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Vancity Bruin Bhangra (GTV)
- Thread starter Bballer
- Start date
Energy was hotttt, and I liked your creativity a lot...my favorite part about you guys though is that y'all have effortless style, so while you're pushing boundaries (and sometimes messy) it doesn't look or feel like you're overreaching or trying too hard. Sometimes it felt a little too hyper, but maybe that's just my taste.
Dude got smacked in the head at 6.46 though...
Dude got smacked in the head at 6.46 though...
prezidnt510
New Member
- Messages
- 9
That was amazing! all the gimmicks were clean, never seen a dude do a front flip onto a someones shoulders, jaw dropped at that
pavbhaji91
Member
- Messages
- 149
This was my first time ever watching Vancity Bhangra and I must say, you all have a lot of energy. Your energy never took away from the cleanliness of the set, which is definitely something great to have!
I thought the first gimmick with the guy walking on the khunde was really cool. However, I thought the transition from that to the mela right after was kind off. I would suggest having the guy who walked on the khunde to do something even more crazy as soon as he gets off the bridge, so that you continue on that same path of building up hype (maybe a frontflip off the khunde haha).
The K'naan Wavin' Flag segment was very creative and executed really well! I thought transitioning into the J-T Suit & Tie track was a great idea! It could have been executed a little better by putting on and taking off the suit and tie more cleanly.
Overall, it was a lot of fun watching you all perform! Keep up the energy and congrats on placing!
I thought the first gimmick with the guy walking on the khunde was really cool. However, I thought the transition from that to the mela right after was kind off. I would suggest having the guy who walked on the khunde to do something even more crazy as soon as he gets off the bridge, so that you continue on that same path of building up hype (maybe a frontflip off the khunde haha).
The K'naan Wavin' Flag segment was very creative and executed really well! I thought transitioning into the J-T Suit & Tie track was a great idea! It could have been executed a little better by putting on and taking off the suit and tie more cleanly.
Overall, it was a lot of fun watching you all perform! Keep up the energy and congrats on placing!
I preface this by saying that I think you guys are a lot of fun to watch and that I like your style as a whole. I think there were a lot of interesting concepts in this routine, but the problem for me was that I didn't feel the flow between segments here so much, and so while I liked parts of the routine, I didn't like the whole as much and I can't exactly put my finger on why.
First off, I agree with J-Skeet, I'm not a huge fan of the song selection. I didn't think that parts of the mix necessarily fit together that well, and I didn't really like the handful of blackout songs where you were setting up gimmicks (ie: the beginning, intro to suit & tie, etc). It killed the flow of the mix.
Energy was the strongest point, you guys could have clearly run this thing straight down three or four times with energy to burn. Nakhra is on point. Athleticism on this team is frankly stunning.
Gimmicks alternated between meh and jaw-dropping. Too much on the shoulders and BAR-B did the flag thing a couple of times this season, but holy mother of god that flip was insane.
Didn't really like the melas, tbh. The first one felt a little schticky with the guys jumping over each other, especially when someone rolled out too early. End mela with the guys spinning around on their butts was a little incongruous with the rest of the set too, just sort of felt like things took a weird turn.
Khunde was the best segment in the routine and I think the three segment Khunde-Flags-Jhoomer section really kind of sums up how I feel about the performance as a whole. The khunde segment was sick. Period. Incredible athleticism and agility, really together, and some really neat khunde spins and tricks that complemented the choreo, which I liked a lot. The K'naan idea could have been really cool with some more tricks, but my problem is that you used sixteen counts to set up a sixteen count segment. BAR-B's flag thing, while admittedly less complex in number of flags, took eight counts to set up and they put it away in four counts. Plus, the segment itself was about twice as long, which gave them a little more time to do some cool stuff with the flags. Then the suit and tie segment came up, which was a good opportunity, but it ended up being a distraction since people's blazers wouldn't go on or come off, then people couldn't get their ties on or off, and eventually your chimta player and dholi had to come on stage and clear them out.
