***UVA di Shaan Fall 2013 Performances (Burgh, T Dot, and 1st Place at DDA)***

[Aditya]

Hey BTF,


Here are our videos from the past semester. Gonna have to give shoutouts to all the people from each competition who helped us out so much.


DDA: Manreet, Shreya and Bhavi for taking us everywhere we needed to go and helping us tour San Francisco the day after, you guys are the best. Thanks to Mohit as well for being an awesome liaison and always being helpful. HUGE shoutout to Sumit for tying our paggan and all of BK for showing up and getting rowdy as hell in the front haha I love you guys.

T Dot: Thank you so much to Rinki and Jabbar for being literally the nicest and most fantastic people in the world. Never would have made it through that weekend without you guys, y'all are the best. Big thanks to the other liaisons as well who drove us all over the place without complaining even once.


Burgh: ...check the main discussion for my comp review later. But thank you so much to Harjot for the GTV video, its beautiful! Also thanks to Mr. Pritpal Saggu for once again hookin it up with the paggan, you da best.


VCU, thank you so much for allowing us to borrow your saps for pretty much the entire semester, that was extremely generous of you guys.


Finally, huge shoutout to the dancers on this team. 18 different dancers performed at our three different competitions this semester, stepping in no matter what happened (from lost passports, to injuries, etc.) and performing like champs. Mad props to Ishaan, Sunna, Sarah, and Sim for excellent first-time performances at DDA and holding your own with the 8 returning starters from Blowout, to Akash, Karthik and Sim for learning new choreo and formations literally the night before T Dot and making sure we could still pull off a proper 12 man routine, Jill for winning best female dancers at T Dot in her very first competition (literally joined our team 2 months ago, this girl is nasty!) and finally Apoorva, Sanchay and Manali (She's also a first-time dancer, make sure you check her out she's sick!) for learning all the formations and choreo in just 3 days before Burgh. The dancers on this team are incredible and I can't even begin to thank you guys enough for all the work that you've put in to making this team what it is.

Aiite, enough talking, here are our videos, hope you all enjoy! Congrats to GMU, Cornell, FCB, Furteelay, NGPD, and CMU for your placings at DDA, T Dot and Burgh, you guys did great!

DDA: UVA Di Shaan at Dhol Di Awaz XV (1st Place)

T Dot: Dance competition Nov 2013

Burgh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaoFWVhElH0#ws

Dancers:

Red: Aditya K./Navjot K.
Blue: Pranav A. (DDA, Burgh), Karthik S. (T Dot)/Akanksha B.
Yellow: Bilal A./ Vaishnavi L. (T Dot, Burgh), Sonia S. (DDA)
Black: Hussain L./ Apoorva L. (DDA, Burgh), Jill (T Dot)
Pink: Ishaan D. (DDA, Burgh), Akash V. (T Dot)/ Sarah J.
Green: Sim S. (DDA, T Dot), Sanchay G. (Burgh)/Sunna B. (DDA, T Dot), Manali S. (Burgh)

Also, If one of the mods could please embed all these videos, I'd really appreciate it, idk how to do this lol.

 

[Turbanator32]

It was a honor to see y'all live at DDA and I knew from there that y'all would be a team to be reckoned with. Amazing performances by everyone and Aditya veer you're an amazing dancer as well as an amazing person. Keep doing y'all thing, I see nothing but victories lying ahead of y'all.

 

[hsdeol]

burgh:
this performance was excellent. i was able to catch this live and i was really impressed. the dancers were extremely in sync, energy was great, and execution was on point. orange dude was definitely a joy to watch (younger dancers should try to pick up on and learn his ways).

great job UVa. like most, im predicting a big year for these guys

 

[ban3rg]

i love you adi!!!!

 

[H.Sodhi83]

entertaining set...dancers in sync and choreo flowed as well as the formations. sick job sick coed set

 

[faizan]

vah, maza agaya.

 

[sangeensingh]

New favorite co-ed team. SICK

 

[karandeol]

Mix was so hot! The vardi's were awesome too, very enjoyable set!

