Rutgers Bhangra @ Srujan / SPD (1st Place) Performances

[SimratG]

Hey guys these are our performances from Srujan and Shan Punjab Di this semester. At Srujan we went 16 man and had an absolute blast doing so. The committee did a phenomenal job handling 16 teams and making sure all were attended to. Eric Singh, we love you. Hands down one of our favorite liasons ever. A special thanks to BU for letting us borrow their phummans! Shahzaib, thank you very much for coming through and doing our sher. Not many could have done the job you did. Always a pleasure to have you around. A huge shoutout to DJ HsD for making our mix. Your creativity and ideas are absolute fire. Cannot wait to work with you in the near future Everyone please please make sure to share any thoughts and critiques you have. We are open to all criticism.






Srujan Dancers:


Red/Ferozi- Tarundeep Singh, Sahil Mehta, Sapna Jhangiani, Shreya Chittem
Blue/Pink- Sunny Virdi, Soham Shukla, Ridhi Parmar, Harveen Kaur
Yellow/Purple- Saheb Bhasin, Adi Kulkarni, Ashita Debnath, Alisha Gurnani
Black/White- Akash Minocha, Simrat Grewal, Sindhu Sriramoji, Aman Dhillon
Dholi- Harsh Tevar
Chimpta- Sahil Arora


SPD Dancers:


Blue/Pink- Sunny Virdi, Soham Shukla, Ridhi Parmar, Harveen Kaur
Black/White- Sahil Mehta, Saheb Bhasin, Alisha Gurnani, Ashita Debnath
Red/Ferozi- Akash Minocha, Simrat Grewal, Aman Dhillon, Sapna Jhangiani
Dholi- Harsh Tevar
Chimpta- Avin Grewal




Srujan Views:


2015 Srujan (Rutgers Bhangra)



Rutgers Bhangra @ Srujan 2015
(Moving angle)


Srujan 2015
(Beginning a bit cut off)




SPD:


Rutgers Bhangra @ SPD 2015

 

[Howie Magz]

This set was very entertaining from start to finish and I especially enjoyed the saap segment. The energy was there, but it wasn't consistent throughout the whole set. Cleanness was also not consistent throughout probably because the energy dipped at certain points, especially with the girls. Going 16 man was very gutsy especially with a Co-ed set and it did work in favor for you guys. Personally I enjoyed your Srujan performance better than your SPD performance because I felt the energy fro your dancing. In comparison to the past couple of years, the choreo has really stepped up along with the formations. Congratulations on the first once again and overall I would say that Rutgers has definitely stepped it up this year. Shout out to Simrat, Sahil, Saheb, and Akash for an awesome job!!

 

[scaplash]

Saw you guys live at Buckeye Mela and was amazed to see the strides in cleanliness and synchronization in the SPD video since then. When I saw the set at Buckeye, it just seemed that lines/diagonals weren't hit and overall stamina could have been better. In the SPD set, cleanliness and synchronization are not a problem at all (give or take one or two spots). My only points for improvement would be to have more dynamic pacing throughout the set, it felt very one level in terms of sound and speed (outside of jhoomer, dhamaal, mirza jugni which have such distinct beats). I think you guys had some memorable formations but they were often just at the bust out/the build up to the bust out. It was almost as if you guys stayed in spot/had minor movement and then before the build-up would essentially quickly set up the formation and then hit the bust out. I think to enhance the creative formations you have for a lot of your bust outs you guys could put in more dynamic formations. Energy was prettty good, there was a dip in energy in the girls 3/4 of the way into the set. The girls barely felt a part of the set because they were so strongly overshadowed by the guys-maybe they could be featured more or dance bigger? There just seemed to be a disparity in stage presence between the guys and girls. On a related note, this might be something that is more specific to the style of the team, but I feel like there could have been more interaction among different dancers as opposed to just naachre/interaction with the audience. I like the "munde bhangra paunde, khudiyan giddhan pawan" gimmick, but that was essentially already done by DRP, so it didn't hit as hard for me.

Those are my comments, I hope they help! Congrats on the first place-like the creative choreo, synchronization and the distinct style/identity that you guys have stuck with-really sets you guys apart from "the typical co-ed collegiate team".
Best,
Sonny

 

[gursh313]

Congrats on the placing Rutgers, ending segment was the highlight of this performance.
Stamina wise, a couple individuals started to get lazy so just work on that but besides that it was enjoyable.

