Vardiyan and their Effect on Formation Difficulty

[Temurzai]

This is just a thought I had last night, while attempting to finalize new uniforms for my team..

Vardiyan vary greatly from team to team. Some prefer to have every dancer wear the same colors, some prefer to have every one wear something different, some prefer to pair people up in jodis who are distinguished by their different colors. There could be random other variations but I think these are the 3 main types of varidyan for competitive teams.

again..
1. Everyone wears the same colors
2. Everyone wears different colors
3. Jodis are distinguished by color

When figuring out formations for your team, if you have multiple colors on stage, I would say its safe to assume that the more colors that are on stage make it that much more difficult to finalize formations n transitions. Why? Lets go through ti.

-- scenario 1: everyone wears the same colors. --

a. *All Guys* / *All Girls*
formations can change drastically very quickly, people can run around to opposite sides of teh stage or shift literally into any position on the stage in the current formation and it will obviously still look fine, because everyone looks the same.

b. *Co-ed*
if all males are dressed the same, and all females dressed the same, partners can switch easily without creating problems with haveing a couple pairs mixed n matched in colors and the rest still matchedup. This would only happen with multiple colors.

**note** : scenario 1b includes teams in which males all wear the same vardiyan, and girls all wear the same vardiyan even if the colors vary between the two sexes.


-- scenario 2: everyone wears different colors. --

a. *All Guys / *All Girls*
formations are still easy to work with because in essence this is the same as scenario 1 in a way, because you are not obligated to be opposite or beside any one other dancer on the stage with you. if lime green is on stage left, and everyone is wearin a differnet color, it won't matter where he is because there isnt another Lime green to match with on the stage.

b. *Coed*
i actually don't think i have seen a coed team where every single dancer regardless of sex wears a different color to stand out and do their own thing. that would be one hell of a new style of coed dancing though...someone should bust it!



-- scenario 3: Jodis are distinguished by colors. --

a. *All Guys* / *All Girls*
the recent popular traditional trend on the circuit..i think this style is mch more difficult in terms of formations because the jodis in away have to be kept together or exactly opposite one another when split up. Patterns in formations are key when in jodis, so if a team is comprised of 8 dancers..and they are labeled Jodis 1/2 3/4 5/6 n 7/8, certain patterns have to be followed to make sure ur dance looks in sync and that formations are moving smoothly. jodi 1/2 shouldnt be split n paired with jodi 5/6 while 3/4 n 7/8 are still paired up proper.

b. *Coed*
also very popular now with coed teams. in this case, a jodi would be considered a partnership of a male and female dancer. In this case, its similar to scenario 3a because certain patterns must be followed and the jodi canot mix n match randomly that would make the dance look messy. if the jodi is split up, all jodis should be split up in the same manner and be mirroring each other so that it all looks in sync.


Im not sure if I missed a few key points, but I'm wondering what all your thoughts are on this? Do you agree of disagree, and do you think this should matter in terms of judging a dance on difficulty and complexity? Would it be fair, or unfair?

regards,
TZ

 

[HMalhi]

For scenario 3b, a lot of co-ed teams go with 2 guys that have similar colors, and 2 matching girls. This makes it look a lot less chaotic than every pair being different colors, because for teams of 12 members, there will only be 3 different color sets on the stage.
I like mixed colors personally, however, it makes coming up with formations a little more difficult.
I do not think they should be judged differently however, because both have their pros and cons, its just a matter of how creative you get with formations.

 

[Kanvar]

yea i definitely know what you are talking about. when i was doing formations for my team, you constantly have to think about where each color is and make sure that it is symmetrical on each side (i think that's the word people have been looking for in describing the "splitting" concept).

and yea with 12 man coed teams, there are usually 3 color combos; for us, we have light blue/red, yellow/magenta/ and dark blue/and lime green and a guy and girl will be matchin color: chaddar to salvar, jacket to kameez, pagh to chunni, then another couple would be flipped.

i dont think formations are harder, cus you can still do basically anything you want, just that you have to keep thinkin about colors and sometimes one person will have an awkward transition to keep it straight.

-kanvar

 

[Govind]

before this year i've only choreographed dances with everyone wearing the same color...when we made the shift to "scenario 3" with our new vardiyan and being coed, i can say from personal experience that it was MUCH more difficult. moreover, some teams get away with (depending on the judge) having the same dancers in the front when they wear the same color vardiyan where as this is far more apparent when you you have different colored jodis.

i don't think that this should significantly impact judging however...it should be something that, if a team changes up formations while retaining color coordination particularly well, can be used to distinguish teams that otherwise would be tied.

-g

 

[Manjot]

i prefer to watch vardiyaans according to the jodis..even though its hard to make the formations, its much clear whats happening and what the formation is when you watch the team do it.
For live, you have to do each formation a certain way and have the certain jodis at certain points depending on formation.

 

[Saleem]

I agree, the colored/matching vardiyan add a new dimension to the dance and although it's harder to put together, ideally that should be evident to a judge.

There was a discussion about how many dancers is enough vs too much. I think it's easier to have more dancers if they have different colors. Same color combinations on ALL dancers is pretty hard to make a good formation for a small stage. large/wide stages are easier.

 

[Govind]

I agree, the colored/matching vardiyan add a new dimension to the dance and although it's harder to put together, ideally that should be evident to a judge.

There was a discussion about how many dancers is enough vs too much. I think it's easier to have more dancers if they have different colors. Same color combinations on ALL dancers is pretty hard to make a good formation for a small stage. large/wide stages are easier.

case in point SGPD at AVAP....

 

[Vic]

I personally think that Jodiyan are a crucial part of bhangra. I've also worked with all dancers wearing the same thing and Jodiyan, and like many of you mentioned already, choreographing for jodiyan is more difficult. I'm not a fan of the ranking of the jodi because our team feels that the flow of the transition from one formation to the other is more important the placing a certain jodi at the front or back. Even though we do have jodiyan, any 2 members on a team should be able to be a jodi. I've personally almost been a jodi with all the guys on our team lol.

I would say that all same vardiyan isn't a good idea. It doesn't show the complexity and creativity that a team may have. Go with the jodi's man!