The issue for me is that it feels like there was a ton of thought put into the segments themselves, but not necessarily as much put into how the whole thing fit together. Each segment was strong (or had the potential to be strong) in isolation, but chaining everything together diminished the execution and the flow. The transitions between segments either felt rushed (suit & tie into jhoomer) or felt like extended breaks (into wavin flag, into suit & tie), and when you guys got a rhythm going between segments (all the way from fast jhoomer to the six guys on backs stunt), there'd be a rushed or tough transition that didn't get nailed and it'd kill the flow.
I'm willing to bet that I'm in the minority with my criticism here, but with just a little more thought to the flow of the mix, I think you guys could win it next time.
First off, I agree with J-Skeet, I'm not a huge fan of the song selection. I didn't think that parts of the mix necessarily fit together that well, and I didn't really like the handful of blackout songs where you were setting up gimmicks (ie: the beginning, intro to suit & tie, etc). It killed the flow of the mix.
Energy was the strongest point, you guys could have clearly run this thing straight down three or four times with energy to burn. Nakhra is on point. Athleticism on this team is frankly stunning.
Gimmicks alternated between meh and jaw-dropping. Too much on the shoulders and BAR-B did the flag thing a couple of times this season, but holy mother of god that flip was insane.
Didn't really like the melas, tbh. The first one felt a little schticky with the guys jumping over each other, especially when someone rolled out too early. End mela with the guys spinning around on their butts was a little incongruous with the rest of the set too, just sort of felt like things took a weird turn.
Khunde was the best segment in the routine and I think the three segment Khunde-Flags-Jhoomer section really kind of sums up how I feel about the performance as a whole. The khunde segment was sick. Period. Incredible athleticism and agility, really together, and some really neat khunde spins and tricks that complemented the choreo, which I liked a lot. The K'naan idea could have been really cool with some more tricks, but my problem is that you used sixteen counts to set up a sixteen count segment. BAR-B's flag thing, while admittedly less complex in number of flags, took eight counts to set up and they put it away in four counts. Plus, the segment itself was about twice as long, which gave them a little more time to do some cool stuff with the flags. Then the suit and tie segment came up, which was a good opportunity, but it ended up being a distraction since people's blazers wouldn't go on or come off, then people couldn't get their ties on or off, and eventually your chimta player and dholi had to come on stage and clear them out.
The issue for me is that it feels like there was a ton of thought put into the segments themselves, but not necessarily as much put into how the whole thing fit together. Each segment was strong (or had the potential to be strong) in isolation, but chaining everything together diminished the execution and the flow. The transitions between segments either felt rushed (suit & tie into jhoomer) or felt like extended breaks (into wavin flag, into suit & tie), and when you guys got a rhythm going between segments (all the way from fast jhoomer to the six guys on backs stunt), there'd be a rushed or tough transition that didn't get nailed and it'd kill the flow.
I'm willing to bet that I'm in the minority with my criticism here, but with just a little more thought to the flow of the mix, I think you guys could win it next time.
DamanSingh
Member
- Messages
- 849
So much energy!
Congrats on 2nd Place!
Congrats on 2nd Place!
amancheema
Active Member
- Messages
- 240
Vancity, you guys are ridiculous bhangra dancers with unmatched energy. That being said, the majority of your gimmicks were forced and had no place in this set. My humble request is for your team to not submit to this progressive gimmick-game and bring us more of the amazing raw, kharku bhangra routines that you have gifted us over the years (Panj, BCC, Vancity).
campy614
New Member
- Messages
- 666
I'm gunna run with what Aman's post.amancheema said:
I get why the gimmicks were there (it's Bruin...). However, I think you should go one of two routes:
1) Get rid of them completely and let your style be your style - regardless of the competition. Take on an "everyone can suck it" kind of approach to building a set-which many teams have done before and frankly were successful.
2) Incorporate the gimmicks better into your routine. This means actually blending them such that they make sense, and taking an idea and **RUNNING WITH IT FOR EVERY SINGLE CENTIMETER WITHIN ITS LIFE**. Ask these questions in their exact forms "What can I do to make this better" (because things can ALWAYS be better), and "When is it ok to stop?" Don't worry about being over the top. It's a gimmick - it's supposed to be.
