UNC Bhangra Elite @ Srujan 2015

[Yesh]

Hey everyone,

Just want to give some shoutouts to everyone who made this performance possible for us! (This will probably get long since this was our last comp for the year )

First off, I want to give a huge shoutout to my co-captains Rani Patel and Pooja Swaminathan. You two are amazing and talented people, not to mention two of my closest friends. This was an emotional performance for you two since it was your last competition with UNC, but we just want to let you know that you two have been amazing captains and nothing this year would have been accomplished without you two. <3

Thank you to Shaun for the fire mix! Always a pleasure working with you!

RICHIE KUMAR, you are amazing. Thanks for stepping up last minute to play dhol! Loved getting to know you this weekend and can’t wait to hang out with you again!

Thank you to all the people that helped us out this weekend! Nana for the paghs on such short notice. Gurteg, you were literally like my dad this weekend, helping me with anything I needed haha thank you so much. Sahil, you were also super helpful with just about anything <3.

Shoutout to a few teams for lending us props/outfits: Boston Bhangra, FCB, Rutgers, Duke, Gadji Jawani. Good luck with all your upcoming competitions!

Congratulations to FCB, CMU, and SMD on the placings! Your performances were amazing and every placing was well-deserved, not just at Srujan, but every comp this year! Keep up the good work!

Thank you to the judges! Simran Sodhi, Simran T., VD, Kinnell, and Ankush! Your feedback was very helpful (even though we only got 5 minutes to talk), but I know I can hit any of you up for further feedback! I’m just waiting on our rubrics and notes to come in so I can read through em.


Props to the committee for putting on a successful show and handling 16 teams with ease!


Last but not least, a major shoutout to our amazing liaisons. Adeeti, Prabha, and Shweta… Words do not even express how grateful our team is to have had you as our liaisons. You three went above and beyond to make our experience in Ohio amazing. WE LOVE YOU!! Please come to Chapel Hill so we can repay the favor


Here are the videos from Srujan. It was such a fun time going 16! Props to our first time dancers Ruchi Desai, Ace Motas, and Tejasee Phatak.

Another shout out to the our seniors. Sonia, Parag, Radhika, Pooja, Rani ...thank you so much for everything you have done for our team (can’t really list it all ) You have shown everyone on the team what it means to be a committed, hard working, team member. I’m hoping it rubs off on the new dancers we have. Best of luck with your future jobs and real life stuff Love you all so much.

Dancers:
Red-Yeshel Chokshi, Abhay Qureshi, Pooja Swaminathan, Rani Patel
Yellow-Arjun Adhia, Drew Harrelson, Nitika Arora, Radhika Ghodasara
Blue- Parag Satsangi, Rishabh Jain, Sonia Shah, Debanjali Kundu
Green- Sajan Amin, Ace Motas, Ruchi Desai, Kesha Acharya
Dholi - Richie Kumar
Chimta - Tejasee Phatak

Side View: (Close)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSVCCyue7SY
Center View (Far)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UytgjZR7y_s

**The music got turned off after the end before the mela, that is why one video is cut, and one just has an awkward moment :

Also, here is our video from Burgh (3rd place) in case anyone wants to check it out:
http://bhangrateamsforum.com/discuss/post-mixes-and-video-links/unc-bhangra-elite-burgh-8-3rd-place!-gtv-video!/msg232994/#msg232994


Please leave any critiques or feedback! (or things ya liked )

 

[AmanKansal]

Woah had no idea y'all were going 16! Honestly should have seen it coming - you guys have been doing such a great job of training the newer kids these past couple years that this was a great idea waiting to happen. From your burgh set to this, I love the couple song changes as well as the formation variations you put in to fit 16 men. Mela also looked pretty good, maybe have dancers move around the stage a bit more just looked a bit static imo but thats minor.


Jhummar's my favorite segment in this set. Thought choreo was original especially at the song drop - subtle but sexy and song choice was awesome for me haha. And that jugni drop...thought it wouldn't be as hot after burgh but man it looked good with 16. A couple segments that I thought didn't hit as hard were @4:18 and @6:54 in the srujan mix. I thought both of these had HOT buildups but then failed to deliver at the drop. Thought the cutesy jodiyaan hops at 4:18 were sorta weak and the buildup for 6:54 called for some more formation movement - maybe from the girls that are at the sides? Could have been cool if they moved forward somehow while y'all did choreo and then joined you for the last four counts, idk. Just was missing something for me.


Overall tho definitely a fun performance to watch both from burgh and srujan as well! Can't wait to hang out with you guys again at some point, I'm hoping sutra wasn't our last time sharing a stage together

 

[smehta313]

16 man co-ed on the east coast doesn't seem to be too popular of a game plan. I know DRP used to do it (still may?), but props to you guys for pulling it off.


I had to watch the video twice because I caught myself just looking at Yeshel the whole time ripping it :*


When going back to analyze the set I realized some things off the bat.


This was a safe set. I know there were some new dancers and dancers that had not dance in a while, it was a smart choice on the part of the captains to keep the set like that because every dancer still was able to gain some exposure and no dancer was exposed to be a "weak" or "strong" dancer, which was great.


I know this is a critique with many of the teams I've danced co-ed with, but great job at keeping girls and guys equal with front time. at no point did i feel that the guys were overshadowing the girls or vice versa, which is awesome. Now if that can be maintained for next year and that idea is kept intact, that dancing roster will be scary.


The jhoomer startup seems to have taken tradition in UNC sets, i loved seeing the buildup at elite 8 2012 the first time and it still looks fresh, but it does remind me of e8, so it may be time to change that. jhoomer execution was spot on though, you've done a sick job with that Yesh.


* Pretty sure it was Drew that slipped, but quick recovery, didn't notice it til the second time.


I don't know too much about chunnis, but it seemed like a few here and there besides the obvious one weren't tied down properly, so I guess a bit more preparation can go into that.


Lastly, (IMO) the Mela at the end - I don't think it was necessary. Unless there was something on the srujan rubric saying that it'll get points, it may have been a better idea to store it at the beginning since the way you guys ended was done simply and that was good enough.

 

[sumeetj]

so glad you guys decided to go 16, unc is one team that i thought definitely always had the depth of dancers and work ethic to pull it off and be really clean, and you guys def did just that.

echoing what sahil said, one of you guys's biggest strengths is that the girls aren't overshadowed by the guys. radhika probably has some of the best stage swag out of the majority of dancers that ive seen and pooja/rani kill it always as well.

the set seemed a bit long (not sure if it was actually long or not), but I think your ending will hit harder if you condense it a bit and people are a bit fresher for it. its tough to not look flaily when your tired, and you notice it a bit from the newer dancers which is expected of course -

yeshel/abhay make a great lead jodi, while your other jodis do so well that i think the fact that you rotate the other ones to the front so much shows how strong your team is.

was hoping to see naishal dance with you guys but was disappointed :/

despite losing your strong seniors, i think you guys should be placing everywhere you go next year for sure. hopefully things work out better and you can compete more often and show everyone the talent you have.

 

[Yesh]

was hoping to see naishal dance with you guys but was disappointed :/

He quit the team before we sent in our final roster :'( so we couldn't get him on. I'm pretty sure if he had stayed he would of been dancing! Hopefully he decides to stick with the team for good next year.