 

[Hoya Singh]

Loved your set from burgh. The form was on point, looked like everyone was having fun on stage, and holy shit Aditya you are my new favorite dancer

 

[Kartik]

Congrats on a great performance! Here are my thoughts

Things I liked:
- The intro mix with all the Mike Tyson quotes etc. was hype, experimented with that quite a few times in the past
- Dil le gayi was fun, great use of the track. Especially when dhamaal hit that was awesome. Make sure the dancers in the back don't get lazy at the beginning of the segment.
- Really liked the middle of jhoomer a lot
- Hindi songs are always a gamble; I like that you used na na na na na re but it was way too long for me with the full intro, refrain, and chorus


Things I didn't like/think you could improve on:

- There are many cliches in the set. Now that you've gotten the team to this level, it'd be cool if you did different things than what's expected. For example, the slow down with sapps when the chorus hits, the chaal with khunda, both happen exactly where we expect them because that's how everyone does it.
- Though I liked jugni, it seems like you guys did the same 45 degree chaal 3 times in the set
- Not a huge fan of the whole mathaa tek + do your own fun/swagger intro in pairs. Lots of teams do it, doesn't create your own identity. Once that was done, I liked the start of sapps.
- At 7:07 when the guys go back hitting their thighs for 2 beats, I don't really know what the 2 beats after that are. Seemed like yellow guys had his hands out, everyone else's hands were just kind of hanging lazily. Small thing but these things overall just don't look as impactful or even clean. Another example is the last move where some are doing keench fully others' arms are loosely hanging.
- I think the set needs more overall dance/formation ideas or concepts that are fully executed. These leave a lasting impression to be remembered. There were few such moments in the set for me, a notable exception being Daka which really had dynamic formations that told a story.

Sidenote: seems like there is a lot of tension about this set not placing. I think you guys had a great performance and you should be proud of that. You seem to have a solid group of fans on BTF that like your artistic vision so that's great. However, if your goal is only to place consistently, then I can see many things that you could work on (some mentioned above) that will help make your performance score higher on rubrics and set yourself apart in deliberations. Given that there are many different aspects of a performance I think you will have to be open to going outside your comfort zone or finding a rubric/comp that is tailored exactly to what you already do (DDA may have been this, idk). That being said, I 100% support you doing what you enjoy exactly as is and having a great time - I only mention this because of the comments I've read from the team.

Looking forward to seeing more from you all, keep up the great work

 

[Psant]

Aditya, you're a phenomenal dancer and entertaining to watch. That being said, with the amount of hype that I heard about this set from literally every person I talk to, I was a tad underwhelmed. This is a personal preference, but I think the song choices in combination with the amount of "talking" audio clips before every segment change really took away from the performance. Formations were definitely on point and your dancer equilibrium was great, but none of the segments really were that memorable other than saaps.

Definitely a place-worthy set at most comps though! Keep up the good work; I can't wait to see what comes next. That Blowout set from last year was my favorite from you guys as of late.

 

[Aditya]

Thank you all for the feedback guys, it means the world to us!

Things I didn't like/think you could improve on:

- There are many cliches in the set. Now that you've gotten the team to this level, it'd be cool if you did different things than what's expected. For example, the slow down with sapps when the chorus hits, the chaal with khunda, both happen exactly where we expect them because that's how everyone does it.

Sidenote: seems like there is a lot of tension about this set not placing. I think you guys had a great performance and you should be proud of that. You seem to have a solid group of fans on BTF that like your artistic vision so that's great. However, if your goal is only to place consistently, then I can see many things that you could work on (some mentioned above) that will help make your performance score higher on rubrics and set yourself apart in deliberations. Given that there are many different aspects of a performance I think you will have to be open to going outside your comfort zone or finding a rubric/comp that is tailored exactly to what you already do (DDA may have been this, idk). That being said, I 100% support you doing what you enjoy exactly as is and having a great time - I only mention this because of the comments I've read from the team.

Just to clarify any perceived "tension" about the placings:


[SIZE=small]Doing things to be different simply for the sake of being different, unpredictable and/or placing is one thing our team won't do. Our goal is to execute our vision of a folk bhangra routine with modern twists to the fullest extent and let placings take care of themselves after that. Maybe we're not different enough or gimmicky enough to please everyone, but my team and I would rather continue doing what we do and lose at every single competition we go to than to compromise that just to get a trophy.[/SIZE]

 

[Kartik]

Thank you all for the feedback guys, it means the world to us!