Great energy, great performance. Congrats fellas!!
yraparla
SwizzeeMusic.com
- Messages
- 2,072
Not a detailed review, watched the video once all the way through and only went back to get timings for my comments. If you want something more detailed let me know
1. Pacing/Flow
2. Execution by dancers
3. Puny thinking (don't be a George)
number 1 is by far the worst offender for this performance because it directly affected the dancing and the gimmicks. There were so many abrupt transitions, songs too fast for choreo, etc. There was just no rhythm built up consistently and I hated the song selection. Segments sometimes felt very forced and rushed. Finale comes to mind here: I get you're trying to do something different, but the phumania was so out of place smushed between two fast bhangra segments, maybe a different song could have helped but neither the mix nor the choreo flowed there and I didn't care for it.
Number 2 is a more pervasive issue. Your dancers didn't dance together and didn't really dance well overall imo. Green jori is a good example from what I remember. The two dancers were very different, and the one with high energy and excellent stage presence was not polished in finishing steps (i.e. legs kicking out sometimes instead of curling, overemphasizing dhamaal lean and not synching the legs with other dancers). Not to particularly call that jori out as the worst offenders, but that's just the color I remember right now. Team needs to be clean, but also individual dancers just need to be better about hitting the form. Especially since gimmicks weren't 100%, the dancing needs to be something to fall back on
I also wonder if a better pace and smoother transitions would have helped the dancers get into more of a flow, something to think about maybe
Number 3 is exactly what Joe said. Maximize your ideas. You spent a lot of time prepping the gimmicks and sometimes the pay off was too little. Take the khunde flags+suit tie gimmick. You spent 16 beats getting it together and then 16 dancing, not a great ratio (as jacob/jfried mentioned). But it was made worse because you went immediately into a blackout! Back to back gimmicks? This is madness! I think it would have worked if there was more pay off, but as it was, roughly 20 seconds of setup for the gimmicks and that's a lot if you're not giving us a full set. It's all relative of course, but as I watched here were some things I though would have made it better:
-more khunda choreo with flags especially a side/single punjab
-breakdown/slowdown in the khunda segment since it's always hype. set up in a formation such that after 4 slow beats of the khunde up, you drop the flags into some design (maybe a V for van city). Something, the flags are much larger than rumaals and could have used that for some interesting visuals
-better choreo in suit and tie. I come from FCB where we danced to Bieber-boyfriend and turquoise jeep so I loved this gimmick, but while the physical suit and tie worked, the choreo didn't for me.
-To help aid the transition, what if you had taken the suit off, held it on your shoulder, and did jhummar to one side. So whole team with suit on left shoulder, body facing right for moving jhummar. Something like that to just move from gimmick to segment. everyone can get rid of the suit together in a clean fashion and it would have been a nice piece of choreo. The tie could have stayed for jhummar and been thrown off in the next transition, come off with the suit, or been taken off when the suits were put away. Again just rough ideas but I think keeping the ties just a bit longer would have been nice photo op and tied the rest of jhummar to suit and tie so it wouldn't be so choppy
These are obviously just my quick personal ideas, so it's possible nobody else would have liked them in your set. But the point is that there was space to do more and stay true to your style, so I think everyone is feeling like there should have been more pay off from the gimmicks.
Anyways, just some quick thoughts. Overall I actually enjoyed it a lot, people seemed like they were having fun on stage and there was good stage presence but the mix and overall construction of the set I think was forced/rushed. A lot of talent on the team, no doubt the next one will blow us away
I'm actually with you for all of your post. In order, the issues for the set are:jfried said:
1. Pacing/Flow
2. Execution by dancers
3. Puny thinking (don't be a George)
number 1 is by far the worst offender for this performance because it directly affected the dancing and the gimmicks. There were so many abrupt transitions, songs too fast for choreo, etc. There was just no rhythm built up consistently and I hated the song selection. Segments sometimes felt very forced and rushed. Finale comes to mind here: I get you're trying to do something different, but the phumania was so out of place smushed between two fast bhangra segments, maybe a different song could have helped but neither the mix nor the choreo flowed there and I didn't care for it.
