Team Tryouts

[kinnell]

How do you guys run your team tryouts?

I know some teams (like myself) teach a routine to a certain song, give the dancers 20 minutes to practice and then call them in small groups to perform the piece. I've even recorded those tryout pieces to compare in the future. This sort of tryout tests a dancer's ability to pick-up routine as well as their ability to perform it.

But I do know that some teams (like Columbia) has tryouts where they simply teach you a few moves and you try doing their moves - your ability to do these moves would get you on the team.

What do you guys do? And why do you do it that way?

 

[abhigames]

Highest bidder makes it on the team....keeps our funds going.

 

[Govind]

The way I ran tryouts was I had 1.5 hr sessions where I taught a 1 minute piece to a group of no more than 10 people (it was Gabroo from KJ's Bruin performance...the piece right after "hatt pichhhe hatt picchee hattpicchee" hahaha). in the middle of the tryouts, i would have the more experienced dancers on my team work with people individually. I then gave everyone 3 days to practice it and called everyone back. We had them perform three times it in groups of 4 and allowed people to ask any questions.

The 3 days in between were helpful b/c not everyone can pick it up during the 1.5 hour session...esp if it's a different style altogether and they are not desi. The 3 days of practice allowed me to evaluate how hard working the prospectives were b/c i didn't just want people who were naturally talented...I wanted people who were willing to put in the time to get better.

Keep tryouts CHILL and you'll generate excitement and enthusiasm...we've never had anyone decline our offer to be on the team. a big pet-peeve, call everyone who didn't make it and call everyone who did make it...don't send out emails...

 

[kinnell]

The way I ran tryouts was I had 1.5 hr sessions where I taught a 1 minute piece to a group of no more than 10 people (it was Gabroo from KJ's Bruin performance...the piece right after "hatt pichhhe hatt picchee hattpicchee" hahaha). in the middle of the tryouts, i would have the more experienced dancers on my team work with people individually. I then gave everyone 3 days to practice it and called everyone back. We had them perform three times it in groups of 4 and allowed people to ask any questions.

The 3 days in between were helpful b/c not everyone can pick it up during the 1.5 hour session...esp if it's a different style altogether and they are not desi. The 3 days of practice allowed me to evaluate how hard working the prospectives were b/c i didn't just want people who were naturally talented...I wanted people who were willing to put in the time to get better.

Keep tryouts CHILL and you'll generate excitement and enthusiasm...we've never had anyone decline our offer to be on the team. a big pet-peeve, call everyone who didn't make it and call everyone who did make it...don't send out emails...

How many people did you have try out total? I know you said you had sessions of 10 people, but how many sessions did it take you?

I was thinking about doing something similar because similarly, I realized this year that those who simply picked up quickly during tryouts did not always perform better than those who were slower in picking up the moves. In the end, the final product mattered and those who practiced the most despite being slow at picking up shined out the most during the final performances.

Thanks a lot, Govind. Your post helps me out a lot. I'm thinking of also posting the routine on YouTube for those who might have forgotten the moves here and there.

 

[kamdeol]

our tryout routine is pretty similar. for the last couple of years we make a weekend out of it lol, we have the experienced members of the team get together and make a routine to teach to the people trying out. each old team member gets a handful of potentials and teaches them the routine. We teach two segments, one that we teach on friday evening and a different one on saturday afternoon. on sunday they come back and tryout in pairs and run through the two segments twice. we take into consideration the overall product on the day of tryouts, as well as the input of the team members that taught each individual to see who picked it up quick, as well as who we see to have potential. a lot of people who tryout usually don't have a lot of previous experience in bhangra, so the input of the teachers is valuable because you can see how hard the individual was working to try and pick up the style and do the moves correctly.

last year we sent out the songs to everyone who came to the tryouts, and made a video of all the steps and sent those out to them as well from yousendit. hope this helpsss!

 

[Havish]

For VCU, we have tryouts for a couple of days. The first day we send out a ~30sec clip of some random song and ask everyone to choero it themselves. We have them come and perform their choero in front of the captains for the first day of tryouts. This basically is to kinda weed out those we know aren't going to be on the team. At the end of the first day after everyone has done their choero, the captains get together and pick the people to make it to the next day. Usually everyone makes it, except those who just can't dance (im sure everyone has a couple of them come to tryouts).

The next day the captains come up with about a minute of choero, ranging with moves that are easy and difficult. We give everyone one hour to learn it. After the hour, each person performs it in front of the captains solo. The following day the same choero is to be performed but in groups. This allows for people to practice the moves for a day and to good with it. The groups are random and just put together by captains to see what works well, also to see who looks good with experienced dancers and to compare people. The tryouts keep going and the groups keep performing until the captains have seen enough.

 

[Pooja]

jeeeeez that's intense VCU, but kinda cool that you get to choreo your own segment.

 

[Mukandpuria]

yea, right VCU goes all out...nice

well i know for Boston bhangra, we have tryouts twice. we show them the basic moves like single dhmaal and so on. Then we make them do individual moves over and over to test stamina. Near the end we make them do a 24 count over and over, to test their learning ability, and if they can be graceful and flow. also facial expression, if they can smile and get into the song.

also its important to be able to recognize potential. you don't wanna be caught up at what you see, becuase some people do have potential if taught correctly.

 

[Manjot]

we don't do tryouts lol its hard enuf finding dancers in Abby lol so jus stick with the same dancers

 

[JSahota]

we dont have tryouts either, if we do get new dancers, its usually because they know somebody already on the team, and if the person is a complete random, they usually call our academy, say they wanna dance, we invite them to the academy, we play a song, and they have to do a freestyle routine ahahha

 

[zagreus]

Usually with mason, we teach a bit of a routine we've done before, or just randomly created. The people wanting to tryout do the routine, and if they do it or not...that decides it.

After going through the LSD tryouts first hand, I figured that method makes the most amount of sense. Teaching a bit of a choreographed part, and then seeing if the people can do basic traditional moves. This helps the captains know where the people are at, and tells them how much work they would have to put into each person.

 

[Rohit]

Yeah like jasdeep said, no tryouts down here from what I know. At most you hear about the team, contact them then they have you stick around like on trial basis, see how you mesh in with the team and pick up everything and all.

 

[Harman]

id hate 2 choreo a peice on my own for a tryout..........id suck at it.........
do most teams have tryouts once a year or before each semester (fall & winter)

 

[zagreus]

id hate 2 choreo a peice on my own for a tryout..........id suck at it.........
do most teams have tryouts once a year or before each semester (fall & winter)

With mason, most of our population is local. We have a summer tryout, then do another during the start of fall semester, maybe again in spring if we need to bring more people on, or there is some solid talent out there. This way, we maximize the people we get. Pretty much, the earlier we start working people...the better they'd be.