Things I didn't like/think you could improve on:

- There are many cliches in the set. Now that you've gotten the team to this level, it'd be cool if you did different things than what's expected. For example, the slow down with sapps when the chorus hits, the chaal with khunda, both happen exactly where we expect them because that's how everyone does it.

Sidenote: seems like there is a lot of tension about this set not placing. I think you guys had a great performance and you should be proud of that. You seem to have a solid group of fans on BTF that like your artistic vision so that's great. However, if your goal is only to place consistently, then I can see many things that you could work on (some mentioned above) that will help make your performance score higher on rubrics and set yourself apart in deliberations. Given that there are many different aspects of a performance I think you will have to be open to going outside your comfort zone or finding a rubric/comp that is tailored exactly to what you already do (DDA may have been this, idk). That being said, I 100% support you doing what you enjoy exactly as is and having a great time - I only mention this because of the comments I've read from the team.

Just to clarify any perceived "tension" about the placings:


[SIZE=small]Doing things to be different simply for the sake of being different, unpredictable and/or placing is one thing our team won't do. Our goal is to execute our vision of a folk bhangra routine with modern twists to the fullest extent and let placings take care of themselves after that. Maybe we're not different enough or gimmicky enough to please everyone, but my team and I would rather continue doing what we do and lose at every single competition we go to than to compromise that just to get a trophy.[/SIZE]

Glad to hear that man, that's exactly what I said I'd support you doing. If that's the mentality then you shouldn't care at all about what judges say and what the outcome is - that didn't seem to be the case.

Regardless, as I mentioned, I think there's a lot that you can continue to add within what seems to be your vision - not for the sake of being different but for the sake of raising the bar. Don't let what you perceive to be your style limit yourself, that's the easy and unfortunate route. Specifically for Burgh I don't think you're missing gimmicks, I think you're missing much deeper complexity and impact as Psant noted as well.

Good luck!

 

[mafzal]

SUPERB

 

[uvache]

Tharti Hildi fit in well for the ending. Loved the Blue guy’s nakhra in the beginning. Also liked the sliding formation, thought it was unique.

 

[Archana]

Amazing set! Hands down, the co-ed team to watch out for this season. What I loved about this set was how together everyone was. It wasn't where dancers stood out in segments, which I liked. I also loved how you guys relied on doing "bhangra" and not caring as much as doing gimmicks to place. Each dancer had a lot of strength to carry out this set with energy, form, and nakhra. I just loved this performance! Should have placed, definitely! Yes, gimmicks might make a set memorable, but to me, solid bhangra is more important and you guys brought just that! Congrats on an amazing performance and I can't wait to see more at upcoming competitions!!

 

[komil]

This was amazing, I had a blast watching you guys!

I appreciate that you guys focus on properly doing bhangra and mastering the craft rather than incorporating a bunch of tricks and gimmicks. Keep doing what you're doing because that is different in it self.

I wish you guys placed but hopefully your dancing will be recognized next time!

 

[msghoya]

that was refreshing. i especially like how you guys have command of your style and routine. hard to do especially with newer dancers. song selection could use some tweaking and choreo was a little predictable/derivative in places but i appreciate some of the more subtle efforts to innovate.

i thought the dancing and formations were very strong. nice homage to uva burgh 2010 with the khunda song... 2009-2010ish i think was uva's strongest team dancingwise, but this group comes pretty close. great job guys, remind me of va tech from last year- didn't get the love they deserved, hope that changes

 

[VD]

You guys killed it. At every performance. Don't understand how did this place or even win at Burgh, which looks like what used to be a traditional competition. ADT, you the man. Great job guys. Keep doing what you're doing.

 

[Gsimz]

I watched you guys live at TDot and I already told you how I felt about the set ADT!

I honestly thought you guys were gonna at the very least place or win both Tdot and Burgh. I was talking to the FS boys after watching you guys and we all thought the same.

Keep doing what you're doing and like Komil said hopefully your dancing will be recognized next time!

Some things that I really enjoyed:

College for Saaps was sick!
Dil Lageye was too dope. I never really liked this song as a kid, but after I saw you dance to it on stage I couldn't stop listening to it. Choreo was great for that segment.
Jhummar was amazing. Favorite Jhummar of the night!