Number 2 is a more pervasive issue. Your dancers didn't dance together and didn't really dance well overall imo. Green jori is a good example from what I remember. The two dancers were very different, and the one with high energy and excellent stage presence was not polished in finishing steps (i.e. legs kicking out sometimes instead of curling, overemphasizing dhamaal lean and not synching the legs with other dancers). Not to particularly call that jori out as the worst offenders, but that's just the color I remember right now. Team needs to be clean, but also individual dancers just need to be better about hitting the form. Especially since gimmicks weren't 100%, the dancing needs to be something to fall back on
I also wonder if a better pace and smoother transitions would have helped the dancers get into more of a flow, something to think about maybe
Number 3 is exactly what Joe said. Maximize your ideas. You spent a lot of time prepping the gimmicks and sometimes the pay off was too little. Take the khunde flags+suit tie gimmick. You spent 16 beats getting it together and then 16 dancing, not a great ratio (as jacob/jfried mentioned). But it was made worse because you went immediately into a blackout! Back to back gimmicks? This is madness! I think it would have worked if there was more pay off, but as it was, roughly 20 seconds of setup for the gimmicks and that's a lot if you're not giving us a full set. It's all relative of course, but as I watched here were some things I though would have made it better:
-more khunda choreo with flags especially a side/single punjab
-breakdown/slowdown in the khunda segment since it's always hype. set up in a formation such that after 4 slow beats of the khunde up, you drop the flags into some design (maybe a V for van city). Something, the flags are much larger than rumaals and could have used that for some interesting visuals
-better choreo in suit and tie. I come from FCB where we danced to Bieber-boyfriend and turquoise jeep so I loved this gimmick, but while the physical suit and tie worked, the choreo didn't for me.
-To help aid the transition, what if you had taken the suit off, held it on your shoulder, and did jhummar to one side. So whole team with suit on left shoulder, body facing right for moving jhummar. Something like that to just move from gimmick to segment. everyone can get rid of the suit together in a clean fashion and it would have been a nice piece of choreo. The tie could have stayed for jhummar and been thrown off in the next transition, come off with the suit, or been taken off when the suits were put away. Again just rough ideas but I think keeping the ties just a bit longer would have been nice photo op and tied the rest of jhummar to suit and tie so it wouldn't be so choppy
These are obviously just my quick personal ideas, so it's possible nobody else would have liked them in your set. But the point is that there was space to do more and stay true to your style, so I think everyone is feeling like there should have been more pay off from the gimmicks.
Anyways, just some quick thoughts. Overall I actually enjoyed it a lot, people seemed like they were having fun on stage and there was good stage presence but the mix and overall construction of the set I think was forced/rushed. A lot of talent on the team, no doubt the next one will blow us away
singhk1
New Member
- Messages
- 416
And also I enjoyed the performance but After listening to the mix Only thing I wish Dj's would pay attention to more is When you set a Tone like a certain tone with a song the following song should not be like the complete opposite tone, I've been hearing way too many dj's do that like for example They start out with a sher in the beginning of the mix that gives you the goosebumps and puts you in the mood yet the very first song to follow just completely changes and ruins the mood and that goes for songs in the mix too , Other than that It was a sick performance
Vijay
Member
- Messages
- 646
absolutely unreal dancing ability from the entire team top to bottom. that being said, i think since everyone is so talented that individual nakhra tends to take away from the standardization and execution of moves. i was waiting for u to get into some sick chaal with the khunde/flags. the flip to stunt was insane, and the left sleeve rolled up was a nice modification. energy was through the roof.
[SIZE=small]Crazy entertaining! wow! such high energy and caliber of dancers! loved suit and tie idea. [/SIZE][SIZE=small]LOVED jhummar song and choreo! Gimmicks where red/orange got on shoulders together, the flip onto shoulders, and the intro walk on khunde was just mind blowing. [/SIZE][SIZE=small]hahah choreo during same size was so good. Certain khunde formations were so cool. Loved yellow/blue/green's choreo at the end. [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]TEACH MEEEEEEE HOW TO DOUGIE haaaa[/SIZE]
siddyp
Tough times never last, but tough people do.
- Messages
- 1,270
i couldn't help but laugh at the purple guy in the beginning mela, and the orange guys at the end.. LOL
I can go with the above critiques. dancing was filthy. i think the fact that you did one or two too many stunts/gimmicks gave it the lack of flow.
I can go with the above critiques. dancing was filthy. i think the fact that you did one or two too many stunts/gimmicks gave it the lack of flow.
Gurmandanceacademy
Member
- Messages
- 336
Mix please