Irrespective of all the discussions about respect, religion, culture, and self-constructed magic unicornlands (don't get me wrong, I appreciated your point and the rhetoric, but in a post about heavy-handedness you got a little heavy-handed yourself...) -- the reason this whole issue is so unfortunate every time it comes up is best seen from the perspective of the performing team. They have prepared months for a competition, practiced countless hours, reworked their set and their mix and put so much time and effort into their performance... only for it to be completely disregarded from placing potential almost outright for a single issue with one aspect of one dancer's costume. Granted, singular major errors in performances can strongly affect placing potential, like blatant forgotten choreo by someone in the front, someone slipping or falling or dropping a prop, etc. But usually, a team with a stellar performance can still place even with a "major" mistake. A pagh coming off, though, especially if there is any "error" in how the dancer responds to the problem, typically results in insurmountable point deductions.
I am not trying to say that pagh issues aren't a problem to be taken seriously, nor am I trying to downplay the fact that 1. pagh's really should be tied and handled well enough to not fall off, and 2. dancers should know how to "properly" react to their pagh coming loose or falling off, I'm just trying to highlight how shitty it is for the team in question when a pagh malfunction happens. When I was watching DRP at blowout last weekend, which happened to be my favorite set of the night, I was really sad when I started to see the pagh come loose. Everyone could see it coming, and I immediately felt terrible because I knew they would have no chance of placing. It was early in the set too, and for the rest of their performance I felt worse and worse because their performance was fantastic but I knew that it wouldn't be recognized or remembered for the actual set and dancing. And it's true -- I haven't seen anyone really talk about their set on BTF (not that there is that much discussion/commentary on here of late), yet there is this big thread on the one thing anyone seems to care about, the fact that a pagh came off. A similar thing happened last year at blowout with VCU, a pagh coming off and an improper handling of the situation (significantly more improper, but still an isolated incident in the performance), which likely took away any chance they had of placing. I actually loved that performance, too, and if I remember correctly most related discussion was focused on the pagh coming off and not the set itself.
I can't say I really know what the appropriate ruling or handling (scoring/judging-wise) of pagh malfunctions should be, but it's easy not to realize how unfortunate it is for the team. DRP had a great performance and a great set, lots of energy, a really good mix, very entertaining overall, but all their work and all the heart their dancers showed in their performance were, due to the huge repercussions for a pagh coming off, essentially overlooked. And compared to other major errors, like falling, forgetting choreo, etc, it's not even something they really could have prepared for. Sometimes a pagh doesn't get tied super well, and maybe there wasn't time to get it adjusted or re-tied. It happens to come loose on stage and suddenly you're out of consideration for a placing. Not to say that placings are all that matter, which is basically the opposite of the truth, but it's sad to see a great performance hidden in the shadow of one poorly tied pagh, both from a judging and even a feedback/response perspective. That being said, I wish them all the best and hope they get the recognition they deserved (in my opinion) at Bruin.
