mistakes, which is why I think they didn't place, even though they had their own AEG stunts and their gimmicky choreo was a hit with the audience. Personally, I think AEG should have placed over VCU even though VCU was amazing. I hope to see VCU go crazier with the choreo in later sets (as well as do a different gimmick).
1. Anakh Punjab Di
2. Bhangra Empire
3. Anakh-E-Gabroo
If I was allowed to place 5 spots,
4. VCU
5. DRP
Shoutouts:
> BBC for being a role model to other competitions
> Everyone I met, talked to, danced with, drank with and did crazy shit with. Too many to list them all. All I can say is that I better see you guys next year at BBC 2010. Hells YEAH!
> Michael Jackson, for being such quality gimmick material.
> Michael Jackson Impersonator. hahahaha