 

[sumeetj]

loved the throwback post jhummar - just wanted to throw that out there real quick

really enjoyed watching you guys live at buckeye, bringing a hype 16 coed set isnt easy for most collegiate teams to do, and you guys did a boss job. i think seeing mostly the same set with 12 instead of 16 just made it seem a little "looser" and didn't hit has hard, but thats most likely because of how tight the formations stayed with 16 and seeing the 16 set first. ive always enjoyed your vardiyan as well (especially that black/white one )

congrats on your first place at SPD, wish you guys were in a few more bigger lineups this year - sahil keep killin it!

also props to black/white girl at SPD who handled her rogue chunni situation really well

 

[AmanKansal]

Loved that you brought 16 to Srujan! You guys and UNC took a great risk and I think it went well for both, congrats. I agree with Sumeet, I think the formations and set looks better with 16 because I would think that if you're redoing it for 12 then the formations would get more intricate / you would have more room to put in cool concepts. Instead it felt like they were just modified so that a 12 person set was doable (which could have been the case since it looks like SPD and srujan were pretty close together).


I actually think my favorite segment is gal ban gai haha (sahil you look sexy big boii). at first didn't quite like it because of the guy/girl square off at the beginning but the movement through the song made sense to me and the phulka on the drop to transition looked cool. I would just work on the girls at the end of the segment to pick up their feet a lot more when moving to formations with that - it looks like they're almost skipping to their spot.


Congrats again on great performances!

 

[Yesh]

Congrats on that first place!!

Haha going 16 is always a big risk with collegiate teams but y'all definitely pulled it off! Honestly, I wasnt expecting another team to do that at Srujan which is why I took UNC with 16, but it was awesome that we both got to!

Formations we're definitely more effective in the 16 person set, but thats just how it is. I know with UNC we tried doing a 12 person set after Srujan and it just lacked in energy it wasnt a set designed for 12. Overall though, things were very clean in the SPD video, some segments seemed to lack a little energy, but also man that crowd was silent haha so I understand how that can play out sometimes.

The girl in the black and white handled her chunni very well! So props to her for that.
Overall, the set had great energy, the pacing of the set wasn't stagnant so that was a plus, energy did not die out at the end, most of the drops were quite effective and hit hard!

Some things I would work on:
-Stage presence! Although nakhre was great and I couldn't see anyones faces dropping, there wasnt much audience interaction. Once again, the audience was sort of dead so I get that, but it still doesn't hurt to try and interact with them a bit!
-Make sure that for chaals especially during jugni that people are all getting low, it seemed at points that only the dancers in the front were getting low!
-Lastly (and this is strictly a personal opinion), while being a coed team is usually deemed as a disadvantage because people think we generally lack energy and what not, I believe being coed is a great advantage if the set is designed properly. It just seemed like this set sort of covered up the girls rather than using them to an advantage. I would try to make incorporate some more jodi interaction within the choreo itself especially for segments like jhummar and perhaps give the girls a chance to wreck some moves up front! Once again, thats just a very personal opinion, I don't mean anything by it!

Loved the set overall, SAHIL you my boy. I hope to see you all at future comps!

 

[HdBrar]

SO to Simrat, Tdeep, Sahil and Harsh. Good stuff y'all.

 

[siddyp]

what up RU! I've always been a fan since I saw you guys come to Burgh 1 way back in the day. yall have a special place in my heart <3.

I loved the risk being taken by going 16. I really hope to see the circuit go in the direction of taking more risk and rewarding it. There were great moments of creativity in choreo and formations. I especially loved the phulkari formation, and the "hold up" into chaffa. First saap song <3. And the intro mela was dope with the banner. I wish you guys did more with the banner because it was awesome. Props to putting that together. I'll send a PM with an idea I have. Don't wanna give it away

Where you guys can improve, and it has been said is overall cleanliness. There were alot of individual mistakes, and things just being off for it to hit as hard as I wanted.

But cleanliness aside, I applaud you for taking the risks you did, and making that banner. Those two things (risk, and enhancing your performance through some other form of production) are things teams don't do enough of these days. Please keep doing it, and if you clean up your dancing/formations, it will be difficult to not place you guys.

Much love!

p.s. Sahil, never cut your hair

 

[VickG]

Congrats on the placing guys! Well deserved!


Loved that you guys went 16 man, you guys pulled it off really well! A bit messy at times, but I feel in the end it was relatively clean for the most part.


Saap segment was hype and started off with a lot of energy, but like the people who said before me the energy with some of the dancers dropped after, but picked it back up at the end.
Wasn't really feeling jhummar. There was no bounce in it at all, made it boring to watch.
A little bit more nakhra from every dancer could have gone a long way with showing how much fun you guys were having on stage
Ending was hype! Finished off strong


Overall, the set was entertaining and I enjoyed it thoroughly!


SAHIL! Keep doing you big guy


Mix sounded dope as well!

 

[SimratG]

Thank you all for the feedback! Will definitely take all of your suggestions into account. Would love to hear more critiques if anyone has one!